Preparing fascia for toggle switches

Before I could wire the switch machines I needed somewhere to put he toggle switches. In turn meaning I needed a fascia.

I used hardboard for the fascia. Fortunately I had a few strips left over from when I did the fascia for the previous layout. I started by clamping the hardboard to the bench work. With a pencil I then traced the terrain contour on the back of the hardboard. I removed the hardboard strips and cut them along the pencil trace, and clamped them back again. This is a picture of the progress at that point.

To make things more convenient while I worked along I flipped the whole layout over, letting it rest on its back. I marked the locations of the toggle switches, and then drilled pilot wholes right through both the fascia  hardboard and the bench work.

With the fascia once again removed I then drilled larger holes in the bench work, using the pilot holes to find the proper location for each hole. The holes are large enough to contain the toggle switches.

To avoid damaging the switch machines and wiring when the drill bit eventually came through, I clamped an extra piece of wood "below", as can be seen above. I could then stop drilling when I reached into that piece and avoid to falling through with a bang.

Making these large holes turned out to me a rather messy affair.

But when all the sahavings had been cleaned away it all looked rather neat.

Then it was time to put the fascia back for good, after I had enlarged the pilot holes so that the toggle switches would fit. Here CNW 1316 is posing above a newly test installed toggle switch.

While I was doing the fascia I took the opportunity to expand the layout at one end. The bench work for this layout has been taken from my previous layout, after having been cut down to make it less deep. But the backdrop at one end is still sized after the old layout depth. So now I made a small extension. Like this.

And then letting the fascia curve out like this.

I want the main line, that runs along the edge of the layout, to not just come to a dead end at the backdrop. The extension will help me build some kind of structure or building that the tracks can disappear under. Or something else like that... Anyway, I think the extension, small as it is, will come in handy.