PlateLayer by Svein-Martin Holt

Kind of sad day today. Because of lack of space, I have thrown many of my modules into the dust bin. Hours, weeks, months and years with happy modelling and a good time  are thrown into the dust containers. The different modules includes the Bjørkli Viaduct build in 1989, and 2 ZMOD modules, like Saguaro River Module. The only module I have saved is the newest, the Silver Creek Module. And of course, the new build, Zity Edge Layout.

Atlas has just released their new Z-scale flextrack and I just got my first box with 25 pieces i house. Its looking great, prototypical US spacing, similar to the Micro Trains flex track. Easy to bend in fine curved shape and the length is good, 24 inch.(610 mm). Holes for the Nails are missing, so then I must use glue to fasten the track. I prefer nails, bit it will work.

Märklin flextrack at front, new Atlas Flextrack in the middle and the MTL track installed on my layout. The Märklin track has not the prototypical spacing for US layouts, compared to the other two.

With a complete box of 25 pieces, I have plenty of track for new projects. 25 * 610 mm: 15.250 mm, more than 15 meter of tracks. Nice.

Finally the Silver Creek Module has been finished and ready for the road and some Z-scale action.

Check out the Silver Creek Imagelibrary.

2 years have gone since last time I did anything with my Zmod-module, but now in 3 week, I shall on the road again with Saguaro River and my Zmod-modules, a weekend with 2 days of exhibition.

The module have never been finished, as I started to plan and build my new permanent layout. So I need to hurry, so the new Zmod-module can run trains.

I have now wired the electrical for the internal roundtrack, and tonight I have blended in a tunnelportal and also the abutment for the big trestle. The trackbed and beams for 2 other short bridges have been installed also, only missing some abutment for this 2 bridges.  

Now I have prepared the rocksurface on the module and it's near finish. The first coloring of the rock have been done. A test with some of my new trees from Loren Snyder. The foliage is put on for test.

A lot of more work to be done on the coloring on detailing of the surface.

After the old section layout was removed and the room cleaned, the work continue on the modul.

I have molded some rockpieces, and have started to glue them in position.

I have also started the building of the riverbed and glued some rockpieces in the river. A lot of blending work are still to be done.

Now all the foundations for the trestle are in place and the work to blend this into the landscape have started. Parts of the landscaping are in good progress. One of the next step will be to glue on some molded rockpieces and also finish the surface of the landscape. The riverbed can also be done soon. The AZL GS4 and the reefers are in action on the trestle.

Tonight the sidebraces are installed. Soon the foundation must be done.

Testing with a Märklin F7 A-B-A and some cars.

All the braces have been installed last night. Tonight I have installed 1/4 of the braces on the sides.

Tonight the trestle was tested in the module and some more braces was installed.

I need to create a good foundation, but the size is OK for the trestle.

The trestle has been setup on a sort of foundation, so the braces can be installed. A few of them are in place on the model. And some equipment are testing the trestle.

Tonight all the 30(not 29 as earlier sayd) bents have been glued to the underside of the trackbed. I did the job upside down, the trackbed was put on the table over a 1:1 drawing of the bridge. Here I had indicated he positions for all bents and also the height of each bent. Also the deck brigde is installed.

The next step will be to turn the whole bridge around and start to mount the vertical braces. I guess I also need to look at the fundation for the whole trestle. Today is thursday, so the next work will be done after the weekend, in the next week, after some travelling.

Tonight the upper level have been installed and the corc for the roadbed is finished. Now the track can be installed on the inner track.

The trestle deck was tested tonight, with some bents and the deck bridge temporary in place. This could be nice when finished.

The lower level of the module is now finished and all the track have been installed.

The first ever run on this new module was done tonight. Not a complete round because the tracks in the yard are not connected to power yet, but the front part has been tested.

All visible parts have got MTL track, hidden part have got some Märklin track and some Peco flextrack. I could have used MTL all over, but I have plenty of the other track and try to use Märklin and Peco in hidden areas.

Check out video:

The whole module framework is now finished, ready to install cork and some track.