However, after press fitting everything in place I realized the turntable was much too tall. To counter this I cut off the left half of the plywood for Tincup and dropped it down half an inch. That was apparently too much of a drop, so I then used some scrap foamcore to raise it back up again. I also used scrap plywood, foamcore, and masonite to build up an approach to the turntable.
The track at Tincup will enter from only two places. The primary purposes of the turntable are 1.) to allow access to the run around track and 2.) to spin the locomotive around for it's return trip out of Tincup.
One nice thing about using wood is that the shape can be nuanced to fairly close tolerances. The approach for the turntable needs to be as level as possible so that when the turntable bridge spins it connects with both entry and exist points in the same way.
To this end I used a palm sander and machined down the approach as level as possible.
I had mentioned before I really didn't care for the texture of which the turntable pit was cast with. In the past I've had success with using spackle to simulate a stucco or concrete look, so I decided put a thin spread over the pit to cover up the texture.
This stuff is already rather frosting-like and then the company that makes it has to go and make it pink. I swear, it's just like frosting a cake in strawberry frosting. Well anyways I used a combination of a small scrap piece of masonite and my finger to work the spackle into all the grooves and smooth it out.
After letting it dry for a few hours and smoothing it down with fine sand paper, the first pass result was...
You can also see on the right side there that I've built up the approach to the right height. As I had begun with my module I plan to use matte board as my roadbed to simulate a slightly raised but not mainline right of way.
In addition to the turntable at Tincup, I also worked on expanding the spline roadbed to accommodate the siding farther out than originally planned. I have to say, it is becoming one thick piece of spline by this point. It still need about 3 or possibly 4 more layers to be the correct width.
And here's a pretty good shot of what I think I've settled on as the final track plan for Tincup. There is a lot of opportunity for industry drops and the length of the track here makes it feel more like a terminus town than before.
The right-most track, deviating away from the mainline is an interchange with the San Juan Central. Hey, I've got to have a little fun, right? Industry drops will primarily be on the siding (left-most track) and from the sub-spur towards the top of the white sheet. All things said I'm estimating there will be about 7-9 drop locations in Tincup, which for an operating session should give some interest to this area.
By the way, I'm not sure if you noticed, but the weathering on the bridge looks much more subtle under the full-brightness CFL's on the layout. I'm thinking I need to either replace the lamp on my workbench with a strong CFL or start over-weathering on the bench for a just-right look when on the layout.
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