This picture is taken on July 23, 1999. If you look closely and compare it with the previous one you will notice that the room is different.
In the summer of 1998 we moved from Almere in the Netherlands to Lisle (a suburb of Chicago) in the USA. Not much was done on the layout in early 1998 and later it was disassembled. The moving company did a great job by packing everything together. By the time it arrived in the new house it only took about a hour to get the trains running again.

Early 1999 was used to finish the roundhouse. With parts of the Pola kit and Evergreen parts the model was finished. I also figured out who to get the doors powered with the Tortoise switch motors.

The rest of 1999 was used to get the platforms ready and to finish up the mountain. Also the catenary portals were built.

With a little bit more room than in the Netherlands I could extend my layout a little bit. I always liked to idea of staging yards. After a lot of thinking and drawing I came to the conclusion that a helix would do the trick. The helix would lead to two staging yards. One staging yard will represent the North of Dombås (in the direction of Trondheim), this staging yard has been named "Trondheim". The other staging yard, which hasn't been built yet, will serve as an Åndalsnes replacement. On top of the helix and the "Trondheim" staging yard I could build a reversing loop to represent the south of Dombås, the look has been named "Dovre", a city south of Dombås.

This picture shows the helix during its construction in the spring of 2000.

Another picture update, this one is taken in the spring of 2000. It shows the, almost finished, catenary. I've built the portals myself, the wires are Sommerfeldt.

Another perspective, gives an idea how the layout fits in the room. In the front the Dombås modules, in the back the helix with reverse loop and factory.

Another Dombås overview, this picture was taken in January 2002.