NTS&B Water feature almost finished

I had painted the bay area in October of last year, and now am finally getting around to pouring the simulated water.  I had heard good things about a product called  'Quick Water for Silks" which is used for fake flower arrangements.  I bought 4 kits at Michaels at 1/2 off, so thought I had enough to finish it.  I poured the first 2 kits on the first layer.  According to the directions, it was to harden in 4 to 8 hours.  After about 3 days, it was still extremely tacky.  After doing some research on line, I found an entry that it took this person 4 or 5 days for it the surface to harden fully, and the 'water' was the result was like a

'super ball'.  It also recommended adding a couple drops of paint for a more realistic look.  I mixed the next 2 kits with a couple drops of blue, and wished I hadn't.  The blue made the water more cloudy than I liked, so you couldn't see all of the detail I had painted on the bottom.   It also recommended that it be covered with cardboard while drying, to keep dust and stuff from sticking to it.  After day two, I put a piece of cardboard on it, which sagged and touched, and instantly boded itself to the surface.  I had to literally dig the cardboard out of the water, which made it a mess.   So then I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited for about a week, and the tackiness never did go away.  So then I decided I had to come up with plan B.  I went back to Michaels and bought a kit of Enviro Tex Life Pour-On High Gloss Finish.  This finally hardened to the touch after about 8 hours. The next day, it was totally cured.  All told, I have about $46 in water products. Below are pictures of a sample of both products, and the steps along the way to create the bay.

Item on left is Quick Water with a couple drops of blue paint in it.  It is still somewhat tacky after about three weeks.  The one on the right is the EnviroTex from the bottom of the mixing cup. Unfortunately I had thrown a tissue in the cup, which is now encased in the EnviroTex.

I started out by painting the plywood a mix of blue and black paint to simulate shallow and deep water. 

Quick Water and EnviroTex water poured.  The couple drops of blue in the Quick Water made it cloudy, so a lot of detail in the painted plywood was lost.

Finished (almost) scene with boats and people.  I also bought some Woodland Scenes Water Effect a long time ago, that I want use to try to make waves around the boats.  Maybe in a few weeks.

NTS&B Debug power ammeter added

I have had multiple problems with transformer breakers dropping out at too low of a current.  I therefore decided to add a 10 amp ammeter to the layout.  I also purchased a 15 amp one in case 10 amps was not high enough.  I didn't want to add a meter to every track, so I decided it to add it to the debug track instead.  That way I could switch in the debug track, and know exactly how much current a curtain train was pulling.   I wanted it easily visible, so I mounted it with the mainline control panel. Here is what the mounted meter looks like.

NTS&B Mainline turnout and yard power finished

Now that I have all of the mainline yard track positions finalized,  I can finish up the power to the new end of the yard, as well as the switch track motors and panel control buttons.  I have all of the switch tracks installed, except for 1, which I still need to purchase.  Here is a picture of the new controls. The buttons on the left control the switch tracks on the left (shop) end of the yard, and the ones on the right control the right (by outside door) end of the yard.  The green switches in the middle control the track power to each siding in the yard.