I’ve taken a break from sub-roadbed work these last couple weeks and turned my attention to trackwork.  I mentioned in the previous post that I had started some trackwork over in Monterey.  I’ve done more in that area these last two weekends.  The mainline enters the area and runs through the yard, terminating a bit beyond.  This is literally the end of the line for the Louisiana Central.  The Texas and Pacific interchange track is connected to the L.C. main now, and a couple industry spurs have been installed.  There is now a track for holding the wrecker and work train equipment, and the wye is partially installed.  I’ve posted several photos in the photo section of the website if you’d like to see what’s going on (when there, click the  ‘Jump down to the latest photos’  button).

The yard itself and the industrial track down at the far end will be laid in code 70.  This signals the onset of my having to start modifications of the Shinohara switches to be DCC compatible (the code 83 switches that I’ve been working with on the mainline are already so).

Next weekend I’ll be crawling beneath the layout to install the wiring for all this track.  I’m trying not to let track get too far along without the associated wiring being completed.

At this point, Monterey is land-locked in that the mainline cannot proceed any further east than where it presently stops, as the bridge section across the entryway to the layout room hasn’t been constructed yet.  Technically a locomotive could sneak out of Monterey via the industry trackage at the far (west) end by using the loads in-empties out trackage, but that would only be used for testing as the other end of that trackage leads into Willis (the opposite end of the layout).

All-in-all, some nice progress has ensued.

-Jack