Getting all of the benchwork and roadbed installed is indeed a major milestone in the process of building a layout. The photo also shows that all of the individual wood ties for the handlaid track is glued down and ballasting is underway.
For me one of the great advantages of handlaying track is that I can ballast before spiking the rails, thus preventing any possibility of gluing turnout points shut. Plus I do enjoy the process of building my own track. The staging yards will use commercial track.
The 2 closeup shots show Courtland and Delhi underway. Courtland is a small rural town which will have the requisite feed mills and freight house along with the station for train orders. Delhi is located in the heart of Ontario tobacco country and as such had a large Imperial Tobacco plant which would be located to the front edge of the layout. At this time I'm only including part of the spurs, but a later date I may build the tobacco plant on a roll away unit.
