Staging Yard

Lately, I've been working on the staging yard section of my layout. As the other three sections it's a removable piece that connects together the 'open' ends of the left and right sections. As a 'by-product' it creates also a closed loop for continuous running.
I planned to have four staging tracks with the outermost connecting to the track on Fruitvale Ave. That's the spur for Owen Illinois Auto Parts industry. By the way, I thought to make this piece of track my programming track as well as an operating spur so I need to do a dedicated wiring arrangement  for that track. Still don't know if it's a good idea, though.
Anyway, I started building the plywood sub-roadbed that I strengthened using a piece of L-shaped metal girder, the same type I used for the three layout sections. Then, I put a foldable leg to support the staging and attached nuts and bolts on the two end to join to the left and right sections.
I glued 3/4" foam sheets on top of the plywood and on top I glued a sheet of cork on almost all the staging area.
Finally, I looked for the best track arrangement for the three #6 turnouts on each side of the yard, the yard tracks and the #8 turnout to the programming track.

On the third picture above you can see how I managed to fix the rails on the junction between the yard and the left section. I put a screw through the foam into the plywood and soldered on a piece of PCB tie (the kind I used for turnout throwbars) onto the screw head.
I found this to be quite good as I could set the right height simply turning the screw while at the same time it's much stronger than gluing the ties to the cork roadbed. I think I'm going to use this also for the other junctions even though I'll have to be more careful in aligning rails there.

As a last note I'll put three Atlas re-railers, I purchased quite some time ago, on the first three staging tracks. Maybe I'll add a fourth later on the remaining track in the future.

See you soon...