Since May of this year layout construction has progress at a steady pace. The Pickering mainline has been extended from the Peeled Onion down the Stanislaus River canyon to Beardsley Flat, across the Stanislaus River and up the other side of the canyon. Another 15 to 20 feet of track and the Pickering line will reach Soap Creek where the log trains will start their run to Schoettgen Pass.
The benchwork for the WSLCo run to River Bridge is in place. The track down to River Bridge should be in place my the end of September. Once the track is in place operations on the WSLCo can begin. Loaded trains will start at River Bridge and run up the canyon and then down to Baker’s and then into Tuolumne. The logs will be unloaded and then a train of empties will return to River Bridge. The goal is build the River Bridge this winter and then extend the WSLCo trackage to Camp 24 and its balloon track by the Summer of 2008.
Additional scenery base has been added to the Sonora to Lime Kiln area. The base is cardboard lattice covered with winkled up grocery bags. At some point this will be covered with ground foam and other scenery material.
Work has continued on developing the Layout track diagrams for this site. Hopefully there will be something to Post by the end of September. Also by this time the first photos of the layout should be posted as well.