Lots of wall-cutting this past weekend. I've now cut holes thru the closet, bathroom, and laundry room. It's kinda scary cutting walls in otherwise nicely-complete rooms, but it was the plan from the beginning of this layout project. Here's the exit from Ridgway yard - both levels.

Here's the same hole, looking out from bathroom closet into the Ridgway yard. The upper level will have 5 tracks, while the lower level is the main sneaking under the yard.




With another helper in hiding here, this is looking toward Ridgway and the bathroom closet from inside the bathroom - looking thru both walls.




Another helper shot of the opening!





Here's a shot looking thru all 3 openings, from inside the laundry room, into the bathroom, then the closet, and finally into Ridgway.





And a closeup from the laundry room into the bathroom.




Getting the line behind the water-heater and the furnance is going to be quite a trick... I'm still not sure how to do it. That section will need tracks on two levels, and slight curves in the most inaccesible spots (see the track plan). Luckily my kids are still small enough to fit back there - just gotta teach them some additional construction skills. Perhaps I can build the unit as a couple a bridges, and just slide them in there.

Benchwork in Ridgway is going up. I've had to cancel the artist's work on the backdrop behind Durango - funds are just too tight right now. Blue sky all the way! (for now anyway).

Well, construction in Ridgway is beginning. I worked on the hole thru the stairs this weekend. Here's an overall shot of the stairs; there will be two levels of mainline running along this wall and thru the stairs.


The hole thru the wood stair risers was there already, from when the stairs were rebuilt last year, but the drywall on the backside needed cutting, as well as some cleaning out of the extra wood inside the opening.


It's done now, and I've started framing the benchwork for that area. The hole is 8" high and 2.5" wide, which should be just enough to squeeze thru the two single-track lines, stacked one above the other.


It should be, er, interesting figuring out how to actually get the subroadbed thru there. Perhaps that blue ghost in the first photo can help?

I invited an artist friend over this weekend, to exploring commisioning her to paint some of the backdrops for the layout. We agreed, tentatively, to have her paint the mountains behind Durango and (perhaps) some of the area behind the Durango yards. Should be interesting.... Lights are now working over the Ridgway area, so I should be able to continue with benchwork in that area soon.