First track down on Mt Adams

Exciting news tonight on Mt Adams...

Yesterday I soldiered on with the cork and soon had a good covering of cork. I also started building the upper station base, using some nice chunky plywood. Heavy, relatively speaking, but very flat and strong.

While I was at it, I cut out an inspection hatch to make getting to the station point-work easier. Nothing worse than having a complicated track arrangement that I can't get to if anything needs tweaking.

I even lined it with some MDF. It will also help support the plywood base, so quite handy.

This morning I nipped out and put some filler on the cork to make the joints nice and smooth.

Once I'd finished work, I ducked out again and gave everything a good sand. While I was at it, I created some curve templates and laser cut them from cereal box cardboard. They came out really nicely, and the cardboard cut very easily. Time to start saving cereal boxes??

Everything I need to lay track: curve templates, flexitrack, drawing pins, and a test train.

Then it was time to migrate inside and start laying track! So while our pizzas cooked and with track plan in hand, I marked out the centrelines of the track. Here the templates came in really handy. Then I carefully staked out the flexitrack using ample drawing pins to keep things in alignment. Again, the curve templates came in handy, helping ensure that my curves weren't too tight.

Once happy, I went along fixed the track down with track pins.

I now have all the track laid, up to the upper station. I ran my little railcar up and down the line a few times in celebration. Every exciting!

Meanwhile, in the aero dept...

Second coat on, look at that detail! And not a mold line to be seen! Now to rust it up...