Lower staging!

Four track staging in place. Capacity, 40 cars.

The sounds of power screwdrivers and saber saws were heard for the first time in months as Narrabri North finally got the lower staging yard that had been planned since day one.

Staging yards are about the least-sexiest part of building a model railway. Even moreso than bus wires and power drops! But for a fully realized and operating layout, they're among the most important.

After the helix was installed well over a year ago (or was it two years ago? Time flies!), I'd planned to put the lower staging yard representing Moree directly below the upper yard--right on top of the work bench. Lower staging would hover only six inches above the work bench, and take up 2/3rd the depth of the bench, requiring it to be removable to allow full use of the area.

But with the addition of the 15" deep Wee Waa layout section on the adjacent wall in the office/workshop, it seemed wiser to free up the workbench space permanently and place the lower staging yard beneath Wee Waa. All it would really require is one more hole in the drywall!

I've finally gotten off my ass, and now I've got the much-needed lower staging installed. All that's needed now is to hook up the electricals and connect it to the lower level on the other side of the wall in Gurley. Now running nights will have the benefit of a full staging yard top and bottom, and this will be further motivation to finally build permanent lower level trackwork.

It won't be long until I can start really thinking of putting together an operating session that takes advantage of the entire layout.


A Website for my Photographs. . .

I've made a lot of photographs over the past 35-plus years. And it seems a shame not to share them with folks. The question usually, though, is "where should I upload them?" I finally opened up a pBase account, and am slowly uploading piccies to my new site, here:

http://www.pbase.com/bkooistra/root

Right now, there's a few photos from my 2009 trip to New South Wales, a couple dozen from the Arizona rail photo trip last month, and just a couple from pre-adult photography of The Milwaukee Road. There certainly will be more to come, and among all the rail photos will likely be examples of my photojournalism work for newspapers in my "previous lifetime" as well as some favorite family and travel photographs. Likely I'll add some photos taken by my dad from 1939 into the 1970s.

Feel free to check it out, and don't be afraid to let me know what you think.