Fear!

I have the layout room cleared now to the point where I could start benchwork for the new layout but I'm scared to start. Why?  I've been changing the design for the track layout, benchwork and electronic control constantly the past two or three weeks.  I've been "drilling down" into more detail on all of them and finding that either I can make improvements or I need to make corrections. I do have a little more clearing to do. I have one final piece of bench work and some wall boards to take down but that'll only take me an hour or so plus another hour to clean up. 

I've decided not to sheetrock the room but to use lightweight plywood and paint it - way less costly and easier.  In a month, I haven't even managed to get someone to quote on the sheetrock so I don't hold much hope I'd get it done for a reasonable price.  Besides, I don't really want to wait and I can't do the sheetrock myself. There is some framing to be done but Mike and I can do that together and make it look decent.

I also decided not to go so complex with the 110VAC wiring.  The wall socket that's near to where the power cart will be is working now - the GFI was tripped - simple as that.  So I can now plug the power cart in there and I don't have to add a new socket.  I will power the "on Air" warning light from the main track power bus and put a simple LED strip by the room door to warn me if I forgot to turn off the layout power.  I'll leave the lighting circuits the same and have the room light go off when I dim the layout lights. I'll still move the track lighting and improve the quality - vital to how the model railroad looks. 

Isn't it wonderful how removing some requirements simplifies the design!?  This is about trains not about sophisticated electronics, especially the 110VAC  kind.

I overcame my fear somewhat by working on the power cart which is now ready to test.  It's a bit heavier to move around than i wanted but I can take out some of the spare transformers to make it lighter.  The big problem is where to store them.  Once the layout base is put up, there should be space under it but during this initial building phase there won't.  I'll just have to put up with the clutter for now.

I've been debating layout height with myself too. The base height for the prior layout was 54" - high enough to keep kid fingers from doing damage and a good height to view the trains.  Now the kids are grown up, though, and I'm planning to sit a lot of the time while I operate the trains.  The broad consensus I've seen on the internet seems to be 42".  Even that may be too high.  I'll probably decide at the last minute between 40" and 42" but it's going to be somewhere between the two.  I have leg assemblies from the old layout that I can use and they may end up determining what the height will be.

I've also been changing the track layout design.  Not much though.

I've done some more accurate planning of buildings and streets.  I really like the Menards buildings and I've bought a couple more.  They're tall and have large footprints.  This has driven me to use the 3D viewing feature of SCARM to get a sense of whether the layout looks balanced.  I've also been thinking about backdrops and building flats and how to use forced perspective to make the layout look deeper than the average 34"" it truly is. 

So I removed the wye from the right hand reverse curve and just have one switch from it into the staging area now and I've moved some of the other track positions around a bit without changing the layout itself.  I've moved a bunch of buildings around now i have more and I'm more satisfied with the height balance - I'm sure it'll change again!