Peninusla construction finished

Construction on the peninsula is finished. The black areas will be the water locations in Punta Gorda. I tried a new approach for the cork. Rubber cement works great. I installed the backdrop between the foam sections and just glued it in with foam glue. Now I am ready to install the wye leading into Arcadia and the yard tracks emanating from it.

Peninsula is born

The peninsula has been constructed and attached to the wye end of the railroad. The wye will feed the Arcadia yard and the far side will feed the Punta Gorda dock. The next step is to get the floor coverings back in place and then cut and attach the foam and backdrop sections.

Wye staging in service!

This row of palms gives a demarcation between the main layout and the staging stub ended tracks. There are also two double ended staging tracks behind the tank cars. I'm off to Home Depot to buy the lumber for the central peninsula that will be the next phase of construction:)

Scenery has begun!

Actually this was required because the next step is the addition of the central peninsula that will make access to this area more difficult. It was fun working with the palm trees.
The stub ended tracks are for staging and the trees screen the staging area. These few are a test for clearance, many more are on the way.
Some of the grass in this area is spring green that is unfamiliar to us northerners as is shown in the bottom photo.
The peninsula will be approximately 3x8 and contain both the main yard and Punta Gorda port facility. Off to the Home Depot tomorrow for 1x2's.

Lakeland track is done

Lakeland track is finished. The switching should be fun.

Lakeland trackwork

Tracks extend from Wye down into Lakeland.

Track continues through Wye

Track laying continues. The top photo is of the Wye area on the outside end of the room. The upper leg of the wye is installed and the tracks to the rear of it are the staging tracks. I decided to add a couple of stub end tracks to hold either my container train or the soybean oil tank car train. The wye will be the entrance to the main yard in Arcadia. The wye track will be completed when the center peninsula is constructed. Before the peninsula is attached the staging area will be sceniced. 
The photos follow the main and go clockwise around the layout thru Mulberry to the Nichols Phosphate Mine area. 
The next two photos show two future projects. I am about start on the battery power conversion for the locos. The AirWire system I've chosen is DCC based technology and requires the receivers be installed in the loco just like a DCC decoder. The receiver has all the functionality of the DCC decoder in addition to the signal receiving capacity. I'm planning on three powered locos to start. Batteries will be placed in the "slave" units. I have removed the motors from old locos purchased on Ebay for little money and will add the batteries inside the shells. I thought the slave idea was prototypical as the ACC used them extensively.
I purchased a lot of 30 cars on Ebay and this photo shows the ones that need some work. Most need couplers, a few need trucks, and several are either undecorated entirely or data only. Not sure when I will get to these but the ones that just need couplers will be first. I'm thinking I will do a "car project" and weather everything as I repair each car. You can see all the serviceable cars are already on the layout.
The final photo is of the workbench area, already way too full with stuff:)