Jim's Model Train Site

Over the summer holiday period, we did quite a lot of travelling as a family, and I picked up my mum from the mainline station about 50 kilometers away on one of the days as well. And due to the places we were travelling to, we were able to make some small-ish detours and see some old railway formations and facilities.

Most likely it will be. As the New Year approaches with speed, and the old year recedes into history it's probably a good time to take stock of the year and summarise what happened.

Over the last few days, significant progress has been made with the Illinook Junction scenery. Some gracel and ground cover was purchased from a 'local' (ie, within 60kms distance) hobby shop. Some of the left over scenic materials from previous layout building efforts was also able to be used up.

Today the road surface for the Illinook Team Tracks was applied. Multi-purpose filler was used, which has a white color when set, which looks quite like concrete.

Above: The road surface applied to the area around the team tracks.

The Illinook Junction module became operational yesterday - all the trackage is now in place, and all the electrics done. A train was operated over every section of the track to make sure it all worked.

It seems there must be something in the air, or the water, or the food that is making us expand our layouts. Or is it just that we are model railroaders and expanding our layouts is just what we do? Probably the latter!

Over the last week during some of my spare time, I have been making an extra module for Illinook. Named "Illinook Junction" for the moment, it will connect the western (left hand side) end of Illinook.

On Monday my youngest daughter and I painted the frame and baseboard, and today (Friday) I spent a number of hours scavenging usable track joiners, soldering and laying the track.