Great job!
"You may notice that the double track bridge is just a smidgeon higher than the track off each end."
Looking good, Mark! Did you mean to say that the bridge is a little lower than the track on the main layout?
Thank you, Darrell and Bob!
Bob, I’m going to go back and check, higher or lower. Looking at the video again confused me. 🫡
The High Line looks great. Congrats on a successful run. Isn’t it a great feeling hitting a milestone like that? 👍🏼
Thank you, Vin! It is a great feeling hitting a milestone for sure!!
Bob Bartizak, the bridge is just a little bit higher than the track. It is really close, though. Watching the video, i got to the point, I couldn't tell which way the engine was going. Thank you for asking the question, because I often describe things backwards.
Looks great Mark! I like the fine tuning you’ve done, worth it.
Andy
Thank you, Andy! Yes, it is a good idea to do a little bit and check it out thoroughly, before locking things down with wiring, ballast, and then find out it doesn’t work in all situations.
To that end, I am mocking up the remaining (foreground) ramp to see how it works out. The problem is it has to be somewhat more steep than the original 4% where the grade started shortly after the truss bridge. I wanted to have the two switches level, so I lost a few feet of grade. I am making some of it up, by shoving that grade back about 8” from the front of the table. I’ll mock it up, jumper some power and run trains up to see how it works. Please stay tuned.
Hey Mark, Sorry I haven't been here lately, But I wanted to say the switch fix looks great! I am sure you will get the bridge smoothed out! It just take's a few runs over it back and forth before you find the happy medium! Overall things are really looking great!
Thank you, Mike! I knew you weren’t feeling up to par. The bridge tracks are so close to the same height as the tracks that lead up to it, I didn’t notice the drop off of the diesel engine or the cars, only the steam engine. I’ll work on it, but it may prove to not be worth it.
Great switch fix Mark. One of the problems that usually arises with any modeling of railroads are issues with switches. The plague of all great railroad builders.
Thank you, Dave! Yes indeed; switches cause problems for modelers and the real railroad alike. It is why some modelers don't use switches and just use one or more loops of track.
Since the high line track seems to be in good order, I decided to work on the two ramps or inclines as Woodland Scenics calls them. You may recall, initially I used them on the layout, but found it a hassle to get the transition from incline to level track suitable so wheels don't derail at the top of the incline and pilots don't touch the rails at the bottom of the inclines. For the rear incline, I can use most of it as is.
I decided to move the front one back near the rear one so I can model the river canyon scene where it can be seen. 
I believe I am going to use risers and a wood roadbed, instead of the Woodland Scenics foam incline. I remarked a day or two ago the grade will have to be more than 4% to get this to work out. However, since the foam incline was in place, I removed it from it's place and moved it back. I had to use a wide blade trowel and rubber mallet to remove the foam from the wood. Wow, that carpenter's glue really held tight!!! I selected various sections of foam and wood to get a rough estimate of the grade. Here is what my mock-up looks like. You can see how much I moved the incline by the residue on the foreground wood from my battle with the rubber mallet. And yes, I have plenty of clearance in the first photograph where one track crosses over the other.
I then assembled a couple trains and pulled them with various engines to see how they worked. All is okay. I would guess the grade approaches 5%, but doesn't look bad.
My next task will be to build the risers and roadbed to replace the Woodland Scenics. I want to be able to see trains and get at derailments on the rear incline when I have my removable hillsides for track access. I wouldn't be able to do that if I use the Woodland Scenics, then I would have to climb up on the fold-up step platform and lean over the layout to get at the trains.
Thank you again for looking and all the comments and 'Likes'!!! 
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Mark Boyce.......A wonderful and complex layout. Your method is paying off, and this will look and function amazing. Thanks again for sharing. Looking forward to updates!
Mark, I suggest you check the curve clearances on both the up and down ramps. I am thinking more to avoid hitting a support piece on a curve. The good thing about the ramps is you will use them as a means to get from one point to the other and not as a continuously run section - I think! nice progress.
