I'm No where near done yet!! Here are some photos of the first 12 feet of of my backdrop painting. I have never painted any kind of mural in my life and it's fun but not as easy as they make it look. I have about 5 books on painting Model Railroad Back drops but, just because we buy the books doesn't make us Rembrandt. The mountain on the far left just has to be changed I'm not sure why it came out looking the way it does but the rest in in the early stages and the lower half on the right does seem to be doing OK.

I've Sketched using white pencil Hope you can see it, also the blurry lines are where I erased earlier attempts. also the 2 photos shown were the only 2 of 6 that would show up on camera the white lines I used for sketching the backdrop.

For the past 2 weeks I have been on vacation from work and have spent 6 to 8 hrs every other Day on completing my bench work and getting the homosote as well as my back drop up for my first section of my RR The Ridgway Engine facility. Next I'll paint the back drop and get the Narrow Gauge Yard ready for track.

Hello again

I've been working for the past month on bench work after re-drawing and tearing out the other Bench work I'd Started I have a few Photos of the Bench work my work areas and some of My HOn3 Rolling Stock and Engines as well as supplies laying out ready to be installed. Starting Is a drawing of the first stage in room #1.

For 3 years I planed to build a portion of the D&RGW & the RGS in an area 30ft by 40ft. early this year my new building burned to the ground just before completion (NO RR equipment was lost.)

So until my funds in the stock market are replaced ready Cash in NIL.

Flash I now have changed my whole way of thinking about the RGS. I have an area 26ft X 18ft in the form of 2 rooms and instead of trying to build everything at once I have taken a whole new approach.

Which Level is best to start first?

The Main question is Where to start This RR & it is driving me crazy. I had quit a large amount of my basement Railroad bench work started then I removed all the work I had done when I had everything but the electrical inspection by the city on my joint venture RR building in the back of my main house thinking I would never get the smaller Railroad in my basement as well as the club RR I was trying to start anywhere near finished for under a few thousand dollars I don't happen to have so, I disassembled the basement RR.

Today is March 8th, 2009 after much consideration and reading Tony Koester latest Book "Designing & Building MULTI-DECK Model Railroads" from cover to cover and back again. I have decided to turn a 185 sq ft room into a 370 sq ft room. Well, sort of a 370sq feet it will be a duel level. The first or lower level will be 46in above the floor. The second level will be 16in above the first and will use a 5ft round Helix 5 layer 2.5% grade in the room next to it. I'm considering this as stage one and using only 1/5 of my basement plus the 5X5 foot Helix in the adjoining room.