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The majority of the progress so far has been in building the stock to run on the layout, rather than building the layout itself. That explains why you will see more on the Rolling Stock page than on this page. I began laying the track on a 30" board with the intention of connecting it to a second board for operating, and that is what you see here. All the track is now down (one siding not laid when the picture, right, was taken) and I have cut holes to allow the Kadee magents to be hinged. After I got the layout to this stage I calculated that by using a removable cassette system, or by simply having visible staging, I could fit the whole operating layout into a 4' length. Also I have now decided not to use KD couplers. This being the case it would seem excessive to have a baseboard joint, and all the problems these can cause, in the middle of it. Therefore while I have so little time invested I may make another 4' baseboard and transfer the track across to that before continuing with point control and scenery.
One thing which I found after laying the tracks was that, although the layout was designed for 23' cars, the siding and loop lengths were generous enough to also accomodate 28' cars. This means that in addition to running stock based on N scale 40' cars it will also be possible to run stock based more on that used on the Maine 2 foot gauge systems.
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