Were you able to move the incline tracks further "left" with the SCARM plan as a reference. That would provide more space.
Looking good Mark! I like the mock up idea! I find myself doing that a lot more lately as a option to try and save me time and money on wrong cut materials! LOL
I think your on a good plan. If your concerned about clearance on the incline at the curve you can always move the support one way or another as long as your not going to hit the bottom of the upper loop! LOL
Either way I will keep watching your wonderful layout project!
Thank you, LT1Poncho, Jeff, Mike!
I continued checking engines pulling on the grades and clearances. The grades are fine. I have no issues with height. I won’t be buying modern hi cube cars or double stacks, so no issues there. You may recall I moved a support because of clearance issues. No doubt it is tight with the supports between tracks, but I don’t have any trouble with cab roofs . The closest anything comes to the supports are the railings at either end of the SD9, and they don’t hit going either direction. I was thinking my 3 sets of passenger cars are all 15”. I pulled out the set of Lionel NYC Pullmans, only to realize they are 18”. 🙄 I just finished checking them being pulled by the SD9 and a Consolation. Whew! There is plenty of room! I do have a NYC Hudson, but it is away right now for some work. I am going to “””assume ””” it won’t require any more room than the Consolidation. Famous last words!! 😄 I will take a video and post it before I put the 18” cars away again.
Nice work Mark! Test and refit and test again. Thorough job and glad the relocation wasn’t too painful. I look forward to the video.
Andy
Thank you, Andy!
Here are 2 videos. I intended it to be one, but had a bump in the road, so I just continued with a second one. I have not spent any time trying to learn how to polish these up; there are too many other things I want to do. The first shows the SD9 pulling the 18" cars off the high level, through the underpass under the engine facility. Then something happened so I restarted to show the train going through the gauntlet of support posts. Everything fits, barely.
I am thinking maybe I should have used 1x2s to support the upper level roadbed instead of 1" diameter dowels. Oh well, I'm not changing it. It will be too painful to go back underneath to take the screws out that hold the dowels. I can see now, if we move and I build another layout, it will be even narrower shelves than 30" and will have no grades. I'm not what I was when I started this layout.
Here are a couple photographs to show how close I came to not being able to run these cars on the lower level. It's funny, ever since I bought these from a Forum friend a year ago, I was thinking they were 15" instead of 18"!! 
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Mark, the lamp on the observation car looks like a tight squeeze. If you have a Dremel or even a coarse wood file. You can notch the riser for a little added clearance rather than a re do with a 1x2.
Dave, thank you! I didn’t notice how close the marker light was until I posted the photographs. I have a Dremel. That is a great idea to do some rough woodworking with it on the supports! It is always good to post my mistakes here, since someone comes up with an idea!! Thank you!
Wow a tight squeeze in places. Funny how photos show stuff we do not see with the eye. Looks like there are a few leaning supports - intentional or not? I would dremel as much away as practical to give more clearance for those passenger cars. Regardless the track work looks great, nice smooth running.
I really like the fenced in yard which drops off into space in the back. Intended for someone in particular?
Better put speed restrictions on that curve Mark. The MOW crew should make sure the road bed is rock solid too so the cars don't start rockin'.....
I agree that some Dremel surgery is in order. Looks good otherwise.
So a full loop around the layout on both tracks is next????
Bob
Thank you, Jeff, Bob!!
Yes Jeff, One support is cockeyed because it was in the way of the 18" cars so I cut it in half, removed the lower half, and left the upper half in place for the time being. It was fine with the shorter cars, so I put down the roadbed and switch on top of the screw holding it in place, only to discover I had 18" cars that I mentioned yesterday that I didn't realize were so long.
As for the fenced yard, that goes with the Woodland Scenics garage that I just set in it's place temporarily while construction was going on. I ran out of room on the shelf where the other buildings are stored for safe keeping. That is funny, though!!
Bob, yes indeed speed restrictions all around. I certainly won't be running passenger trains at prototypical speeds. I have never liked running trains fast even when I was growing up.
