Starting on building the Main yard

 As you can see, we are coming up the hill from the horseshoe curve after Milton. We are approaching the main yard limits by the power pack. The homasote is down and I am starting to lay out the location of the crossing from the westbound main to the eastbound main to allow the trains to come out of the yard up by the saw. The drill track will end by the power pack.

 

Now we have entered teh yard and are looking at the trammel where I have drawn the yard track center lines . You can see the two main tacks to the left, then the two arrival/departure tracks and then we have 4 yard tracks and a thoroughfare track on the extreme right (out of the picture) 

 Another view of the trammel that shows you how the yard bends around in a 180 degree curve. The yard tracks will be about 40 feet long so I will have a decent capacity for freight cars. When I finish laying this out, I will be able to drill the yard from both ends. Thus, I will put a caboose track on each end for convenience.

In this view I am showing that I have elevated the main tracks 1/4 inch above the yard tracks. The Arrival/Departure tracks are 1/8 inch higher than the yard. When I lay the tracks, the main will be code 140 as will the Arrival/Departure tracks. The yard will be code 125. All this is an effort to show the lighter duty track that the yard was generally laid with. I will also vary the ballast color.

This is a view of the east end of the yard. the throat of the freight tracks will be between the yellow card stock (used to try to even out the variances in thickness of the homasote) and the coke can. To the right of the Coke can, the engine service tracks and, hopefully, a small passenger car yard will peel off to the right.

This is an overview of the area that will house the diesel storage (beyond the red and white box) the turntable (center rear), the roundhouse (far left rear), and the passenger car yard. The main will continue 

off to the right of the wide column and the branch will form the end of the drill track and parallel the main beyond the column. I still have to cut the last of the homasote and lay it in down by the column.
The goal for the next month is to get one track complete through the yard (the westbound main) so the grandchildren will  finally see a train run around when they come for Christmas so time is running out!