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[quote user="Canondale61"] Excellent work Alan Keep posting please Thank you Kevin[/quote]Thanks ! - Weekly update.I am still working on the Between area.  I need to fill the space between the blue company house and the outcropping at the lead-in to Between.  As usual, I use cardboard for a temporary scenery item to see how it works.[IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/Alan_B/032307-001_r.jpg[/IMG]It turns out that the cardboard does indeed hide the track area (what I intended); however, it is too high to work when actually switching the area.  I cut it down in stages until it worked correctly.[IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/Alan_B/032307-004_r.jpg[/IMG]This is what it hides:[IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/Alan_B/032307-005_r.jpg[/IMG]I am going to have a small grove of trees in this area.  I had the trees made, and ready to plant when I decided that the hidden turnouts should be replaced with FastTracks built and Tortoise controlled turnouts.[IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/Alan_B/032307-003_r.jpg[/IMG]I have ordered the FastTracks #4.5 code 100 fixture and enought supplies for 10 turnouts (approximately 4 week wait for the stuff), and will replace the five turnouts in this area before I complete the landscaping.  This wait means that I have to work on other areas on the layout.This is the way things will be for a few weeks:[IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/Alan_B/032307-006_r.jpg[/IMG]Most of the other things that I am doing do not photograph well (or at all).  I am adding guard rails to the turntable tracks:[IMG]http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/Alan_B/032307-002_r.jpg[/IMG]I am about 90% through replacing all the plastic wheels on rolling stock with metal wheel sets.  The Tichy ore cars that I use are way too light to be bumping over turnouts and any roughness in the track and they do not push well through any type of curve.  There is almost no way to add invisible weight to these cars.  I also find that the metal wheels roll so well that coupling/uncoupling (any type of car) becomes a problem.  A sting of cars works great.  An individual car wants to roll during the coupling/uncoupling operation instead of sitting still and letting the coupler work.  I am experimenting with several ways to introduce a little "drag" to improve coupling/uncoupling and to also add weight to the ore cars.I will keep at the "improvements" while waiting on the turn-out fixture.Thanks for looking.  Comments?
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