Then, and now

  FIRST ARE A SERIES OF SHOTS TAKEN IN LATE 2009 AND EARLY 2010 AS THE DOUBLE DECK LAYOUT OF THE MARVELOUS MIDWEST AND THE GREAT RIVER REGION WAS BEING DOWNSIZED AND THEN TAKEN OUT COMPLETELY

Recycled layout, indeed. The notation indicates that this portion was originally built down in Fort Worth TX over twelve years ago.  When we moved to Kansas City in 2000, it was one of the surviving sections (three or four) that made the move in layout "sarcophagus" boxes, and reassembled into the KC double-decker design.

Here's a look at the LONG side of the layout space, not long after I removed the helix and lower levels.  The idea was to retain the upper level as the layout, with staging off to the left behind a backdrop, and then a small crew change town type of situation along the long wall, with a branch taking off in front of the backdrop and going over to the left.

From up on the stairway leading from the front porch landing, this is what greeted you if you descended inside of ascending to the living area.  This pretty much shows the footprint of the double deck layout, with the exception of the area where the helix went, and that's directly in front of the stacked paint cans.  The helix structure started just about where the carpet gives way to the wood floor laminate (in front of the trash bag), and came back towards the photographers' location. The left hand wall of the layout was a bit over 9 feet, the rear wall about 10 and one-half feet, and the right hand wall a bit over 23 feet.

Looking down the shorter of the two "long walls," you can see the two layout levels.  The lower level staging yard, Bensenville, is located to the left of the backdrop, and the upper level staging, Mason City, is above it in behind the backdrop too.  Above Mason City staging was another long shelf of six tracks (dead-end) that was added to increase "on-rail" car capacity of the whole thing.  Kind of a dis-jointed fiddle yard.

Here's looking down the "Bensenville" storage tracks that occupied the shorter wall, behind the backdrop, on the lower layout level.  It was three tracks, each capable of holding a train of about 12 to 13 total feet in length, plenty long enough for me, and matched up the length of the shortest siding on the layout, Clearwater.

One of the scenic breaks on the remaining upper level of the layout was going to be Calmar Creek.  It has a lower deck steel girder bridge on the mainline portion that was in the rear...it snuck into staging in the middle of the picture, and coni\tinued into the town towards the right.  The branch had a wooden trestle. 

NOW, WE MOVE AHEAD TO 2010 AND WHAT'S BEING BUILT IN THE "SPACE DOWNSTAIRS..."

Pay no attention to the man behind all the dust, debris, half-completed projects and unfulfilled dreams of layouts.  This was taken early November, as the outdoor projects for 2010 were just about done, and I could focus indoors, specifically the model railroad.

How serious is the Mighty Oz about getting model railroad progress back in gear in 2011?  Well, we've got the NMRA calender already tacked on the end of the diorama. 

Behind the calender, well, the makings of a layout, diorama, test track or whatever this is going to evolve into!  Where the Bensenville staging and Bluffdale branch was, you can the desk, files, storage drawers, work bench, paint spray booth and lots of crap sitting around.  Let's see....the "benchwork" of this has been in for about 7 or 8 months, he fascia top and bottom temp tacked in place for about 5 months, and just this week, I was starting to install the lighting.

This is the shorter side of the layout, with the workbench, storage bins and shelves and drawers of all types evident, along with the air filter for the spray booth.  Dangling down are the to-be-installed lights for the diorama.  they are also able to be used for hanging cats that didn't learn from their previous destructive run along the previous layout over two years ago that forced me to look at the whole deal down here.

Oh, here's what else occupies the downstairs area.....a medium sized wide screen TV and sound stuff, more drawers for all sorts of model railroading-related stuff, and hey, there's a Wii sitting in the dusty shelf below the screen.