Notable changes are:

• Moved both crossovers to the Elmwood side, and pushed them down the main little.  Felt the turnouts were a little too cluttered up under Dixie paper.
• With crossover moved, I pushed the North Elmwood siding right turnout more to the right side to extend the siding a few more inches.
• Added a curved turnout (it’s right above the intermodal yard) to the southern passing track on the left end.  I wanted to add this to a) extend this siding a little bit and b) added a nice visual element to the track with the curved turnout. I might move it closer to the tunnel some more to extend the siding a little more so the two mains aren’t so mirror-like.
• The yellow squares are markers for backdrop supports.
• Added an Amtrak butterfly platform near/under the Highway 603 overpass.
• Added a Walther’s yard office to the intermodal yard. The shed from the kit will go up by the Car shop.
• Added Walthers container crane to yard.
• Plan to have Highway 90 come down from the overpass on the right side.  A side street with intersect here for access to Dixie paper and the Amtrak platform. The road will then go up a hill for a 3-way intersection with the 603 overpass. It’ll then drop back down to grade to run off the layout. I’ll add a road to the carshop in there someplace soon.
• Extended the Marigny River left tunnel portal a little more outward into the layout to accommodate backdrop supports.
• Might remove the hill on the left side of Elmwood and keep highway 90 with an overpass again as the scene breaker.  Kinda thinking the tunnel might look out place.

While looking over the plan, I wasn’t happy with how the Marigny river and the added junction track looked.  I still had some open space that I wasn’t quite sure how to utilize.  Then I thought about how the Daneville/Donner plan is, where the waterway comes under the track and then follows it along the layout for a few feet.

So I changed up the plan to follow this same pattern. The junction track now runs on the “south” side of the river while the mainline continues on the “north” side.

And Happy New Year Everyone!

When the cleaned up plan is in place I’ll use that to mark the location of the backdrop and track. I’ll also use it to place structures on to see if they can fit and how’d they look.  It’s almost like bringing the track planning from software to real world at this point.

Once I get track down and see where turnouts will go, I’ll add some more risers in the middle for additional support.

Then it was time for the top.  I used 1/2″  birch bought in 2×4 sheets cut as needed.  I was able reuse everything from the old layout again, along with 1 new purchased piece.

Not shown is some changes to the legs. I decided to remove the wheels and make the layout stationary.  The layout was a little heavy for the wheels on these thing legs.  So those got pulled off, and I then I added 2 additional legs on each side where there was a module joint.

Next up I’ll be printing out the latest track, shown below, in full 1:1 size to layout and plot the backdrop (and then track).

So… that means I’ve got some extra space to fill. I thought I’d toss in some kind of mainline junction here running off the layout.  Might be useful as a little staging track or something.

Here’s the plan I’m playing around with now.

I think I’m might move the switch to the the car shop sw to the left more. Looks kinda odd having the turnout wayyyy over on the right.  I could even move the superior paper switch over to the right some and get rid of the crossover, though I think it could add nice visual element to the area.

Also thinking of maybe moving one of the crossovers on the mainline up to just after the bridge, to just add some visual elements there.

Also gonna clean up the backdrop so there’s not so many little bends in it.

The general feel is similiar to the original Salt Lake route in the magazine, but I was pretty much guessing on what radius curves were being used at spots so it’s not exact. But that’s ok to me. I like how it turned out.

Overall, I think it’s a good plan. I have two spots on the industry side to do light switching and a double track main for continuous running for railfanning the layout.

Right now I have a few choices I could use for the main industry on the right side. My top choice though is the Superior Paper mill buildings I already have. I’ll have to draw up all the buildings and see how they fit, though.

I’ve also been thinking about the layout’s location.  I do like the valley side with the tunnels, but would like it to be a little more green.  I couldn’t really move it to a real southern location because it’s pretty flat here with no tunnels, and keeping the tunnels might be a requirement as they act as a good scene divider on that side of the layout. The same goes for the industry side; something a little more urban/just-outside-of-town scene, rather than a rocky desert scene.

So I’m going to toss on my Freelance hat and call the layout the Union Pacific Elmwood Route and use some of the old layout info for it’s background.

Here’s a look at what the plan looks like so far:

Otherwise, not much progress on the benchwork.  I need to pick up two sheets of plywood from Lowes, and I have my Micro Engineering track on order.  Once I get all that in, I can begin mocking up the track work on the benchtop to see how this all looks in real life.