Updates with no pictures

So I have been making progress and trying to keep the railroad ready for an Op Session. These two things together are always a tough situation.
Facia has been installed from the New NMJ to the nod under.
Roadbed has been installed all the way to the right side of Brunswick. The middle of what is now Katahdin.
If I didn't mention it before, the mainline track and passing sidings are installed through Bangor.
After the next session there will be a major redo of the track under Searsport. Not looking forward to it, but it will make life easier in the long term.

PSA

I was fixing older turnouts and came across one that had some lower resistance (~4 Meg) across the rails and I couldn't figure out why. I had put a road through this turnout and the stuff below is what I used. i decided to check the resistance of the road without touching the rails and I got the same reading. I cleaned this stuff off the turnout. The problem was solved.

Lighting in Portland

Today I installed lighting for Portland. About the only place needing lights now part of Rigby and area over the turntable. With the little time left, I took the mainline cork past Bangor. Ran the track almost to the same point and added all but one turnout off the main line.

Latest Progress

The NEW Northern Maine junction has 10 of 12 tracks installed up to the end of the benchwork. I will be adding about three more feet so I can get the full trains in. 

All of the new benchwork wiring buses are in. Regulated, DCC and Accessory. 
The wiring that I had to put on the floor has been rerouted and no longer a tripping hazard. 

Mainline roadbed is all the way through Bangor. Some of the industries have been figured out. 

All of the computer boards have been mounted, just nothing yet in the field

.

First look at the NEW Northern Maine Junction

After the benchwork went up I finished the brackets and put up three 8 foot section of plywood and enough to connect the corners. Now on to the track.
While the cork was being glued up I laid out the turnouts for NMJ marked where the holes went for tortoises and drilled them. Then I mounted all of the turnouts, rerailers, and some track while setting up the blocks for detection. Due to an oversite I am short two rerailers. I had one piece not one package.

Upper benchwork in

The benchwork is basically 100% complete. There are a few brackets that I have to buy to insure that stability of the upper level. Now only a billion more things to before running trains up there.

A push towards finishing the benchwork

I’m making a push to have all of the benchwork in before Christmas. The following is the area above the engine facility. This is where we start the final track work for the upper level.

The rest of the photos show the last major sections which will go in place this week with some help.

These go along two different walls and the corner piece to connect them will be built after the actual dimensions are known.

 There is already about 40 feet installed, not counting the area over the turntable. All in all about 85 more feet of mainline will be put in. This will include a new 12 track staging yard and 2 new towns. The old staging yard will become another town with a logging branch off of it.

Upcoming Changes

I now have all of the wood a some bodies to finish all of the benchwork. Next week will bring some changes. Pictures afterwards.

I have a section of hidden track that I inadvertently put right under the mainline in Searsport. This cause me much trouble when trying to get the Tortoise Machines in place. That track is also hard to get to with wires all around it. Then during the last op session the linkage got messed up and I still can't get it right. So for Fridays op session I will pin that turnout and see how it goes. If the crew can live with it that way for one more session after that I will pull out that track and move it closer to the front. This will over the short term will be a mess. In the long term it is the right move. I would be able to reset all those Tortoise machines where they should be and all of the wiring will be behind the track. Easier to reach trains if needed and clean track.

Belfast and Wiscasset will have some modifications also because of this.

Crossing the aisle

I have an op session coming and what better way to test a theory of a tall duck under with operators. The bottom of the benchwork at the aisle is 60.25 inches and the benchwork is only 12 inches wide. This shouldn't be too bad.
I had a thought that I could raise or lower the benchwork when not in use and then remembered that was how I was getting my wires across the aisle. Once I get to the choice of wires I will sit down and figure out if I can do some kind of disconnect.
The least amount of connections needed would be for Ethernet, DCC, Regulated Power and Accessory