Step 3 - Tunnel work

It has been a little while since I've been able to work on this layout of mine, and today almost didn't happen either. This is due mostly to the fact that I still haven't figured out the "pulley problem." The system I designed isn't stable enough to hold the base and the ropes were cutting into the layout (all of which you can read about in my previous post). Well, I came up with a new plan, with Pamela's help of course, and it didn't work as well either. In the end, Pamela convinced me to forget about the pulleys and work on the layout for a while. Quite good advice!

So, I got back to the layout. The next step in building the layout is laying out the track bed. This wasn't exactly the most easy of steps, though from the instructions you'd think this was a piece of cake. It wasn't. The first thing I had to do was put the track back on and pin it down and make sure it was tight and a car could roll across it without problems. This took a while. After that, I was instructed to draw the outline of the track on the plastered parts, which are in the tunnel areas. Having accomplished that, I took the track pieces on the plaster off the layout and got ready to put the track bed down. The "track bed" is black foam-rubber that lays under the track. The instructions are gloriously simple and say, "lay the track bed down and glue it down." That sounds simple enough, right? Yeah, not so much. After some trial and error, I figured out that to make the corners, I had to cut the track bed at intervals and then cut the appropriate angles to line it up. After that, it was quite simple. So, now it's drying and tomorrow I will try out the ballast and some "scenic cement" work.