2012-01-17 Update

Weekend update- starting gluing some roadbed down in the yard area, mainly for the loop around the yard. Used standard cork roadbed for this; the elevation I can justify as it's a main line. Also spent some time soldering some flextrack together, to form the loop. It was a bit new for me- I'm not an accomplished or skilled solderer, but the joints looked pretty good in the end (took probably 2x as long as someone who knows what they are doing). Also spent some time revising the yard (see trackplan page). I wasn't happy with it, and my design created the need to have the whole yard reverse polarity (as it was all a big wye as I unraveled it). So I changed some things, and was able to add a few items as well. Progress continues! Expecting shipment of turnouts soon, so more can be put in place, tacked, and run. Also connected up some power to run a loco around the loop of the yard. The machine needs a tuneup, but it ran ok all things considered. Am now thinking through some of my DCC choices as well. I have been running the Atlas Commander set, which has been really good (see Atlas' page for more info). However, the layout is now big enough that I will want some walk-around capability too, which Atlas sort of has, but sort of doesn't. I'm leaning towards an MRC starter system, as it seems like it could expand easily, and I like the 8-wire connectors- easier to find that the RJ12 6 wire version which Atlas uses.