Grade

On these two photos you can see the bottom portion of the grade. I installed the Woodland Scenic incline kit in the middle. On top of the incline set I installed two (side by side) sheets of balsa wood, 3/32 x 3 x 36 inches long to be my base for the road. On each side of the incline I just cut a 2 inch thick styrofoam sheet to size to give me the support. You see it well on the aerial photo of the incline. This will give two functions for the incline, a road that will connect the upper portion of the city to the lower portion and the second purpose is for the narrow gauge to go the upper level and service those industries on the top prtion of the city as well.

As you can see on this photo from the front of the layout the degree of the grade. Once the layout is done, from this view you won't be able to see the standard gauge train. It will be under cover. The top of it will be the city that the narrow gauge will serve. "A big metropolis". On the front of the grade the city will be table-top level. So the city will be split level.

Grade to the second Level

Here you can see the top of the and the 18" radius that it has on the top of the grade. At this point it is just about 5 " high. I need to add another 1/4 inch to make sure it has enough clearances for the standard gauge train to clear.

Continuation

May 10: It has been a good week on the progress of the layout. I finished planking the wharf and I added 6 more feet of the standard gauge and added the grade for the second level on the narrow gauge line. As you can see on this photo on your right you see part of the wharf with all the planking done. In the center of the photo you can see the standard gauge track with a train on the background and the grading (4%) on front of the standard gauge train.

On the first photo you can see the aerial view of the grade with the narrow gauge track in the middle of the road and a vehicle on the right lane going up. Once this section is done I am not going to laid any more narrow gauge track until the standard gauge is completely done.

De

May 2, 2009.  I just finished the deck on the wharf. A little over 1600 pieces of planking on the deck top. Now I will start installing the pilings and all the support features. Those who wants to attack something like this needs to be highly motivated. I am glad it is over. 

Later on I will write on the rest of the progress of the rest of the layout.