I actually finished constructing the Kato Test Track Layout some time in November 2020. Originally I was going to finish the layout as the C&S Leadville branch and as you can see from the control panel (which is actually a printout of the track plan created in CADRail) there were to be 3 switching industries, a small yard and a passenger station. I even went as far as to paint the rails and ballast some of the track.

Unfortunately no matter what method I used – and I watched a number of different videos on Ballasting Kato track – I could not satisfactorily hide the Kato plastic simulated ballast. The exercise was useful in my being able to practice different ballasting techniques but by then it became clear that to build the layout up to a semi completed stage would take some months and I would not be able to complete the layout before the home was finished and I could work on my main Denver’s RailRoads layout, after the storage boxes and furniture currently filling up the layout area were removed.

However the layout is an excellent test layout, having two parallel loops of track and a number of sidings.

The layout, as in the following photograph, is set up to test run my 4 newest locomotives and, using a scale speedometer (the Accutrack II – highly recommended), to speed match using CVs 5 and 6. More on speed matching in the next blog.