Naturally it's taking longer than expected...
I've done quite a bit of painting, including the two doors in New Haven #292 Warm Orange. But I still have one hole to fill, and I will need help installing the supports on the walls.
Once the supports are up, I can do the rest of the benchwork by myself. In the meantime, I've been mocking up some track plans both on a long piece of sheetrock, and on the floor. I've been drawing options using chalk on the carpet. It's easy to clean up, but works well for picturing the options.
In particular I've been looking at the specific placement of the helixes (helices?) and how they will connect to the rest of the layout. This has actually been a very good process, because I realized that I had missed a very important change that I'll need to make. It will affect the Stanley Works section of the layout, which will have to be less accurate than it already was going to be, but it will also allow me to extend the Stanley Works complex on the model.
Check out the additions in the freight operations section as well. I've finally picked up a freight schedule close to my era (1955) and there were a few important revelations. It's entirely possible that the 1951 schedule will be quite different, but for now it's a good starting point.
So, I'm hoping to work on the wall supports over the next few weeks and maybe I'll have something worth showing anybody interested at the New England Proto Meet. I'm sure I won't have trackwork (or not much of it) but it least it will be progress.
