Working East from IHC

 After placing Iron Horse Campground into place, we continued east toward the end of the benchwork. Immediately after the campground would be CANAL Interlocking (CP107). Around 2005, CP107 was removed during a bridge project in downtown Westfield. It was replaced by CP105. On the Berkshire Line, both CP105 and CP107 will be represented.

CANAL features universal crossovers and a switch to Springdale Siding. A pair of signal bridges protect each end of the interlocking on the main with a dwarf signal protecting the siding.

As we continue east, the main tracks continue east to the end of the benchwork. For now this is the end of the track. However in the near future construction will resume on the remaining unbuilt portion of the layout. Springdale Siding will have a switch off of it leading to a small yard and the programming track. From there the siding continues to another switch where it rejoins Track 2.

Building Iron Horse Campground

 We realized shortly after completing the benchwork that we had a minor oversight. We couldn't reach the far all where Iron Horse Campground was to be located. So we had to decide if we wanted to remove some of the constructed benchwork or build Iron Horse Campground, lay the track and add basic scenery then place the entire 4x8 sheet into place. 

We decided on option B, build and drop into place. 

Once it was completed. We very, very carefully dropped it into place and secured it.

Now to the wiring.

 Now we had reached the point of running the wiring from the "Control Panel" out the the layout. In order to accomplish having separate blocks, a lot of wire had to be run. In order to differentiate between the different blocks, we chose to use several colors of wire to determine what was what. DCC requires a Rail A and a Rail B wire. One of those wires can be used in every block. However the other wire, in our case, Rail A had to be block specific.

We started at the east end of West Springfield Yard, where the control panel would be located and worked east. As we worked east, we would have two wires for Rail A. One for Track 1 and the other for Track 2. Rail B would be shared between both. The sidings and yards would have their own Rail A and Rail B to separated them.

We left slack in the wiring to allow for us to attach the feeder wires from the rail to here. It also allows room for switch machines and any other accessories that would need to be mounted to the underside of the plywood.

Once this was completed, we moved to the Control Panel. This would be where the DCS210, PM42 and BDL168's would be located. It was to be mounted beneath the east end West Springfield Yard for ease of access.

Early look at the Control Panel with one BDL168 mounted.

Wiring added.

The second BDL168 and the PM42 were added later.

Adding the backdrops

 Once the benchwork was finished. We moved onto adding the backing for the backdrops. We went with 1/8" hardboard. It is lightweight, easy to shape, cut and paint. Aside from the first section, we painted the hardboard a light blue. 

For Iron Horse Campground, we found a river scene by Peco which would fit in perfectly.

Now we moved onto wiring...

Construction Begins

 After literally years of planning, its is finally time to start construction. 

May 14, 2020 was the day the benchwork construction began. We had to think about where we wanted to start building our benchwork. After some discussion, we decided on Iron Horse Campground. It was to be located east of West Springfield Yard and would have been near impossible to access had we started to build out elsewhere.

 This section of benchwork is constructed of 2x4's. It was secured to the wall to provide some stability as the other sections of benchwork are built. This piece is 4x8' and 40" tall.

From here we worked "west" to West Springfield Yard. In total, three sections of benchwork would makeup West Springfield Yard. We started with a 3x8', followed by 5x4' and 4x4'.

A few days went by before we resumed construction. We picked up east of the Iron Horse Campground where "Canal" interlocking (CP107) would be.

Here we started adding 2x2" supports, approximately 18" long to support the backdrop.

The final sections of benchwork curved to the right and behind the furnace. Another section (not pictured) would be used for a small yard and programming track. Then west of West Springfield Yard, the benchwork for Ice House (CP100) was constructed.

Once we reached this point, we stopped building benchwork as the cost of lumber literally quadrupled overnight. We decided to continue once the prices drop.

Planning

 Since I was a teenager I told myself once I had my own house, I wanted to build a basement-sized HO scale layout. When I was younger, I had a layout in my parents basement that a friend and I built around 1997. It wasn't anything spectacular, just a small 'L' shaped layout with a siding and small yard. 

Fast forward twenty-one years. I finally got around to buying my own house. I didn't start building right away. I let the idea stew in my head for over two years. What era did I want? Did I want a prototypical layout or something unique? I knew I wanted to model Conrail since I grew up watching C30-7A's and SD80MAC's on the B&A.

Then one night it hit me as I laid in bed. Modern Day Conrail. Imagine if the Conrail split of 1999 never happened. Oh the limitless potential. I wouldn't be restricted to a specific time frame or motive power. Whats more, I could have modern Conrail power. Naturally I was going to model the B&A. Obviously with the B&A being over 200 miles long, I couldn't model the entire thing, So I'd build a stretch of the B&A that I spent the most time on; West Springfield Yard, west. 

Now came the planning. I scoured the interwebs looking for the perfect software to design the layout. It didn't take long before I found AnyRail. I spent the next few weeks designing, deleting, re-designing, deleting and repeat. Finally I had a plan. CP99 to CP107. Not much but its a start. I decided to build a prototypical layout with some changes. First, I had to create something to go between CP99 eastbound and CP107 westbound. A campground. Another change made was the interlockings would have names instead of the CP numbers that Conrail used. A minor change but a change none the less.

Now to start construction....