Layout progress in the time of Coronavirus

I'm sure there are many people at home all over the world at the moment with extra modelling time on their hands thanks to the efforts to contain the spread of Coronavirus. I was supposed to be leaving Sydney on the Indian Pacific today, however with the SA and WA borders closed the IP, the Ghan and the Overland have all been cancelled until 31 May. I'm a tad disappointed, but it's for the best. Plus, I've received either a credit or refund for all aspects of the holiday so I'll still be able to go at some point in future.

So what to do with two weeks of holidays...

Firstly I jumped online and ordered all of the supplies I need for a marathon layout session from hobby shops, Jaycar and Bunnings. While I wait for all of that to arrive I've been doing as much as I can in the train room to get some little jobs out of the way and make the modelling time I have as efficient as possible.

I've managed to finish installing all of the lighting on the scenic modules now. Mt Wilson in particular looks like a much larger space with the extension now fitting in. I'm looking forward to shunting here.

I'll get around to making this a bit neater in between other jobs:

I've also had a huge hand from my brother, meaning that we've been able to connect all of the curved modules, scenic modules and fiddle yard together.

Now I just need to build the bridge piece over the entryway when the loot from Bunnings arrives and then I can start laying the remaining track.

I've cut all of the guard rails for the curved modules from 3mm ply -- 50mm wide for the inside and 80mm wide for the outside as demonstrated below with this KLV. I tried using 80mm for both sides and found that it hid the trains too much. If there was ever a derailment I'd want to be able to see where it was happening pretty quickly, hence the lower inside wall. That, and it's just nice to see a train going around.

I've also started cutting the remaining track for the extension module to the yard. I'll have to take up and re-align some of the existing track, but that should be a fairly quick job.

I'm back at work after Easter, and with the chance of being dragged to a social event being pretty low I'm hoping to make fair progress. The aim of the next few weeks is to have a train running around the loop by the time I go back to work. Hopefully that should increase the motivation thereafter to get scenery onto the Mt Wilson module at least. Will see how it goes.

Til next time!

Cheers,

Ben