Despite my best intentions to do more work on the layout, it seems other forces work against me. Yesterday nothing was done as I was shopping for some electrical supplies after work. And you know what happens when you go to a big box store – it’s like falling into a black hole.

Today, I primed myself in advance with will and determination to at least move 3 recessed lights on the South side of the room. Alas, I came home to a notice from the City that they are shutting water off at 6pm, TODAY, till 12pm (the next day, 18 hours, for real)?

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A pleasant surprise, on this snowy day happened in the evening when a mailman showed up with a big box. The package with all the supplies for building the Staging level has finally arrived.

It is going to be a busy and hopefully productive Holiday season. Since I’ll be off work for couple of weeks, I can focus on finishing the construction of the Staging level benchwork and lay some track down, if all goes well.

There’s a lot of track to be laid down and wired, as well as turnouts to be tested and fit into place. One thing is for sure – I’m not looking forward soldering hundreds of feeder wires to all the flex track… ;)

I spent the day contemplating whether all 3 decks need to be built on the peninsula all at once or not, but more on that another time…A more immediate snag came up where some of the fixtures are in the way, while other accessory items need to be redone altogether. That’s what happens when you are building a railroad in a finished basement…

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Everyone should be aware by now that laying track directly on top of Extruded (XPS) Foam creates a “drum effect”. Over at the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum there had been some great threads (Foam Drum, Foam Drum II) about this issue, some good science behind it, and possible solutions to minimizing the effect.

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It has been a bit on a slow side past week as the shipment of track and turnouts for the Staging level is still somewhere in the cross-country Post Office pre-Holiday mess. Should’ve ordered these items much sooner, but a local hobby shop kept spinning me in circles for two weeks telling me how they would be able to get these items at a fair price, just to backtrack afterwards both on the price and delivery times.

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