I think it is unanimous that I need to break out the Dremel and start doing some carving on the supports. When all is done, there will be a town supported on top at the level of the high line, so no one will see my 'groovy' pillars! 
Thank you for the comments!!!
A funny thing happened on the way to the carved pillars! I was grinding away and all of a sudden the smoke detector right above where I was working went off. I stopped and it quit. So I opened the door and started the Dremel again. The detector went off again. By then my wife was yelling downstairs to call the security company before they called the Volunteer Fire Department. I reminded her it was the detector in the addition that wasn’t tied into the security system. It didn’t matter. I went over to the controller and no alarm showed. That wouldn’t do, so I called them up and they verified no alarms. I asked them to turn off monitoring. Then I went to the toolbox in the garage, got out the rasp, and finished the job with it! 😆
I also finished removing the dowel that I had cut in half. I think this looks a lot better. All other clearances were trimmed a bit, but none needed what this one did! 👍🏻
I ordered the last two switches, a couple sections of track, and some more track pins. I “think” that should complete the track purchases. Notice I put “think” in quotes! 😆
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@RSJB18 posted:Better put speed restrictions on that curve Mark. The MOW crew should make sure the road bed is rock solid too so the cars don't start rockin'.....
Bob
A case of art imitating life...apparently the B&M RR had trouble with the Hoosac Tunnel when it received some large steam locos to alleviate WWI traffic problems. Seems this particular type of loco (Texas 2-10-2 i think) would list to one side after some wear and tear. The tunnel was double tracked and listing engines would side swipe ever so slightly those on the other track.
Good fix there Mark, I am glad you were able to make it work without the fire department showing up! LOL What you might do down the road is when you get to doing scenery you could just glue a small beaver there and put some wood chips on the bottom of the poll and if folks as you can say it that dang beaver! LOL
I am glad you were able to get the rest of your track ordered!
I don't know Mark, I think you should check the house for a wandering beaver or squirrel gnawing on your supports.
Nice work, Mark - you might want to consider adding this piece of rolling stock to your roster
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Thank you, Joe, Mike, Jeff, Richie!
Joe, I have read of other places that have spot on clearance, so to speak.
Yes indeed, if you had a bunch of trained beavers, they could do a lot of good on a railroad. Trouble is where do you find trained ones. I had better check the structural integrity of the house!
One thing, this will be hidden from view except when I remove the town, so I didn't care how choppy it looks. The angle was really bad for using the Dremel or rasp.
Richie, I think I have seen that car before here; maybe it was yours. I would like to find one. We have the squirrels that the dog chases. I have a door and he has a door, thus this:
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Mark, the adjustments work, that’s all that counts 😁. You can make them prettier if/when you want. Thanks for the videos. The comments from Mike, Jeff, and Richie did give me a chuckle. I think you need to get that box car now. And only we will know why you have it. 😉
Andy
@Mark Boyce posted:
Mark, just a glance at your train room would make me take an instant V line to it. Squirrel crossing LoL. I agree with Andy, these guys had me laughing too.
Thank you, Andy, Rich!
Yes I started to search for one of the cars the first time I saw it on this forum, then slowly forgot about it. Now that interest is renewed, I must keep it in mind, because I am getting more absentminded. 😄 The layout and this forum help to keep me thinking!
I got the last two switches and some 054 curves yesterday. I started fitting the first switch in, but have to modify the roadbed some. I knew that ahead of time but wanted to see the switch to know exactly what I needed. I could have used Ross’s template, but the real thing was on the way.
How close are we to the golden spike Mark??????
Inquiring minds want to know......
Mark,
That bridge of yours looks even more impressive at a distance ( through the door) than it does in the close ups. What an engineering job!
if I may ask, given your back and other issues, which I share, where did you place your TIU DCS and TMCC terminal strips to ease access I know I made it too hard on myself on my last layout, so I’m trying to do better on this one
Rubin
Thank you, Bob, Rubin!
Bob, that is a good question. There are several small areas that need finished before the Golden Spike is driven!
