Apr11 Written by:Tom Farin
4/11/2008 7:26 AM
By the end of last summer, the San Answelmo area of the layout looked like this.
The main line concrete roadbed was in place. Track was laid on the main line. Switches were in place for the yard (far center of mulched area) and for the line running out onto the lower holding pond portion of the water feature, which will be placed inside the loop in the near mulched area. The jog in the track on the right side is a switch. The line that is laid to the left of the switch in the direction of the walkway feeds the San Rafael portion of the layout. The unfinished line to the right will feed the lower portion of the layout that will eventually reach the large pond down below.
This photo was taken on April 10, after the snow melted in March. We had an unusually harsh winter with multiple below zero days and over 100 inches of snow. Madison's winter record snowfall before this winter was 67". The layout surviced this winter amazingly well. The only two points of damage are the wind burn on the Dwarf Alberta Spruices and a broken track (bottom of photo closest to the hose) where track was loose laid over a bridge abutment gap of around 8". Someone stepped on the track. Other than that the roadbed held up well and the track remained more or less in place.
Plans for this area for summer of 2008 include.
1. Install the concrete roadbed for the yards and the line feeding the pond in the lower water feature.
2. Complete track laying and ballast the track.
3. Final grading around the track.
4. Planting the San Anselmo portion of the layout.
5. Installation of the drip irrigation system in this area.
6. Construction of the water feature which includes an upper holding pond to the left of this photo, a stream that runs from the left under the bridge abutment and empties into a lower pond at the bottom of the photo inside the track loop. Details on the water feature as it is constructed will be in the Ponds and Water Features child blog.
7. Construction and installation of the bridge spanning the gap in the track loop at the bottom of the photo. Details on construction of the bridge and the dock in the next objective will be in the Pond child blog as construction takes place.
8. Construction of the dock extending into the pond from the top of the photo that will represent San Quentin landing.
The line is not ballasted at this point. The track was loose laid on the concrete roadbed for the golden spike ceremony
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