With tunnel ballasting approaching, I’ve been looking at various brands and sizes of ballast.  I decided to simply go with Woodland Scenics because it’s pretty readily available. But what size?  Medium or Fine?  I thought Fine might be a little too small, but it looks more to scale than the medium to me.  The medium ballast just looks a little too bulky between the ties.

Here’s a comparison. Medium is on the left and fine on the right in each photo.

You can see the Fine has more individual pieces between the ties than the medium, which looks little to bulky between the ties to me.

So fine is the winner to me.  I’ll probably use “Gray” color with maybe just a tiny tiny bit of a little darker gray in there for contrast.

Shaun Track

Here’s a look at the installed concrete tie flex track on the Marigny side of the layout.  Just need to trim the roadbed to sloped down at the edges of the ties.  I did the branch line already as shown.

My next item on the to-do list was to install the first curved turnout, but it seems the .025″ wire that comes with the Tortoise is to flimsy to move the throwbar and rails (probably because the point rails are single pieces rather than jointed).
So I ordered some .032″ to try.  I just hope I can get a .032″ hole in the throwbar without comprising its strength (or simply splitting it in half).

Shaun Track

Here’s how I fixed the bridge elevation problem.

Ididn’t want to start the grade as soon as you come off the bridge, so I added two layers of cork on top of .040″ of styrene to raise up the roadbed.  This is long enough to it’ll stay level until the track enters the tunnel portal that’s going in this area.

Then I added a Woodland Scenic 2% riser for the grade and painted it black to help conceal it.  Since the track here will be hidden in the tunnel, I’ll lay the track right on the riser.

Shaun Track

A bit of progress report on the layout.

Things began rolling along will installing the bridge piers and get that all situated.  I first painted the abutments with a wash of Woodland Scenic slate paint, and then used some styrene pieces to raise the bridge up to the benchwork top.

And then I noticed something….not good.  Even though the bridge was even with the benchwork on both sides, it wasn’t level. Something was wrong.. really wrong.

It appears I have what looks like a slight bulge in my benchwork. On the Elmwood side you can see it (how I missed it so far I have no idea), but it’s not that big a deal.  It actually adds a little natural looking hill in the benchwork.   But on the river side, the river is cut right almost at the apex of the bulge, so I ended up with river banks at two different levels.  How much of difference?

It looks worse that it really is though.  A little extra cork, a Woodland Scenic riser and then all will be well.  Just a little added work, though I guess I’m just more annoyed that I didn’t see this a long time ago.

So anyway…. I wasn’t going to let this stop progress.  Today I began securing in the first sections of the track.

I began at the bridge and worked westward, installing the switch and junction line.  I’m using Latex Caulk w/Silicone for securing the track in place.

Shaun Scenery, Track