If you recall from the last installment, I had added a two foot extension to the table. In order to take advantage of all that additional space, I purchased some track pieces so that I could extend out into that space. This meant not only the base level track, but also the elevated portions. To accomplish this I bought a truss bridge that is as long as two standard straight pieces. This provides the benefit of offering a lot of space where the track that goes under the elevated portion can be placed without worrying about support pylons.
This meant moving the road section farther towards one end and moving the station to keep everything properly aligned. Moving the station is quite an undertaking because it does not connect to the elevated track as nicely as the rest of the pieces. This took considerable fussing and testing to get everything to where it would work properly. The biggest benefit of all this is the lack of crowding in the arcing turns at what is the south end of the track and the southern parts of the smaller sections that run on the inside.
I have finally been able to upload a video of the layout as it was back in July. For whatever reason, Photobucket always stopped uploading a few seconds from the end. Now it is up and here is the link. http://vid1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc502/s3fixer/MVI_4652_zpslqwvnhzt.mp4 It runs 41 seconds so shouldn't tax most people's computers.
I did get a couple of
additional trains during this time. One is an early
series 485 limited express. This is a 'bonnet' style with later ones having
a flat front end. Kato calls this one 'Hibari', but I've not been able to find
any information on that particular service. Since it is a limited express, it
does not run a specific route all the time and is apparently brought into
service as required. This set is the basic 7 car version.
The other was a
series
2000 EMU that runs on the
Saitama Rapid
Railway. This is one of many third tier companies that operates in and
around Tokyo, this one running to the north and west of the city. It is a pretty
new company so its equipment is relatively new. This is a short line of under
ten miles total with nine stations so the company only owns ten 6-car trains.
Eventually most of
the track I needed was accumulated and I was able to extend the two loops into
the new space. I also added a turnout and am in the process of getting a few
more bits to extend all the inner track sections. This is not a huge move as the
outer inside loop was only extended 140mm with the one inside it extended to
100mm. Once I get some 70mm straight sections, I will extend the very inside one
as well so things don't look quite so crowded. You can see the truss bridge in
this image as well as all the extended bits. The next long term projects is to
replace all the track sections that have concrete ties so things will be more
uniform. You will notice that I taped a plastic L to one end just to be safe in
case a train derails at the edge of the table. The nice thing about this
extension is that I can run my 15 car train and it won't look all that out of
place.