Adjusting the line

So after riding on the line with the new engine I can spot a bunch of  mistakes, this turn in particular was too sharp and many of the gaps between the rails were too big.  This was causing frequent derailments.  I decided to desharpen the curve so moved over the brick edge (luckily I had just set them on the ground and they weren't cemented down.)  Then I disconnected one end of the rail, loosened up the ties and made the curve more gentle.  I had to cute off about 8 inches of rail on both sides and redrill holes for the rail joiners, the drilling jig from Real Trains made this very simple to do in the field.  At the same time I closed down the gaps in between the rails.

Here is the corrected and reballasted curve.  The train runs much better on it.  I've built up the ballast some but the gradient is still too much.  I'm going to raise the line at least another 6 inches with more ballast, just a few more dozen trips to the stone yard with the minivan.  When all is right I'll move the other brick line over to keep it even looking.  Proper planning would have avoided the need for this adjustment so learn from my mistakes.  Now I can ride the full 170 feet of track that is down.  So the next step is to finish the last 50 feet of line before I get to the last 30 feet the will require alot of fill and a larger bridge.