Getting Started

It had been a while since I ordered any track, so when I went to Reynauld's site and found Marklin "8510 Z TRK
5-3/4 R. 45 PK/10" selling for $3.29 I didn't think anything and ordered (so I thought) 3 packages of 10 tracks. It wasn't until I noticed someone on eBay with a bid of over $15 for a package of 10 tracks that I checked with Reynauld's and found that "PK/10" meant that the track comes in packages of 10 but the price was for a single piece of track. When my order arrived I had, indeed, just three pieces of track. So when I found packages of 10 pieces of track advertised for $27.98 at ajckids I ordered three boxes. (I have since realized that I really didn't need three boxes of track!)

By the last week of September 2008, everything on order had arrived and I had to think of some new reason to procrastinate. I couldn't, so I installed the two phone jacks in the suitcase.

Because of the fabric lining, I smeared some Beacon Adhesives company "Fabri-Tac" fabric glue on the fabric to hold it to the cardboard between it and the suitcase wall and to stiffen it. After it had dried, I held a block of scrap wood against it and drilled holes from the outside of the suitcase. As with earlier layouts, I drilled a 3/32-inch lead hole, then enlarged it with a 1/4-inch bit. The suitcase walls were nearly 1/2-inch thick wood, so I had to use my 1/2-inch Forstner bit to enlarge the holes in the inside of the wall so that the phone jacks threads would extend outside far enough to screw on the nuts to hold them in place.

Looking at the lining I noticed that it was a little smaller than the inside dimensions of the suitcase so that did not fit tightly against the corners. I was concerned that it might be difficult getting the foam for the "ground" to fit properly. So, after thinking about it overnight, I removed the lining from the bottom half of the suitcase. This exposed wedge-shaped pieces of wood that mean that I'll have to cut the foam a little smaller than the inside dimensions of the suitcase.