Lots of rain outside = Lots of work on the layout inside!!!

With all the rain we've had lately, it's "forced" me to stay indoors and work on the layout. I've been getting about 6 hours a day in on it and making good progress. The sub-roadbed spline work for the upper deck main is in and planed smooth. Sidings and spurs are next. The spline was made from 1/8" Masonite cut into 7/8" strips then glued together. I got this technique from Joe Fugate and love it. I like how the Masonite automatically forms the transition curves for a smooth flowing base for the track. 

I started working on getting the spline in for the sidings and spurs by taking my track plan and a ruler and just measuring where the switches should go. I decided that I wanted to be a little more accurate than that so I printed part of my track plan at 1:1 scale. This printout turned out to be 20" wide and 500" long. I do CAD work on the side so I was lucky to have a wide format printer. Here you can see the printout as I have it laid out exactly where the track will go. The plan matches up PERFECTLY with my spline I laid by measuring. So, I guess my measurements were accurate enough. I'm going to mark the locations of the switches then begin laying the spline for the sidings and spurs. More photos soon. 

Lots of progress

The last few days have seen a lot of progress on the Aberdeen Sub. I've completed painting the backdrop......I think. 

I'm trying to decide if I want to add clouds and a horizon or just leave it as is. Originally, I had planed on it just being a plain blue but now I'm thinking of feathering in some white haze and maybe adding those clouds. Not sure yet. 

I've also started laying the spline roadbed for the upper deck and have made good progress there. If I work like I did today, I should be able to get about 16' of spline in each day. I'm limited by glue drying time and the number of clamps I have to hold it together but this has worked to my advantage. While the glue is drying, I work on other items then come back to continue on spline, let glue dry and work elsewhere and on and on. 

In doing that today, I was able to get some of my wiring cleaned up and secured, build under-layout shelving for my DCC components, build a pull out desk for a laptop to run DecoderPro and pull all the wiring for a new 110 volt circuit to feed the DCC system.  When I built the house, I had two dedicated switched circuits for the layout room. It turned out that this was not enough power. My layout lighting takes up those two circuits. The new circuit will also be a switched circuit to track power. When complete, I'll be able to hit three lighted switches when I leave the room and know that everything is off. This will be nice to during construction as I can turn on my layout lighting yet have the track dead so I don't have to worry about tools laying across the rail.

Painting the back drop

My third attempt at a backdrop is going well now. The Komatex has worked out great. 

For the seams, I used green Squadron putty. I squeezed on a bead of putty and smoothed it with a straight edge and let it dry over night. This morning, I sanded it with some 200 grit sandpaper on an orbital sander. That method worked GREAT. 

This is the first coat of paint and as you can see, the seam is GONE!!! You can see a chip at the bottom where the two pieces meet. 

The last shot is just an over all shot of the two decks. The top painted and the lower yet to be painted.