Progress Report

Well you know, things aren't going extremely fast but they are going. You might recall from last time I had about 3 pieces of track down.

I was going at the rate of about one piece of track per day, which all things considered is slow but still progress.

So things were going well, however Saturday morning I came out to see the section and was surprised to find out I had been visited by the HOn3 gremlins.  They apparently ripped up all the N-scale track I had laid down, and left me was a bag full of HOn3 alternatives...

Well, you know, when life gives you lemons (or in this case HOn3 track) you gotta make lemonade.

One thing that's nice about working on small sections (they are about 14-16" wide and 5 feet long) is that whenever I need to install the under-the-table turnout throw, it's simply a matter of flipping the section up, and working on it at a comfortable level.  You can see on the right I've drilled (a couple times) holes the the turnout control.

I haven't mentioned it before, but the "legs" for the sections right now are actually portable keyboard stands. The one I'm using is a Stagg model which sells for $25 on Amazon.  I eventually plan for these two sections to sit on top of shelves, but my wife and I haven't yet purchased those.  In the long run however, the keyboard stands are what I plan to use when I take the sections to shows or the like.  They fold down and are very light weight.  I brought up the 2nd section from the basement.  It isn't quite yet built, but enough is there for it to mate up to the existing section.

Overall I really like the final size.  It's not too small and not too big.  I feel like it's small enough I'll actually be able to finish it but yet it's big enough I can do some actual operation on it which I'm looking forward too.

So, clearly there are a few issues that will need to get ironed out...

What geographic theme am I going to go with?
All of my HOn3 equipment is colorado narrow gauge, but colorado narrow gauge didn't have too many dock/wharf scenes if you know what I mean.    I figure I have a few possibilities...

1. The sunken area could become a lower part of the scenery, somehow.  This would require the industries serviced to somehow be integrated into that, and it seems like a challenging option which might not make enough sense out of the way the sections are built.
    
2. Keep it a water-front section and just tell everyone to ignore the Colorado road names on everything.  Maybe it's set in the Pacific Northwest somewhere?  Maybe people won't notice?  Maybe?
    
3. Set it in a slightly later time period, and in mexico, perhaps in the gulf of mexico.  A lot of Colorado narrow gauge equipment went down to mexico for a 2nd and 3rd life after it's original railroad went belly-up in the states.  This would allow me to run Colorado equipment from several road names, but have a plausible reason why they're located against a water front scene, and also give me a chance to pursue some of that seriously dilapidated look of buildings and equipment.  If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, and you know my tastes, you can probably reckon this is the option I'm leaning the most towards.

What's the new name?

No idea.  If I go with the mexican geographic setting, perhaps it would be called something like Ferrocarril Cordoba y Velacruz?