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Beginning track work...
Almost 3 weeks elapsed between the completion of the cork, and the start of laying track. This was because I had precious little time to work on hobby stuff throughout the month of November. December 1st, 2025, I finally lay the first piece of track. It was a 30″ piece of the yard lead, glued down using DAP Apex Plus siliconized caulk, clear. I didn’t pay enough attention at the store, and didn’t realize the caulk was “moderate joint movement.” Meaning it is flexible to allow pieces to move. I don’t think this will be a problem, since there is only slight movement when I apply pressure, and it returns to the proper position when pressure is removed.
The track I am using for the first half is Atlas Code 80 Flex track. Not super realistic-looking (actually rather silly if you compare how it looks to real-life track), but its cheap and easy to work with.
After laying that first piece of track, it was another 5 days until I did any more actual progress. In the intervening time, I experimented with pinning track onto curves, and test-fitting crossover switches, to get an idea of where they will need to be.
December 6th, I lay the first piece of the 2 mainlines, and was able to run a train on actual layout track for the first time. Needless to say, this was exciting, though I was still far from being able to run trains continuously.
