Mocking up another narrow gauge extention

There's a ravine in the scenery above Mukilteo on my Burrlington Northern HO/HOn3 layout just the right size for a small mine, and at just the right height for being reached by an extension of the narrow gauge line to the existing "Cascade Copper Company" mine. The only thing better than one mine is two mines, right? I've been thinking about installing this line for some time now, but Robin Peel brought over a piece of foam-core and is determined to make it happen. Here is an overall photo of his mock-up of where the line could go:

As you can see, a lot of bridges and trestles are going to be needed, and we're already committed to the project, as you can see by the bare pink foam where there used to be rocks. The existing Cascade Copper Co. mine is in the very lower right corner, and the new mine site is off the photo to the upper right. Here's a photo of the right side where the ravine is that will be excavated for the new mine (after we get the track in, which could be a while...):

It's going to be fun designing and building all those bridges and trestle. I'm looking forward to it, and glad that Robin got the project started with this template made of foam-core from an old poster.

What? Another staging yard??

It's just that we've been running into problems operating the Argo Yard, south of Stacy St., because it does triple duty as the Amtrak Coach yard, UP interchange and MILW interchange. So it tends to be all plugged up, almost all the time. I got to thinking (never a good thing!), what about the unused space behind the angle braces holding up Interbay yard, which could be accessed by a switch off the downhill grade to Harbor Island (formerly Legotown) below it? Here's a picture of the target area:

And here's the view of all that wasted space underneath Interbay yard behind the angle support beams. There's room in there for at least three tracks - enough to offload Argo just fine:

It just so happens that when I was helping Al Frasch dismantle his huge N scale layout on Whidbey Island a few years ago (before he moved to Tucson and built another one) I salvaged a plywood shelf 6" wide and about 18' long - perfect to slap into this space. So, after months of dithering on this and that (like hosting the National Narrow Gauge Convention over Labor Day weekend), I got started on the project. Here are two shots of the first (of 3) six foot long sections of the new staging yard. Since it's pretty hard to reach in there, I'm finishing it on the workbench as far as I possibly can, so all I'll have to do in that confined space is screw in the three sections to the wall studs and slide the rail joiners to connect the sections.

In the second photo, you can see I've glued the track down and put weights on it while it dries overnight. I like to glue my track down with liquid latex diluted about 3:1 with water, so if I ever need to make changes it's not too hard to pull up the track. I'm afraid to use more permanent bonds like caulks or white glue, although it's true that you can just wet down the white glue if you want to make a change. I'm just used to using liquid latex, so I keep using it.

Anyway, that's one of the current projects going on around here. Soon I'll report on another - an extension of the narrow gauge mine branch to a secondary mine shaft. The fun never stops!