Build Progress - 08/23

Some good progress this month on a few fronts - most of it is because of me procrastinating on building points, so I've been spending hours on a few other areas.

• I've completed the second level of benchwork down the peninsula. I wasn't sure how this would turn out, however with some additional brackets and bracing its quite stable.

• I've also been working on the lower level where the industrial complex will be. This will be grade-seperated from the main track, and once I started laying out the plan I found it to be a little bit too small. I've extended the foam base by about 40cm or so, the plan being to block that off with an additional piece of backscene to 'cut' the area in two.

You can see that line across the top of the foam that indicates the where the track goes down into staging. There's a bit of challenge here to keep the two levels seperate, and I've got an additional challege with (non-functional) contact wire for the catenary to manage as well. I've got a few ideas, but this area is very much a work in progress. I'm hoping to complete the gradient transition this month, and hopefully get the track design locked down for this area.

Now I've got the top level sorted, I can start laying down foam and continuing the trackwork through to Bomaderry and the Manildra plant. Once I start building points again I'm hoping to get a few done fairly quickly, as I need around 15 to complete the last bit of trackwork on the layout.