5/15/15
Now that I've been able figure out just how much space I can use, a frame has been assembled and the deck has been cut to size its time to start the fun part. Fitting models and planning infrastructure. I used a large sheet of paper to make erasing changes easier till I find a plan I'm happy with then transferred some rough street and sidewalk limits to the deck using a pencil. Many times in the past I've used a thin micron pen or sharpie to do planning but that can make it confusing later when cutting and easier to make mistakes. I've found it easiest to just run over only the line you want to cut with a marker one at a time so that you can see it better. The smaller structures are very easy to move around and modify to fit in the spaces available once streets and rails are in but the new larger structures I've acquired, I feel its best to put them together with tape and try to see where they can fit.
In order to fugure where I stand with available space for the deck I needed to make cuts and install the lower deck for the lower train level. Once that part was cut and glued in place along the front I installed cork and rail because it would be difficult to install it once the deck was fixed to the frame.
Once I was happy with the rail placement on the part of the lower deck that would be visible, I started on the 75% of the rail you will never see! Its a bit of extra work but it will allow me to give the effect of more realistically longer trains in a small space. The only other option (which I also tested) was two reversing units and I could only fit 1 modern era locomotive and two cars.
I have also kept working on the future T Green line train rails which will need to go in before the top deck can get fixed in place.
