Well, I’m back… sort of. I still can’t get into the forums here using Netscape (my usual browser). I can get in with IE, which I’m using now, but the site is excrutiatingly slow. So I don’t know how often I’ll be able to come here. Anyway, I’ve finally posted some new pics of my railroad, beginning with this one: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=3009006&a=32116967&p=74595490 From there you can scroll through the rest, or go to this link to see the whole album: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=3009006&a=32116967 The first two pics were taken sometime around the end of June, after I’d finished building the small hillside trestle on the upper level of the east end. The second pic looks west towards the new, partially completed mountain in the middle of the layout. There are two tunnels running through this mountain, accessable via a pair of removable slabs over the center of the tunnels. The rest of the pics are mostly scenes from some of the (more or less) completed areas. I shot a bunch of these kinds of pics to enter in GR’s annual photo contest. I selected the three best pics and mailed them in to the magazine. Those three are NOT online. The pics I posted online are the ones that didn’t make the cut, but they’re still pretty good. I’ve finished the long plate girder viaduct, and you can see part of it in some of the pics. It’s about eight feet long, half of it straight and half curved. It’s supported by cast concrete pillars. BTW, when I shot these pics, it was the first time I’ve ever had a train on the upper level of track, and the first time I ever had one running. The longest continuous stretch of track so far is only about 20 feet, so I could only run a short train back and forth. But it sure was cool!! The last photo was taken at Balboa Park, and shows the “riding” train that’s in front of the San Diego Zoo. It runs on 15" gauge track.
Our neighbors are selling their house, which has a deck overlooking my layout-in-progress. Saturday they had an open house, and several people made favorable comments about my railroad. One couple in particular really oooh’d and ahhh’d over the layout. Said it would be worth living there just to be able to see the layout and watch the trains run! I even heard them telling the realtor that they considered it an asset.
Ray if they like it enough and build thier own layout. You might have a potential for linking yours to theirs , doubling your layout in effect!
Do you think you’d find buyers like that if you wanted to sell?
I don’t know, but we plan to be here the rest of our lives so I’m not worried about it.