The first fix

I've decided that the next few weeks are going, of necessity, to be a bit boring. Boring, at least, from the pictorial point of view. Before I can lay any track, I need to give the framework and baseboards a "first fix", i.e. a thorough going over to make sure that everything is level, solid and safe. This means countersinking all the trackbed screws, tweaking the levels at the section joins, and fixing the top boards to the frame on the back sections.

Today I began the first-fix process by working on board B1; here is the result:














Comparison with a previous shot of this section in this post shows the new cross-bracing added today, along with the white fix-it blocks that will hold the top board in place. This section is now ready to have its top board added. I want to make the top boards detachable if possible, as I still worry about having to get at the tracks below for cleaning, re-railing or whatever.

It's nice to revisit these back sections, having not done anything with them for several weeks while I've been concentrating on the front sections. I sometimes wonder whether I am merely putting off the track-laying by finding things to do; but all this work is necessary and if I don't do it now, I would have to do it later and that would be much harder.