Finishing the yard

As promised, the yard tracks have been connected and the glue holding them to the baseboard is setting as I type.

After the slight rationalisation, there are now three 'out' tracks, two at the front that hold a 'standard' sized train and one - where the hopper train is sitting here - that is about a foot longer. All double ended passing loops.

In the distance at left is the 'inbound' mainline with a single ended siding behind it that a 'long' train can back into. The turnout for this is placed in the far distance such that a train running past on the in/down mainline comes in trailing around the curved leg of the switch, whereas backing in to the siding occurs though the straight leg.

Here is a video of the first train to run over the whole line since the yard was debugged.

Sorry about the thumb over the lens....!

Rather than using an 0-5-0, I ran the train 'uphill on the downhill track' to the top level with the intention of manually flipping the locos to the correct end of the train to run downhill for the video. Alas, near the top it ran over a pin I had left stuck in the middle of the track and my heart skipped a beat as the two locos headed to the concrete floor. You can just make out the train of orange hoppers and look at the lovely hard floor that they landed on... 

Somewhat surprisingly given the explosion of parts when they landed, the locos survived with both chassis running immediately afterwards as if nothing had happened. Both required the light boards be reinstalled at each end, the body placed back on the chassis, and one required a buffer and four side windows to be reattached. Incredible really.

In the ER

Now that the track seems to work pretty well (other than idiot-induced accidents) the next major step will be to finish wiring up the electrical blocks that will be used to store trains in the yard sidings.