I finished the last of the full-size track layout this weekend. This involved solving a problem near the Extract Plant at the south end of town (caused by a decision a few months ago to expand the staging yard at the south end from three to four tracks). All track and turnouts are now marked and ready to lay/ I celebrated by gluing down a bunch of ties.
The remainder of the major buildings were also traced on the layout, and I already can see a potential for improvement on the siding that leads to the PRR freight station. This is the area between the EBT station and the Harbison Walker brick plant -- five city blocks in real life that need to become two truncated blocks on the layout. Basically the improvement is going to be to rearrange the industrial buildings along the siding so that the busiest have the greatest share of the 5-car siding. (They are the chair factory, the freight house platform and team track area, and the Atlantic Refining Co. bulk plant, currently, but I am also thinking a swap in their order there may help.) The whole area requires some more thinking. The templates really help to visualize it. Lee Rainey
