Painting the track for the Lovelock expansion

With the track on the Lovelock section thoroughly tested and any minor problems corrected, I was ready to paint the track and ties prior to ballasting.   While at Home Depot recently, I found this flat earth brown camouflage spray paint.   I've seen others using in various posts and YouTube videos with good results so thought I would give it a try.  As it's winter I had to do this inside the train room.  After getting the temperature up to a reasonable level, I opened the window and turned the fans on before starting.   I also had to be careful about any overspray getting anywhere.  I am really happy with the results and it was quick. 

After letting the paint dry for about an hour, I used a razor blade to scrape the tops of the rails.  They will have to be cleaned again after ballasting but it much easier getting the paint off now before it's really set.

Track and wiring for the new section

The track work and wiring with the exception of the spurs going into the EP Minerals plant are now completed.  As I don't have an exact design for MP Minerals yet, so I am holding off permanently installing its spur tracks for now and just have a single spur loosely tacked down to I can test the operations over the entire area.

I am using the same type of manual push / pull turnout controls that I have used on the Battle Mountain and Carlin sections.  Here is the link to the post detailing how this was done Tracks across Nevada: Hand throws for turnouts. Because of the viewing angle of this section allowing easier viewing of the turnouts, I am not planning to have the indicator LED's on the fascia. 

Because this section was going to be removable, the wiring to the rest of the layout needed to be done like modular layout wiring.  I used an AMP / TE Connectivity 9 pin series 1 connector with the cable feeding through the wall into where the helix is.  This cable is antenna rotor cable with 8 conductors.  This cable and connector type is the standard we use on the modules in the Ntrak club I belong to.  The receptacle on the module was mounted to the same aluminum L channel that was used for the turnout switches. 

One pair of the wires on the cable are used for the DCC power.  Another pair is used for 12 volt DC power, and the 4 remaining wires are spares.  I wanted to give this section it's own DCC district so a locomotive here would not give a red signal on the helix block.  I had an unknown brand of DCC circuit breaker that was part of an estate I purchased a few years ago and it seems to do the job just fine.  Because the deck is only 1/4 inch thick, small 1/4 inch pieces of plywood were glued to mount the components. 

To create the gap between the helix and the new section, I used Kato insulated joiners between the Unitrak expansion track and the Unitrak section on the new section.

So for now, I am going to be running some test operations on this new section to make sure I am happy with this track arrangement and that everything is working OK before starting any ballasting or scenery.

Exact placement of the grocery distribution warehouse

The arrangement for the pair of spur tracks for the grocery distribution warehouse had to be just right for the box cars to be realistically close to the wall but still not hit the wall.  The spur track into the refrigerated part of the warehouse has to align just right to allow the cars to get though the door and to allow for a car to get by any car that might be parked on the other spur.  As the dock doors were spaced to allow for 60ft cars, I used a 60ft car to test for clearance.

Once the tracks were glued down and the exact position of the warehouse was determined and marked with a pencil, a border of .060 x .040 styrene was glued down around the outside of the walls of the warehouse. 

In the locations around the building where there are doorways, I used the steps that came with the kit and some Evergreen .040 thick tile sheet for sidewalks. 

 A couple of different types of stairs came with this kit and I used both in different locations.  Of course where the track enters the refrigerated part of the warehouse, no border styrene was used.

This border of styrene should hold the building in the exact spot it needs to be but still allowing it to be removed.  I may also add some magnets as I did on the buildings in Battle Mountain that are close to the track.