Ballasted

Ballasted the track on the upper level. Going to hold off on any further work until I get a few more buildings, freight offices and the like, for this area.

Last bit of track to finish is the siding leading into the mine area, which has a level crossing on a curved track.

Last of the Track

Realized a few things today:

• I am not good at soldering
• Soldering is always easier at a bench instead of on the layout

Ended up wiring the end of the track, but at the cost of melting some of the end of the track piece. In any case, the final piece of track is tacked down, the locomotive runs fairly smoothly all over the upper level, with all turnout configurations, and I'm ready for some more ballasting.

This could be extended in the future; I won't ballast around the end and will leave the track end piece on.

Tinycat seems to approve of the addition.

Extending the Baseboard

To allow the locomotive to switch out the upper siding, I'm adding a small extension to the upper deck. It will also make it easier for me to add another feeder line to the upper track.

Once the wooden support dries I'll lay the track, wire it up, and test it out.

More Green on the Station

Slow going recently, but the station area is starting to fill out, as is the freight depot.

Station Grounds

Slowly adding green to the station grounds.

Soldering Rails for Fun and Profit

I ran into a problem on the upper level after I added the new turnout. I used a few short pieces of settrack that I had left over, but the track connectors had become so bent that they snapped off, and I couldn't extracted the broken half. The result was that two of the rail connections were just touching without any support, and I found that if I ran the locomotive over them, it quickly lost power after passing over the unconnected joints.

So I decided to experiment with rail soldering. For my first time, I think I did alright. It had been years since I last used a soldering gun. I put some damp sponges beside the joint to help soak up some of the heat from the rails, but I did end up melting some of the plastic ties. Luckily it wasn't catastrophic. It doesn't look great from close up, but the joints should be much less visible once the rail is ballasted, and most importantly, now the loco runs great over it. I still need to add the pocket track extension, which will need another feeder line, but for now I've tried out a new skill and fixed another problem.

In other news, I'm slowly adding green to the hills. I've also put a black base coat on the rolling stock.

Kabayama Station Lighting Test

Installed two of the three planned lights for the station building today. I've also done some work on the station area, plastering the landscape and laying down some greenery.

The barred windows give a nice effect on the surrounding area!

A couple notes:
- these lights are incandescent and get very hot very quickly
- they will never be left on unattended
- each one will eventually be fixed in place, leaving lots of air flow and space around them

I think for the future I'll look into an LED system, I'd just feel much safer with lights that give off next to no waste heat.