Have you checked out...

Tony Koester's latest book on double-deck layouts?  I know you'll get good advice here, but I'll bet that would be a good read.

yes I own tony's book and

yes I own tony's book and have read alot of it but really didn't notice anthing about starting on upper or lower. Guess I need to stop skimming through books!!!

What can or can't you reach?

Multi decks suck when building them because if you build the top deck first (so it's easy to do the wiring underneath it) then it's hard to lay track on the lower deck (especially if the lower deck is wide).

But doing the lower deck first will give you cricks in the back when wiring the upper deck.

What's a guy to do?

My answer in Oakhill was to build the lower deck benchwork first but the upper deck was built using a set of joists cantilevered out from the walls. I used relatively narrow roadbed for the upper deck tracks. I didn't however add a fascia and solid ground scenery to the upper deck until the track wiring and lighting for the lower deck was all installed. This let me come in from the side instead of trying to scrootch (is that a word? but I think it describes the process) in between the two decks.  Scenery is happening on the top deck first to avoid needing to constantly mask or use drop clothes over finished scenery on the lower deck.

The peninsula on the bare creek is another issue entirely. There are two fairly deep staging yards down there and I'm not terribly interested in installing track on a 36" deck with a 50" deck (about 4 or 5" thick) above it. But I'm most certainly not interested in wiring track and installing turnout controllers on the top deck with the lower deck in place! So, I'm gonna try doing something a little different. The upper deck in these spots will have the Bear Creek Yard in one area and the East Creek switching district in the other. Both of these will be built on plywood. I think I'll cut out the plywood, install it, draw track center lines on it, install turnouts on it, but then remove the plywood in segments to deal with feeder wires and switch controllers. Don't know how well this will work but I guess it's worth a try.

Oh well...

Charlie

Thanks Charlie! I don't have

Thanks Charlie! I don't have wide tops on the upper or lower in this first room the wide tables will be in room #2 so, I think I will build all the bench & track work on both levels and wire up everything then scenic up the two levels last. thanks for the help guys and if anybody else has 2 cents to through in it will help!

Build from the top down

Much of the Sudbury Division is dual level.  We generally try to build the top level up to the trackwork stage first and then build the level below.  This is partially because we install lights under the top deck to illuminate the lower deck and it's easier to run the wiring before the lower lights are installed.  On our newest sections, though, the electrician has been getting ahead of the trackwork so we will have to work around the lights.  As Charlie mentioned, it's also better to do the scenic work on the top level first so that you don't slop on finished scenery below.

One thing which helps with wiring the upper (and lower, for that matter) decks is to consider running the wiring to the front of the fascia instead of below the deck.  On our newer sections we are installing access panels in the fascia to get at tortoises and other wiring so that we can maintain critical components more easily.  From these junction points we drop the buss wires down behind the backdrop to electrial cabinets below the lower deck which act as junction boxes where we also house circuit protectors and detection circuits, etc.   They also feature banks of labeled toggle switches which we use for isolating tracks for trouble shooting or making repairs to tracks while the DCC system is on.  Our tortoises are being installed on special sideways mounts with quick disconnect straps and wiring harnasses so they can be removed and replaced quckly and fit between the base of the shelf and the top of the scenery more easily.  We're still developing the details of this procedure, but should have it all worked out by the time we finish building Romford (our current project).

Careful planning and taking the time to make things reliable and servicable later are certainly worth the effort when building dual levels, or even when you aren't, for that matter.

On the Siskiyou Line ...

On the Siskiyou Line (for the most part), I built the bare benchwork for the lower level first, then built the bare benchwork for the upper level. As I built the benchwork for the upper deck, I installed the lighting (both upper and lower decks) so I could see what I was doing on the decks. Also I installed the backdrop for the decks as I built the benchwork.

Next, I installed the trackwork and wiring on the lower deck, then trackwork and wiring on the upper deck. A bit of the trackwork on the lower deck remains to be done, however.

Once everything (mostly) was in and running ok with regards to track and wiring, I went back and installed all the fascia. Having the backdrop and fascia even on bare benchwork makes the layout look much nicer.

I then moved to doing the scenery on the upper deck. This is messy work, so you need to cover the lower deck to prevent a mess dripping to onto it. Finally, I do the scenery on the lower deck last. I still have a lot of lower deck scenery to do.

Thanks for all your experence & advice on Multi-Deck RR's

Thanks for the insite to working from the top down. I'll do just that. I plan to build all the bench work first then work from there, it will be all from the top down