After the excitement of the first wagon samples, I was eager to get cracking on the basic land-forming on the 2nd "blade" board. I didn't get very far, but I have at least got the gradient down somewhat. Out of the 4 009 locos I own, 2 are out of service, 1 of them can barely pull anything on a flat level let alone a gradient, and the last and newest is a fantastic runner with great weight and haulage capabilities. That loco simply ignored the gradient so I'm now feeling much more confident. The track I used is so old and battered that I'm surprised the loco ran as slow as it did!
I will however be extending the length of climb by about 20cm, thus reducing the gradient somewhat which hopefully will be absolutely fine for most locos. Note all track will of course be on a ply trackbed. This should hopefully mean a smoother ascent, too! Having the slope as one piece of flexitrack rather than 8 bits of set-track will also be a huge improvement since there will be no track joins on the gradient. This should mean stock stops derailing!
As you can see from the above photo, I've been trying to work out ways to hide the exit of the main line loop. I think I'm going to go with a combination of pipework, vertical asphalt storage tanks and a low bank.
And the above photo is the other main line loop exit. This will be disguised nicely by trees, and of course, another pipe bridge! It's handy that pipe bridges are absolutely everywhere in oil refineries, as they make great scenic breaks. If you look closely, in photo you can see the asphalt barrel conveyor diving under the standard gauge, making its way between the drum washing and filling area to the aerial ropeway house. I'd like to make this conveyor work, but as of yet that I've no idea how! Same goes for the aerial ropeway...
And finally something the public hopefully won't be able to see! The back of the workshops. Clearances are pretty tight here, and I wonder whether to add another low relief workshop on the rear of the current one so it suggests a bigger building from normal viewing angles.
Well that's it for today I'm afraid. Not that much to show, but I think the layout is turning out nicely in regard to composition at least!
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