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.