Work on the upper and lower level

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad!

With less than 5 months away to the NMRA/NER September 15th & 16th open house layout tours, I've been working on a number of projects to have the layout as ready as possible. 

Structures and backdrop flats are on the top of the list to help fill wall space, divider space on the main peninsula, and other places on the railroad. 

I've posted a couple pics in the past of flat structures in Rock Ridge Yard. Here's what it looks like as of today:

There is the American Hardware, which can be drilled by the yardmaster during a full operating session. Adjacent to it is an abandoned warehouse with 'For Sale' and 'For Lease' signs on them. Next to it another building that has the name 'Rock Ridge Freight Yard' on the top. This too, is a building with no freight action. I would like one of two more added, if possible. 

Next up are two Interlocking Towers. First one is positioned at Little Jamaica:

Next one is at West Harold and is closer to the edge of the layout:

Both towers are in their correct position and the 'windows' face the tracks.

Next structure I've been working on is a car shop / engine house for the lower level. For some reason, Walthers made a mistake in their Cornerstone Backdrop Kit many years ago. I bought two as it was originally planned for the previous layout in the room. When I opened it up, it had parts from not only the backdrop kit, but the ends for a 3 stall shop. How that happened I don't know, but I I decided that I will make the 3 stall version. 

The bases that came with the kit will not fit the new building, so it will sit right on the cork. There will be a track on each side of the structure and a good 24" of approach track to the actual facility. Also, I don't think Walthers made these kits to be intended to have code 100 rail go thru it. I tried one of my ES44 units on code 100 and the clearance, while it fit was way to close for comfort. Since the tracks to it come off the turntable, I will be using Code 83 track. 

I did have some construction issues as I was building it and some of the seams are not as together as I would have liked. Also, some of the pieces were warped from siting for years, even though it was sealed and in a controlled environment. The structure is not in its final place. I brought it up from the workbench just to see how it would fit. I'll add more details to it once I'm ready to tackle the area and secure tracks. One thing I am not going to do until after the open house is to add the roof. While there's not a lot of clearance underneath, I will leave engines inside the facility for the effect. 

Onward to the next project for the railroad!