Meeting in the middle

The bulk of the trackwork for the new modules is now in place. I'd spent a lot of time trying to work various concepts for the layout of the town and trackage at the end of the line in my layout planning program, but nothing seemed to work out with everything I had been hoping for. 

Eventually, I gave up and just started mocking up ideas with the buildings and pieces of track directly on the modules. There was something to be said for this approach, as I figured out more easily how to make everything fit in a way that was visually pleasing and operationally made sense. Once I figured this out, I laid the majority of the track on these two end modules. This just left the four modules in between. 

My ideas of how to scenically fill this remaining space have also been evolving. It needed a passing siding with a spur to the sawmill, a tunnel, a decent bridge and ideally, a river canyon scene. I built the base module benchwork with sufficient depth below the track level to allow for lots of scenic potential. Once I decided on the general path of the track, I built the roadbed and laid the track. 

This seemed to take longer than it probably did in reality. But it felt great to finally join the track from the newly laid out town, with the rest of the track growing out from the existing modules. I'm still working on the wiring bus for the new modules to carry the power. 

One thing I'm mindful of is the layout's new location in a garage, which is more susceptible to temperature changes. The previous layout room was lined and insulated, and I had no trouble with the expansion and contraction of the track. However, I'm noticing a few issues with the onset of the warmer weather in our new location. While I will continue soldering my rail joins, I intend to cut expansion gaps in strategic places, which will require more feeder wires to be run. 

The last track join.

The box cars mark the location of the joining of the tracks. 

Building the benchwork for the other modules

This year has been quite busy settling into my role in my new Parish. Spending time with family has also been important, as everyone is adapting to a new place to live. My son and I also did our first backcountry bike packing trip in July on the Heaphy Track. Preparing for this took quite a while, catching up on bike maintenance and sorting out our gear-carrying systems. But it was worth it for a good trip. 

I've still been chipping away at the benchwork for the remaining modules for the layout. I still have not finalised the track plan and may have to try roughly laying out the track and placing some of my buildings to get a better sense of the space. I think it's hard making the last modules (as opposed to the first), as you know everything you'd like to have on the layout, and in a sense, one is running out of room. I'll probably have to prune back my expectations of what can fit. 

My parents visited us recently, and my Dad helped me build the last couple of modules. He also painted the sky backdrop and the front of the fascia. Before they left, we managed to lift them all into place and join everything together. 

The layout space. A blank canvas on which to expand. 

After sourcing a few more connectors, I installed the LED lighting strip and connected it up to the existing modules, where the power source originates. Having light on all the benchwork is a huge help, as it's effectively the main source of light on the layout side of the garage. The U-shape of the layout is great at effectively blocking off the layout from the rest of the garage and creating an immersive effect. I also tidied up all scrap wood and equipment lying around the layout space (and in the other half of the garage too). I'm tracking in the right direction... slowly. 

Resetting up the modular layout

 I spent an afternoon reassembling the modules in my garage. I decided to screw the back of the modules to the wall. I started with the Roundhouse module. I set the track height to 125cm and then worked my way along the rest of the modules. By screwing them to the wall, I just had to put legs on the front. I braced each leg back to the wall as well so it's way more sturdy than the setup I had in Timaru. 

I added bolts to the bottom of the legs so I could fine-tune the height for levelling the tracks where the modules meet. After a little troubleshooting, the trains started running smoothly, even if the track only goes to the end of the fourth module presently. I'm still working on the track plan for the remaining modules but hopefully, I can start building the module benchwork soon. 

Decommissioning the original Thoroughfare Gap Railroad

I started building the original Thoroughfare Gap Railroad in 2008. It was a traditional tabletop layout, and the first I truly built myself. The track layout was inspired by Ron Hatch's Fulton County Narrow Gauge layout (HOn3) but had to be adapted for the HO scale. 

The times of this layout were really special. I experimented with different scenery techniques and found many things that worked and many that didn't. The biggest drawback I found in the end was the steep grades, which added plenty of scenic drama but limited the size of the trains I could run. When I expanded the layout, I enjoyed 'unfolding' the track plan and stretching it out along narrow modules with more scenery and less trackage. 

In many ways, I said 'goodbye' to this layout when we moved it from Gore to Timaru. I knew its days were numbered and it had served its purpose. I had a two-year reprieve while it served as the temporary terminus for the new modular layout. Even so, it was hard to let go of. I decided to salvage what I could of the bridges, all the points/switches and anything that could be removed easily. The rest was loaded on a trailer and taken to the local refuse station. Decommissioning a layout comes with a multitude of different feelings, sadness, regret, guilt, excitement and hope. Decision-making in the midst of this can be hard and I changed my position on things many times before I actually started pulling it apart. 

I'm sure if you've ever decommissioned a layout of your own or a family member's you may have encountered something similar. 

Looking bare again without buildings and people. 

I salvaged the bridges and wood structures. Perhaps I'll use part of them in the future. 

The remnant of the layout sitting at the bottom of the local refuse transfer station 

Moving the modules

So last year our time in Timaru came to an end. This is no surprise as it was only ever for the two years of my ministry training. The last few months saw the layout face the test it was designed for: dismantling, transporting and reestablishing in our new home in Christchurch (more about that another time). 

The dismantling part was easy. The lighting was unplugged, and the modules were uncoupled by removing the two bolts that connected each module together, which also undid the electrical connection between them. The temporary legs are also unbolted. They will be replaced with more substantial wooden legs.

The figures on the layout are glued in place with Mod Podge but the buildings were removed and packed in boxes. 

Each module was pleasantly light and easily manoeuvred by two people. I cut some plywood to cover the open sides. These cut pieces will get turned into the framing for new modules.

The original piece of the layout, which I built in Gore, was sadly decommissioned. It seems fitting to post about this separately later. 

The ravine module was the heaviest (unsurprisingly). Even so, two people could move without much effort.

The buildings came off, and were packed away separately, but the trees
and many of the figured stayed glued in place for the journey.

Ready for boxing...

Three of the modules are all encased in plywood. This made them very easy to transport.