The first photograph shows I need to replace the mocked-up roadbed on the start of the far wall down ramp. I was using some of the ramp I used for the downgrade that was against the wall. Once a roadbed is in, I just need to cut one track section to length and it is done.
The upper left corner of this drawing shows how it will look. (Upper Loop Drawing)
Here I laid out a #4 switch and track on top of the track to get rid of the 042 switches that cause a bad S curve on the new lower loop. I will then extend the tail track of the new curved yard around where the 042 switches are. That is a bit of work.
The upper left corner of this drawing shows how it will look. (Lower Loop Drawing)
Last, I need to finish the passing siding on the opposite side of the room. That won't take much either.
Rubin, I decided to use the area under the pivot points of the bridges for back to back power boards. I chose this location because I thought it was close to the most track switches and track power blocks for a minimum of wiring. It kind of grew beyond what I ever expected!
This side has the Z4000, TIU, PSX-AC1 fast acting circuit breaker boards at the top, and GunrunnerJohn watchdog signal boards to the left.
On the reverse side of the board are 3 AIUs, 10-volt solid state relay boards, terminal blocks and two radios to listen to Pittsburgh Pirates games. (the portable radio in the front is easy to take outside working in the yard, but the older brown radio in the back gives better reception) The MRC power pack is providing power to the linear actuators for the bridges and something else which now escapes my mind!! 
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Thank you, Mark. That really helps and gives me some good ideas. What are the PDX and the gGunner John boards? What do they do?
Do you control your turnouts from the remote through the AIU ONLY, or do you have a diagrammed control panel somewhere? I’m always afraid that I use the AIU only I won’t have time to throw the switch and return to the engine function.
Looking good Mark It is nice to see you getting closer and closer to getting all the track down!
Now your control panel area is just amazing! I need to do something like that, the problem is I am just not educated enough to this point to wire all that in. Maybe with help from the forum I will get it done! LOL
Thank you, Rubin, Mike!
Rubin, I thought you would be asking what the PDX and Watchdog Generator are, but I didn't have time to look up good discussions at the time. We had good discussions about these on this thread before and when I installed them, but I needed to refresh my memory on the purpose of the watchdog generator. So, the TIU puts out a watchdog signal to check for PS2 and PS3 engines. It only does this once, and sometimes a PS2 or PS3 engine can come up in conventional mode instead of DCS mode. The watchdog generator puts out the watchdog signal about once a second. So any PS2/3 engine parked on any yard siding will see it when the track is powered, and will come up dark and silent, instead of in conventional mode. Gunrunner John Will presents the application for the Watchdog Generator. https://ogrforum.com/...chdog-in-yard-tracks
The PDX was a mistype, I will correct that. It is a PSX-1AC by American Hobby Distributors. It is a fast acting electronic circuit breaker that is faster than a breaker or fuse. A short circuit on the track trips that PSX-1AC breaker. It can be set to auto reset, or reset it manually. I reset mine manually. I have one between each Z4000 output and TIU input.
If anyone can add to or correct my explanations, feel free to comment. Also, Rubin or anyone who still has a question, please ask.
@mike g. posted:Looking good Mark It is nice to see you getting closer and closer to getting all the track down!
Now your control panel area is just amazing! I need to do something like that, the problem is I am just not educated enough to this point to wire all that in. Maybe with help from the forum I will get it done! LOL
Mike, I was educated in electronics in he mid-'70s and worked 43 years in the field, and much of this electronics is new to me. LOL I couldn't for the life of me remember how the watchdog works in John's unit compared to the TIU. The PSX-1AC made more sense to me, but I forgot what it was called!! LOL No wonder they pushed me out the door, and no one else would hire me!!
Wow Mark, it is time for you to get ready to break out the Muppets.............."Moving Right Along!!!!" Haha. Things are coming together pretty good there Mark. Running sessions are not that far off now are they?
Mark, the golden spike is near. I like your power setup. Not surprised that it’s so well layed out and organized.
Andy
