Who cut that Plywood?

After getting the first cork onto the layout, I realized that I needed to address the inner track which rises above the base to the second level. It starts at the Albany yard, goes inside the back track (to staging), in front of a to-be-installed inner backdrop/mountain to the lumber mill at Mill City (7 inches above base level).

My original idea was to use strips of masonite to raise the elevation. On further review, that was going to be a non-starter as I still would need some type of subroadbed on top of it, and since the elevation shown in the photo is only 1 inch at the end, it didn't make sense.

Next, I thought I would use my jigsaw to cut along the sides of the curve, making a cookie-cutter design. While I don't like cookie-cutter usually, here it made sense. However, instead of using my jigsaw, I decided to use my RotoZip. I wouldn't need to drill starting holes for the blade and would not have a lot of vibration on the layout. It does still throw a lot of dust but that was going to happen anyway.

Once I got the cut made (and it's not as pretty as a jigsaw cut might have been but it will be covered anyway), I had to fashion supports to elevate the track to the proper height at various locations. I only had 4 indicated on the design, but I interpolated and obtained 11 over about a 6-foot length.

The support bases were made from 2-inch wide pieces of 1x4 with various materials, ranging from 1x2 to masonite strips to cardboard strips, comprising the riser portion. It was a lot of fun deterring what had to be used where. In a couple of places, some of each material were used to make the correct height. After screwing them to the bottom of the layout with 1-inch wood screws, I used the 1-1/4 inch trim screws to anchor the roadbed to the support.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the layout, I continued to lay as much cork as possible, leaving gaps for the turnouts that I still need to build. I seem to have about 85 feet down now with lots more to go.

The paint can in the photo background is an earth tone for painting the plywood between tracks. It will remove the plywood look until I get actual scenery done. I will be painting the wood between the rear track to staging and the backdrop first so I don't have to get in there later after I've installed track in the front of it.