Now What?

With the layout in place, now what am I going to do?  For starters, I had a lot of layout that needed restoration to operating condition.  Also, there was an almost eight foot gap between the two sections. 

Looking down the aisle.  The gap is to the right, what will be the peninsula to the left.  The section against the back wall held the engine house and featured a spaghetti bowl of track.  First step was to remake the connections between these two sections.  The remote section on the other side of the room would have to wait for now.

Once some connections were made, I broke out some rolling stock and started putting the layout through its paces.  I quickly found that the existing wiring was poor, with many dead spots, and I really noticed the reliance the previous owner had for tight radius corners to create the mess of tracks.  I also found that to get from point to point on the layout required the use of several switch backs.  As a modeler who prefers operations to viewing, these were not satisfactory.

 So, I began ripping up track.  Yeah, that sounds crazy.  I get a layout that's already built, and the first step is to start by ripping it all out.  I must be a lunatic.

 

On the peninsula, I reworked all the leads to the switching spurs into a single lead.  Down from five. Yes, you read correctly, five leads onto the peninsula.  Its a start.