Little bits here and there and more Terra-Forming

This week we had the Tuesday Nighters drop around on funnily enough Tuesday Night. While not much has happened lately on teh layout, since they were last over there was some greenery laid around the top of the helix and Fairy Lane road crossing had been finished. It even had a couple of 'el cheapo' plastic cars stragetically placed at the crossing. When the guys come over they normally scout around to see what has progressed since they were last in attendance. I also showed off my little growing diorama at Border Loop.  I have a bit of painting to do, and 647 trees to make to complete my scene and a lot more detail also needs to be added.  I really do want to build that kids swing before the next Tuesday Nighters visit.

My Border Loop Scene

The original scene I am trying to model

I had spent the earlier part of this week trying to wire up the two digitrax DS64 point controllers, the 8 connected Peco points and the small mimic panel at Acacia Ridge Yard as shown in last weekends update and photo. It was not until later in the week that I realised that I needed to create a LocoNet connection between the two DS64's so they will operate routes correctly. I have asked a question on the NCE-DCC Yahoo group to see if someone can advise the simplist way to do this.  Hopefully I will get an answer that is not too complex or expensive to implement.

So today I decided to do some of the work I was hoping to get around to over the Christmas New Year period. I completed the terra-forming around the Cougal Spiral and the area south of that towards Kyogle.  This included the area across the Upper Richmond River just north of Kyogle platform.  I still need to contour the Upper Richmond River area to create the road on both sides of the river and the river itself needs to be carved out.  Again the temporary river crossing has been removed and the track just suspends from one side to the other.  So what this has done is made the track between Kyogle and Border Loop now unusable until I can scratchbuild the dry bridge around the top level of the spiral at Cougal and the Upper Richmond River bridge at Kyogle.  I have absolutely no idea how I will build the approximately 12 bridge piers required.

Cougal Spiral last week before terra-forming around Dry Bridge

The area now after terra-forming and some roadbed removed to make way for the bridge

Since this photo has been taken, I have started plastering a great deal of this area.  The masking tape is there to cover up holes between the pieces of styrene, so the plaster does not drip through to the lower level.