Herc Driver's New Layout Under Construction

[Herc Driver]

I guess I haven't posted any pictures of what I've been up to lately. My previous layout was built on a smooth door, but due an to upper level management decision, that layout was abandoned and a new one started on the top of shelving units. The layout's base is 1.5 inch foam board on .5 inch plywood, and all resting on the shelving unit tops, and split into roughly two equal 8 foot sections for an overall length of almost 16 feet and only 16 inches wide. The basic design is a simple dogbone layout where the plywood expands to 22.5 inches to accommodate the 11 inch radius curves at the ends of the layout, and supported by wall mounted decorator shelving unit braces. Code 80 flex track was used to minimize joints, and all turnouts are Peco Insul-Frog and manually thrown. There can be no drilling into the shelving unit tops, so all the wiring had to be hid within the foam board. I cut trenches into the foam to place the wiring, and ran 18 gauge wire to the Digitrax Zephyr unit.

There's a yard in the center that has tracks that move freight cars to the eastern town's industries and allow for passenger service to the western town (that's not done yet). There's passing tracks parallel to the mainline located at the north and south middle sections of the layout. There's a fueling station at the northern end of the yard area that will service diesels on both tracks it rests between. An engine service building is also just east of the yard. The tracks the Amtrak is on connects to the western mainline loop. The buildings generally follow the design and function of those between my two key cities of Salsbury and Pineville, NC. The yard was inspired by what I saw when visiting the Norfolk Southern Charlotte Yard just north of the city.

We're set up for continuous 4-train operation, with switching and spur service to the various industries/plants around the layout. A train leaves the yard and travels in either direction around the layout, taking an inside passing siding as needed to allow the faster Amtrak service to pass and make a stop at either the western station or eastern station as necessary. Smaller local freights are built up from the yard and have access to either the eastern town from the spur from the yard, or around part of the mainline and off the passing siding as a backing operation into the western industry area. My only problem is there's no way to get vehicles from one end of the layout to the other. I might try several Rix overpasses strung together located above the yard area and parallel to the mainlines (which somewhat resembles the traffic conditions in and around the yard in Charlotte). But it's not that important to me that all the roadways connect from one end of the layout to the other.

Well...here it is. I'd appreciate all the critiques and ideas you might have. I know there's a tremendous amount of scenery to add, roadways to build, buildings to paint etc. Since the track is down but not affixed, I can still move things around a bit. I know these aren't the best pictures possible, but with 16 narrow feet to capture, it poses a slight camera angle problem.