Busy week on the lower level and a loco back from the dead

With Thursday and Friday off, it gave me the chance to get my room back in order and get away from the layout somewhat and finish a few projects on the desk.  I finally got my VMID U23B back on the tracks running well.  It had been sidelined with unreliability and made it a bad runner.  I could not fit a Keep Alive capacitor under the hood and thus made the U23B to sit on the desk for a while.  In some research for smaller speakers, discovered Apple I-phone 5 loudspeakers.  These speakers are small and sound great.  Getting 5 for $8 on Ebay is a good deal also.  I finally put one of those speakers in the cab of the U23B.  Yes, it's that small.  The #289 is running well and sounding great.  The #289 is special to me.  It's the first loco I installed a Tsunami in.  The Tsunami FDL GE sound is outstanding.

I also have all the track laid for the branch line on the lower level.  This section is directly below Battlefield Yard.  It serves a sand and gravel plant (Spur only) and a propane dealer.  The branch line will be named the Mine Run Branch and is actually a town name on the real Virginia Central Railroad.  There was no branch line there however.

VMID #289 ready to mix it up in Battlefield yard.  She's in original VMID paint.  One of the first locos I painted in VMID paint.

This will be Mine Run.  Don't know if I'll keep it in canal form but it looks good.  Probably will take out the dock.  A simple bridge here will complete the scene.

The look from the bridge to the propane dealer and the trackage back to the mainline. 

An overview of the scene.

Here's the trackage looking from the canal.  It has a run-around track for the hoppers returning to the loading facility.

Another view of the run-around track and spur.  The hoppers are sitting on the spur to the plant.

The end of the line and run-around track.  Lots of switching in this small area. 

Overview of the end of the branchline.

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Another busy week coming up and a major upgrade to the layout room!

Looking at this coming week, modeling is going to take a back seat.  It seems that I have something to do every night this week.  Between 2 football games, 2 little league ball games and practices, free time will be nonexistent.  I hoped to get back into the modeling grind this week, but this past week was also busy.  Guess I will have to get modeling in in small increments!  I have no major projects for the Midland for this winter, but I will start to figure out where scenery will begin on the lower level.  St. Just is a good starting point and I may do a tweek in the trackage there to hide the helix hole.  This will extend the run-around track and I will widen the area right above my desk.  This will give me a chance to add trees to block the "hole in the wall".

I also purchased some laminate flooring for the layout room.  The carpet in the office has ran it's course so it needs to go.  This is the same flooring my wife and I installed in our family/TV room this summer.  It holds up well and is scratch resistant.  It should not take too longer to install but the hard part will be putting it under the layout legs. I may remove them or jack them up a bit.  It should look and do well in the layout room as long as I don't have any more leaks.

Here's the hole to the garage and the helix.  No easy way to hide it from view.  The plan is to widen this area and put some trees in the foreground to hopefully hide it.

I may remove this curved turnout and extend the runaround track to the right, making it bigger.

Mainline on the right, Mine run branch on the left.  Putting the turnout down here would make this runaround track more worth while.

There is the propane turnout in the same area but this will stay in the same area.

This Traffic Master laminate flooring has done great in our family room.  I chose a lighter color for the layout room so it will match our foyer flooring.

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