I started building Sweethome Alabama exactly 2 years ago and have now reached the stage where the trackwork, electrics and scenery are pretty much complete, so much so that I have accepted an invite to attend a Model Railway exhibition in November.

I now have to concentrate on detailling and weathering the rolling stock which will run on the layout. Initially, the locomotives will be examples from CSX and Norfolk Southern, which ran in the 1990s and early 2000s, although I want to introduce some Alabama shortline Geeps, as time permits.

Been working (slowly) on a 23"x41" n-scale layout based on the cannery industry along the Columbia River (Oregon) in the early 1900s.

Thought I'd share some construction picts since its start at the beginning of the year.
[The full play-by-play can be found here]

I am curious: being in the beginning of a return to the hobby after so many years away I am noticing some significant differences in the themes and equipment for most of the layouts I see here and in other sites.  20 years ago, steam was king.  Logging and narrow gage were big. Western settings predominated. Model-building and kitbashing were proud occupations and talents.

Today, from what I can see, contemporary era East Coast and Mid-West diesel operations are the norm. Equipment is ready-to-run from the box.

Just messing around with some old 360 software and I created a 360 view of the train room.  Go to the link below and click on "Alcove 360".  It takes a few seconds to load.  Once loaded click & drag left or right to see the room-  you can also zoom in and out using the controls on the player.  Here's the link to my website with the 360 view

http://richlawnrailroad.com/?page_id=46

UPDATE - I just noticed the two story trestle!  A little "oops" with the software!

Rick