ecided I should keep my blog up to date concerning my layout, especially since I report on every ops session and every show. And the whole point of this is to get my layout back up and running.

Okay, so between when I last ran it (two years back?) and now, two furry cannonballs crashed through my booster stations, scattering components. That sucked. Fortunately I had my records as to settings and wires so I was able to rebuild it. I’m handling this now by booster districts – which I have three. As my layout is a loop to loop (with the loops stacked over each other and the line the connects them a long two-percent climb), it makes sense to work it in these sections.

I got the lower loop (Watsonville) working a week ago. The upper loop (San Luis Obispo) has been cleaned and the main line made ready for running. The main district between them has scenery from SLO stacked over it so I really can’t get it at (but I did clean the liftouts that connect the main to the loops over the closet door).

This allowed me to make a wonderful success – with some trial and error (and a booster battery change) I managed to get the layout’s reversers running. This was the major concern. Now it’s about cleaning.

Well, mostly. I couldn’t get any signal through my two Watsonville jacks. Jon Bowman was nice enough to have a look, detect that my 20 year old wiring was coming apart (no help from the aforementioned cats) and offered to replace the wiring. Thanks, Jon! So hopefully, once that’s done, I can get back to cleaning.

So much to do.

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