end up, meaning from January until late March the Williams
Creek scene sat unceremoniously on a shelf in our utility room
“awaiting disposition.”
I know, from prior experience moving and rearranging layout
pieces, oftentimes it’s a difficult, if not impossible, task to reuse
an existing chunk of layout. Based on the width of the bridge
section, the shape and width of the layout, and the location of
various towns and other elements I couldn’t locate a new home
for the bridge scene anywhere on the layout. Or so I thought.
I traced the section full-size on a piece of paper, being careful
to accurately mark the outline of the section and the track cen-
terlines at each edge, as well as the position of the river. The
2. The Williams Creek section was too bulky and
heavy to slide around on top of the layout – and doing
so would play havoc with the track and trees – so I
made a full-sized cutout of the section to determine a
good spot to locate the section.
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