WATCH THIS SPACE.

It's model railroad building season, and that work continues.

The extension of the railroad under the garage will begin shortly, once the ceiling is properly painted, and the insulation is in along the walls.

The connecting tracks to the next section of staging will soon go in.  What distinguishes contemporary model railroad design from that of years ago is often the provision of staging tracks under the portion that represents the communities and industries.  To the right, that is going to be yet another removable section above the plank.  Should maintenance people require access to the water heater or water softener, there will be a way in that doesn't require ripping out part of the layout.

Once the first strip of the spline is in place, additional strips get glued and clamped alongside.  Equilateral turnout is there as an additional check that everything is properly placed.

The new section of staging will permit trains arriving from either end of the modelled portion (arriving at Boston to the right, or at notionally Portsmouth to the left) to go into a series of loop tracks to return to the layout properly pointed and positioned for their next trip.  With the volume of passenger trains we will support, that feature will come in handy.  Here's a look to the left.

There will be a way to get at that crawl space without disrupting the layout, and the entrance will be hidden from prying eyes or cameras by backdrops.  That's why those uprights are as tall as they are, the Magnolia section of the Gloucester Branch will be above the connecting track going in here.

Speaking of backdrops, there's one capturing the transition from England to Russia now in place on the upper level.

Yes, there's a lot of work going on now.  At left you see the arrangement of insulation and furring strips that will go under the garage, the blue-painted walls at right.