Fascia

Over the past two weekends I installed the fascia panels on the sides.  I had plenty of hardboard pieces leftover from the backdrops a couple years ago so I didn't need to buy anything else.  Plus some leftover grey paint.  This was pretty easy - cut the pieces to size, drill pilot holes, screw them in, prime and paint.  As some model railroading sources have pointed out, these really make the whole thing look neater and nicer. 

Next up: ballasting the track.  After that, we'll need to plan and learn how to model water for the river channel, and plan out more of the structures around the steel mill area.  I'd like to put that grain elevator into play and perhaps a malting plant next to it, and some other steel-related structures.  Maybe a pipe mill, a boiler house too.

Lessons learned:

1. These don't need to be perfect.  Sometimes they don't fit snugly next to each other.  Sometimes they need some shims underneath to even things out. Whatever, good enough.
2. I've found that buying the tools you need is never a bad investment.  Buy something good that will last.  You'll learn how to use it and odds are you'll need it again.  At which point, you can put that previous knowledge to work.

South curve

For a while now, I've looked at the south curves - in particular the outer track - and have been dissatisfied with them.  I realized that the easement into the turn wasn't easy enough, but for the boxcars I had this was no trouble.  It just didn't look nice.  Well, those Exactrail gondolas changed things.  For all the detail, the proper weight and metal wheels, they sure are finicky.  They had a habit of jumping the tracks with one of the trailing wheels at a couple spots.  Plus, the yearly problem with the track coming un-glued in that curve (which I have deduced is most likely because of the changes in humidity over the course of different seasons).  I hadn't allowed enough room for the rails to 'move'.  After I got done painting the track, I thought the next step would be to ballast it.  And it's a lot easier to re-do this before ballasting than after.  So I managed to pry up the track and the cork, carefully, by running an x-acto knife under it.  I worked out a more shallow easement into the curve which ended up using as much of the space along that end that I had.  (Throwing out the whole "keeping the track 5 inches from the edge", I'll need a little wall along the end to keep disasters at bay).  I decided to just tack all this down with track nails rather than glue, partly so I could adjust it now, and partly so maybe this allows it some room to stretch.  After plenty of playing around, it's not great but it's a lot better.  Those bleeping gondolas make it through there almost every time now.  I kinda want to keep playing with it but it's alright.  I managed to add a 6-inch piece of track to address the added length of the run.



Something like this bugs the heck out of me, so it became a priority to get it fixed.

Lessons learned:

1. If you're going to re-do track, do it before ballasting.  I decided not to learn this the hard way.
2. Re-wiring these was a pain.  I had them nicely connected under the rails before, but I had to snip the wires and re-attach them in the new positions.  I don't know why this was trickier than before, maybe I'm just out of practice.  But I tested the track and everything works again.
3. Paper shims and styrene pieces for the slight superelevation are useful to ease the train into the curve and keep it from derailing.  Also, as you run the cars along the rails, you can tell if the easement is too tight that there's a little tension to them there.  That's probably where the engine is briefly helping to pull them off the rails. 
4. When you're planning for curves - make them as big, wide, and easy as you can.  I thought I already had, and oddly enough the inner curve works fine.  It's this outer one that needed work.  But a layout should always be "in process".  Always something to improve.