Well, I've made some progress on the layout in the last few weeks. I have the yard and the two outside main lines up and running - can't tell you how much I enjoy running a train without crawling around on the floor!!!
As I am not one for running trains under the Christmas tree (trains around usually large live trees make me nervous due to the proximity of water and falling needles to electricity), so I have added some of the Department 56 houses I have to the layout for the season.
Of course, there is always one Holiday Heifer who doesn't believe that there are real cow catchers!!!
And now, in keeping with my tradition, I have a question which, I am sure, someone here can help me with. The inner-most mainline must gradually elevate and pass over the track entering the yard. I plan to use 213 Lift Bridge to cross the yard entrance track (as you can see in the pic below, it is currently doing it's best impression of the legendary "Bridge to Nowhere" - when in place, will be renamed "The Gil Hodges Marine Parkway Bridge). My question is how do I go about elevating the track to get up about 5 - 6 inches to meet the bridge ends. I purchased a set of FasTrack graduated trestles, but a good part of the graduated elevation will be on O-72 curves, and the set only has straight metal supports (and the curved tracks are significantly longer that the 10" straights). Also, as Fastrack is rigid, how do you start the graduated section? I have included an old track plan so that you can get an idea of stretch of track that will be elevated.
Thanks.
