Construction Updates:
I have not done too much more with the attic space in the past few months. Drywall is up on the main walls and partially on the sloped ceiling. I guess you can say I am not happy with the general look of where the walls and slope come together and so this has essentially stopped my progress. With the priorities of the Holiday about completed I am optimistic that I will get back into the attic on the weekends. In this month of January my goal is to get the sloped walls into better position and get the hard ceiling in. I am giving myself a deadline of May 1st to have a finished room so that I can get to the layout construction.
My layout design is still being inspired by Chuck Sable's, HO Scale Milwaukee and Northwestern Wisconsin Division as seen in the Rehab My Railroad series from Model Railroader. I say inspired because I intend on adding a sub level to my layout to double the mainline run and add some time delay elements to my operations, additionally I plan to add a staging area off the main layout area.
A rough sketch of the upper level is shown below. The red line indicates the main. Approximate main layout space is 13' x 24' and the additional staging at the wye will add another 10' to 12' feet but probably only 12 to 16 inches wide. The lower level will essentially mirror the footprint of the layout space around the outside walls. While it is a fairly essential element, I have not yet decided where to connect the two levels together. I know that a helix is not feasible given the space constraints so a gradual grade is the plan. I am going to work on a better schematic to post for the blog site as time permits. Also - I will post some pictures in the next day or two of the new models that I have acquired either through gift or purchase over the past few months. Till then... keep the trains running!
