Thanksgiving Break Finally!

First, I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!  You probably have been wondering when my next post would be or maybe I fell off the face of the earth.  Yes I know I have not posted since the end of October but really nothing has been going on on the layout at all.  I started coaching another sport this fall and my 10 hour days have been literally kicking my butt.  Today has been my first day off since Labor Day and I made sure I got some modeling in.  The crappy weather made sure that it was going to happen.  My main point this week is to get scenery on my new peninsula I added this summer.  Being the first thing you see when you walk into the room, it was a priority.  So I tackled that today.

Adding some paint to the area around the sand plant.

Larger view of the area I'm working on.

Sculptamold around the edges of the base of the road.  The fascia board base is a little thick for my liking but it will have to work now.  

The styrene asphalt road on top of the fascia board.  The dark patches are supposed to be road repairs.  I need to weather  the road.  

After letting some Sculptamold dry, I ran a rail cleaning train.  I picked up a rolling track cleaning car to pull behind a loco.  I also build a track cleaning car to pull behind it.  I cleaned the lower level and the helix.

Here's my Centerline track cleaning car I picked up at a show earlier this month.  It needs a little more weight but still pulls the rolling rag around the layout.  I use CRC 2-26 to clean the track.

My homemade track cleaner.  I use WS track dusters attached to the wheels to slide on the tracks.  It's a boxcar frame with lots of weight.  The wooden planks keep the dusters on the track.

Gotta have some muscle to move this train.  VMID SD50 #706 does a great job on this train.  She been weathered finally.

Here's the roller car.  Looks like the track was quite dirty.  The colorful rubber bands are from the kids loom kit (makes wrist bands)  These little rubber bands are perfect for keeping the cloth on.

Back to the scenery work:

Ballast added to the hopper spurs.  Some sand mixed in also. 

Going for a sandy/dirt area around the plant.  Still going to sand it down a bit.   

Ballasting is complete in this area.  

A view from the other end. Hope to get this area most of the way done this week.  

Video update of progress

Uploaded a You Tube video on my progress so far on the layout. This covers the expansion on the upper level and the entire lower level.  I'm reworking the track on the Mine Run Branch in the sand loading spur.  It will give me more space for dropping and picking up cars.   As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me or comment below.

Upper and lower level work continues

I've slowed down a bit on the work I've down this week.  Lots of tedious work the past couple of days like backdrop cutting and a shelf on the end of the extension.  I've completed all the track work on both levels and still need to add feeder wires to the track.

Attaching track.  I don't add subroadbed because this a branchline.

My end shelf.  Need to add another shelf and paint it black.

Trackwork complete.  I came back and super-elevated the closest curve.  I also added n-scale subroadbed to this curve which is not shown.

Another view of the trackage.

These sand hoppers test out the trackage.

The lower level trackage is done.  The CSXT boxcar sits on spur MOW spur.  To the left will be a older railroad building.

The gondola sit in the untreated tie loading spur.

The two spurs to the left are the VMID and NS interchange tracks.  The double ended train will bring 4 cars down and drop the lead engine where the boxcar is and then drop the cars in the interchange on the left..  Then pick their cars up and head back to Fredericksburg.

Had to cut into the the benchwork to get this unloading pit in.  Of course I forgot about it until I installed it!