The revisions and whatnot of building the N-scale BTR to the stage that it is currently at has left me with a small stack of spare wood panels and planks. I couldn't leave them with the layout as the "train room" is just off the front door. Early 21^st Century scrap yard is simply NOT an acceptable style of furnishing the so-called living room. So, in trying to find a suitable place to stick said spare panels, I made a happy discovery....

Eventually I'll launch a blog for this. But I've chosen Andy Sperandeo's San Jacinto District theme and track plan for the new layout. Been acquiring era-appropriate HO scale Santa Fe equipment. And, of course, I've turned my attention to planning and design.

As to the latter, I've enlisted the services of Byron Henderson's LayoutVision.

Right off the bat, let me say that I've built layouts in rooms with overhead incandescent or fluorescent lights, and I've built layouts using the "shadowbox" technique, with the lights hidden behind a valance. Both have their pros and cons.

For the new layout, I'm considering going back to overhead lighting, using T8 fluorescents, 5000K CRI. I'm figuring that for a layout room of 170 square feet (12-6 x 14-8) that seven to eight fixtures of two tubes each should work well with a layout height of 63 inches. It's cost effective and experience shows me that I should get good lighting.