"She got legs"

as the boys from ZZ Top would say.
A productive, if slow, evening in a rather cold & damp garage. T-nuts fitted to the bottom of the legs, and the height adjusting screws fitted, along with wing nuts to function as lock nuts without the use of a spanner, an idea from a Model Railroader special issue I was perusing recently.

 

Once these were complete, I manhandled the layout off the saw horses where it has resided for nearly eight years, and clamped on the first pair of legs, preparatory to drilling for the 1/4" carriage bolts. Once these were on, the whole lot was flipped over to attach the other pair.

 

I then moved on to the front diagonal braces & gussets, at which point I struck the first unanticipated problem. The hand-holds cut into the original baseboard frame work were smack bang where the braces were supposed to attach.

Two options - make longer braces to move them away from the hand holds, or live with it. I chose the latter, as there is plenty of room to lift anywhere along the edges, and I didn't feel like dis-assembling another of the Yabbie Creek trestles tonight.
After clamping the gussets in place, it took a long time to mark them out, pilot drill and countersink. I could probably have made do with only five screws on each, but there will be a fair bit of torque on them during moves, so I stuck with nine.

After a couple of late nights, I called it quits once the first pair was on. Finish the others tomorrow, then tackle the end braces.
If you're wondering what the large black circle on the underside of the baseboard is ... it's the mark left by the second spare tyre I carried on the roof of the VK when Steve Howard & I travelled to Port Augusta via Murwillumbah to avoid the Sydney 2000 broo-ha-ha. The sheet of 3/4" yellow tongue ply also provided a handy platform to assist in the railway photographer's endless quest for altitude. Refer to the December 2000 instalment of "Operation Bulldog - Bulldog Marathon" in RD, and my shot of Steve atop the car at Yorkey's Crossing, accompanying the "Through the Lens" article by Ken Date in the same issue.
Cheers for now.