The first picture is looking west from New Britain Yard. In the distance are some mock-ups for the Russell & Erwin factory to work on size and spacing. All of the track is in place for New Britain Yard here, the stub end to the left side of the mainline is the station track where a baggage car frequently sits.
Two reefers sit at the end of the track where the Swift and Armour distribution centers are. The hoppers and the yellow Mather box car are on two of the yard tracks. The covered hopper, gon, tank car, and hopper are on the yard lead/industry siding. These are cars that were left by a through freight to be worked by the local switchers.
The second photo is taken looking east from about the Russell & Erwin factory. As you can see, there are a handful of cars in the yard, and additional strings of cars waiting to be worked by the local switchers.
The third photo is looking west from the east (Hartford) helix. The industry tracks represent several of the east-side industries. The tank cars are on the Texaco and Atlantic Refining sidings.
Immediately to their right is Cremo Brewery (which was really on the Springfield Line), continuing away from the camera is a siding for Household Fuel plus Carlson & Torrell, the next siding is the grocery wholesaler, and the siding going up the grade is Stanley Svea. The Whiting Street Yard is in the distance to the right, where I've added a scrap of 'sky'.
The final photo is looking over the helix to New Britain Yard in the distance.
If you look closely in the third photo you'll notice that the double track main remains to be connected around to New Britain Yard. This is the extent of the mainline that remains to be completed. I need to add feeders to the industrial sidings for testing.
You can also see in the pictures that Chris and I completed the bulk of the fascia. My design requirements have changed quite a bit since starting the layout. I may be adding pockets to the fascia, or I might be going a different direction for working with waybills.
I have been doing quite a bit of basic mechanical testing. While I've still had a few minor derailments, it's less than 1/2 dozen and I haven't been able to replicate a number of them. At one point (using DC) I had the I-2, J-1, and L-1 circling the layout at the same time. The J-1 was pulling a track cleaner too. Both the DEY-1b and DEY-5 have also had extensive runs. This has been particularly successful since I haven't really had any sound decoder drop outs.
Although I probably won't complete the mainline by the end of the month (although there is still time), I'm certainly close. Next will be more feeders, more mockups and more testing.
