Ophir loop proper was finished. Here's a photo - note that it was quickly taken over by more kid trains, this time my old O27 Lionel stuff, which is now laid from Vance Jct, around Ophir, and all the way to bridge 46-E. So after Thomas trains, we now have Lionel trains running on the layout. Eventually some HO trains might even run! It's great to have the kids involved, though, whatever scale they're using.

Wow, guess it's been a while since I've posted an updated here... track laying is progressing well; there's about 200' of track laid, clear thru on the lower line from Dolores thru the laundry room & bathroom, under Ridgway, thru Mancos and Hesperus, around under Ophir, and back up to the Durango cutoff.

There's also track laid from the other end of Dolores, under Rico, and into the curving grade into Rico proper. My focus is getting all the hidden track laid and operational, make sure it's solid trackwork, then continue w/the trackwork above. There's just a little wiring done so far, so nothing actually runs yet, but my kids have been 'test running' old Tyco cars around the track for some time now.

Here's a (very messy) picture of the Hesperus / Wildcat canyon area (on the lower level; that's the switching lead and run to staging for Durango above).

And here's the lower main running thru the bathroom, w/ the closet on the right and the toilet on the left. There will eventually be another level about 4" above this line, with the yard lead, main, and 3 staging tracks.

Here's a closeup of the lower line thru the bathroom closet (the tunnel leads to the line under the Ridgway yard). You can see the wall opening cut for the 5 tracks from the Ridgway yard above.



Probably the most difficult hidden track has been sneaking the mainline behind the furnace, in the laundry room. Here's the completed lower main, with the furnace on the left in this picture.



And here's Eli and Brendan, who were very helpful in squeezing behind the furnace to help feed the wiring from the new mainline here out to me for connections.