We put down some more grass and then a cork rail bed. The cork was very easy to work with. It splits into two narrow strips so you work with one side of it at a time, nailing one end of it then another nail every couple of inches as you shape the cork into the shape of the curves.

The track came next. We nailed it down with track nails and used the Pier Set you see in the photo.

The tracks included the Bachmann EZ 11-1/4″ Radius Curve and Bachmann EZ 5″ Straight that came with the train. We also bought a Bachmann EZ Remote Right-Hand Switch and EZ Remote Left-Hand Switch. I didn’t like the look of the Bachman EZ track so the rest of the tracks we purchased were Atlas brand which were also less expensive. They included…

N Code 80 11″ Radius 1/2 Curve (6)

N Code 80 19″ Radius Curve (6)

N Code 80 9.75″ Radius Curve (6)

N Code 80 Straight Assortment

N Code 80 Remote Left-Hand Switch

Atlas N Code 80 30″ Super-Flex Track – 2500

Mixing the two brands of track was not ideal but it worked just fine.

Knowing that it wouldn’t be much fun for a 5-year-old to have to swich polarity on track sections and that we did not have a DCC set-up, I chose to create a figure-8 surrounded by an oval in one continous run.

We covered the edges of the lake with plaster cloth to make sloped edges. Then the painting began. Much of it is painted with blue and black. We hope the darker parts will look more like deeper parts of the lake. Around the edge, we used brown to look like dirt and rocks. We’ll buy some fake water to put in the lake later.

This looked like a good place for a lake, so we cut a hole out of the plywood. Then we screwed a piece of 1/4 inch plywood to the underside of the table.

This weekend, we built a mountain for the train set. We positioned the track like we wanted it and traced it. Read the rest of this entry »