If the photos don't work, you can see this here.

This is the story and history of my layout, starting with planning, era, and locale.

My layout started in mid-2017 when I made some test track plans in  SCARM, before deciding on the plan below.

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The sidings where limited based on the amount of turnouts I had and the amount of $$ I wanted to spend on track. The era of the layout was something that took me awhile to decide. I initially decided on the early 2000s, but once I started building the layout, I realized that curves and costs would make that era impractical. I started considering a shelf layout based on the Plattsburgh industrial track on the old air force base(I haven’t given up on the idea, I am starting to build a small layout to display at shows.) I pushed the era to the early 1990’s, But after reading Jim Shaughnessy’s Delaware & Hudson, I finally and firmly decided on the 1960’s to the 1980’s, with 1978 being the anchor year.

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Why 1978? Well, the PA-1s were taken out of Amtrak Adirondack service and pushed into freight service. Paper traffic was high, and pretty much all types of D&H locomotives were in service. I continued to build the track plan above until September 2018, when I moved my 4×8 to the other side of the basement, enabling me to add a 1×12 shelf extension, allowing me to model Champlain Plastics and Rouses Point yard, as well as a four-track staging yard. Around this time I wrote an article for Model Railroader about my track plan, seen below. Schluter Systems is now Georgia Pacific shipping.

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In part 2, I will talk about construction. -Harrison