The "Last" Great Rebuild

So, in August - and being retired now - I decided to tear out and redo the layout.  The biggest change is that the 9' section is now about half that length.  This allowed me to put my painting and modeling table on that wall away from the mid-summer heat of the south wall.  The basic concept is still the same, an upper L-shaped oval that connects with a long tail (with an upper loop reversing section) that drops down to a yard area, an industrial and interchange area and switchbacks into a port area.  Top left of the loop is now where the forest industry area will be, the central area will be farms and farm industry with a farm town in the top right corner.  Middle right of the loop will be the mining area and the lowest part of the right side will be the wilderness area with wooden trestle.

For the wilderness area I am going try something I've not seen done before to my knowledge.  The river canyon will have a modular left and right with two options for each side.  That means there can be several versions of the canyon depending on which left or right is in place.  Could be A/B or C/D or A/D or C/B so four options.  Probably also do some modular bits for the gaps on either side of the river, and perhaps right up to the unchanging river, to add additional options.  The trestle and waterfall behind will be permanent though, again, I might have some small modular pieces to allow even greater variety.  

I plan to carry that concept into most of the layout, having modular areas that can be exchanged to 'change up' an area.  For instance, the forest industry might be a logging area and a saw mill that can be changed up for a furniture factory and a pulp mill.  This is more 'traditional' in the modular permanent layout concept with the intent to allow me to use more of the accumulated structure kits.

The great trepidation is that I've made the 11' section of the layout 3' deep which means the back corners are a bit over 5' deep.  That is great for visual opportunities but going to require some care in track laying and making sure there are access options in case of trouble shooting needs.  It was thinking about that which lead to deciding to go down the modular building path.  It was just sheer inspiration that lead to deciding to do the modular river canyon walls.

There was one other big change - I cut the backdrops in half and am going to repaint them - and hopefully do a better job than what had been in place.  It wasn't bad, I'm just going to shoot for improvement.  I used the cleared wall space to put up some art work and other stuff which some might say clutters the space but I don't care, I wanted it where I can see it and now I can.  (Just wasn't other available wall space in the house!

Photos later when there is more to show than just a blue back drop and bare wood covered in clutter as the project moves along.