Construction continues on the Henderson Building. Since the last post all cutting, fitting, filling, painting, mortar lines, and weathering on the outside have been completed. I've also added the interior window treatment and I'm presently working on the lighting (thus the wire hanging out)

My latest kitbash project for the Hoovertown expansion is The Henderson Building named after my sister and family. It is a combination of Bachmann's Ambassador Hotel and Walther's Merchant's Row II. Actually, it is mainly the Ambassador Hotel as the only parts I'm using from the Walther's kit is the ground floor retail front and the very top cap.

Here's the Walther's kit after I cut the sections out that I will use.

Have you ever wanted video for your layout from the train's view but didn't want to set up one of the wireless camera transmitter / receiver sets?  I have one of the wireless sets; however, I receive interference (I believe from my neighbor's computer router) and the picture has annoying static and horizontal lines.

Recently I did a "show & tell" of my homemade static grass applicator at the Piedmont meeting (NMRA). I wanted to show what the device could do, so I created a little diorama using my 2 story farmhouse (by AMB) that I had previously built. This structure will probably occupy the residential district of Hoovertown that is presently under construction.

I've finally started to do the residential area behind the Hoovertown business district.  As with the business district I want to do the work off the layout, so the first step is to make a removable support structure.  Once the support structure is completed, I'll remove it from the layout and place it on my work table to add the streets, landscape, structures, etc.

I'm finishing up my latest wood structure kit - this one is by Mountaineer Precision Products (Kit #1) called "Historic Little Blue House - LaGrange, Kentucky". It's based on a real structure that is still standing in Kentucky. As you can see I didn't finish it in blue. I usually don't finish a structure in the same color as the kit shows and I prefer gold for this kit.
 

Last Friday was my night to host the guys from our operating group and although we only had a total of four of us, we got a great deal accomplished.  Since we were mainly working in the small area of the train room alcove expansion it worked out better having fewer people.  In the background you can see the two coved corners.  Keith is installing drywall along with help from Paul and Steve.  The door way on the right will be framed in and covered with drywall.  The track in the foreground will be removed and possibly reused ouside of the train room as a temporary re

I grew up in Louisville, Ky in a little 6th class city called "Richlawn" (thus the name of my model railroad).  My last visit home I took many pictures of my boyhood home (with the owners's permission & blessing) and now I plan on constructiing a scratch build of the home & garage.  Here's the front of the home as it appears today:

Here's some detail on a closeup of the front porch area:

I volunteer for the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway http://brscenic.com/ as a car host and on a recent trip to McCaysville / CopperHill, TN I was looking at an old building in town that had some windows that had been bricked in.  Here's a photo of the building:

First, let me apologize for the fuzzy layout picture - a result of my capture process.  I'm looking for advice on layout construction, but specifically on how to build my expansion (which will be single deck) to allow for easy double decking later on if the need arises.  For the diagram below the red & blue lines (and supporting benchwork) would represent the expansion.  Regarding double decking I know that along the walls I can easily add a second deck by using brackets off of the wall.  My main question is how do I support a second deck for areas that aren't along