There used to be an empty basement here.........

I figured I'd start by showing some photos of the beginnings of the layout, not long after I moved in during 2002 for my second post.

I was not one for "properly" preparing the room (at least as far as the hobby press and so-called hobby masters will tell you that you need to do) to be ready with sheetrocked walls, suspended ceilings, masonite backdrops, and recessed lighting (of the proper light type, mind you). I DID however, paint the floor, fill any divots in the poured concrete, and water seal the lower half of the walls before any benchwork went up - And that was because my girlfriend said I had to! I wanted "minimalist" benchwork, and for it to go up quickly - I wasn't going to need to stand on it, so it didn't need to support me, and I wanted it done inexpensively and somewhat modularly, in case I ever need to take it apart. I think I have somewhat achieved that through the use of expaned foam (instead of plywood, OSB or Homasote), and a lot of trial and error......

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let the photos do the talking, and then follow up on them if there are questions or things aren't too obvious.

Here's the right side of the room after painting. As you can see, I started right away using scap wood to lay out a footprint, though this was far from accurate. I never did develop a "real" track plan, though I did plot out the table to scale on graph paper. I knew I had a finite amount of room (11 ft wide by 20 ft long), so I made the railroad fit within those constraints. I am lucky enough to have track maps (Sanborn and RR-issued valuation) for this area, so I knew where the tracks were, even if I couldn't fit them all in. I wanted to focus on the main yard and the junction (but we'll cover that in future posts).

Benchwork as basic as it gets! 1/4 inch Luan on top of 1x2 and 2x2 framing. In some spots, this got very convoluted as things went along. (in my defense, this was my first solo benchwork experience, and done without any input, so I take full responsibility!) In some spots, it got so bad, I call it "Frankenlayout"!

Here we are, turning to our left, looking down the length of the main LVRR yard from the back of the layout. This view is now blocked by a backdrop (a future post). Of special note is the overhead cabinet/valence I also designed into the layout (and yet another post!).

And for now, last but not least, a sea of pink! As I said above, the entire layout is covered by it, with the track laid directly upon it. Since this was all yard/industrial trackage, there was no need for ballast/roadbed profiles. To save money on buying turnouts I wouldn't need (though in the end, I still did!), I made photo copies to see what would fit. In the view taken here (about 5 years ago), the trackwork is still pretty much the same, though it has been re-aligned about four times since then! This view is also taken from the opposite direct as the last one, looking "railroad west", with the backdrop now in place.

Well, I know this has been a lengthy post, so I'll stop here. I have probably generated more questions than answers, but I'll get to them!