Thank you. Duluth has a nice setup with the museum and train ride, same with Osceola. Good amount of heritage railroads here. Iain

Thanks, I certainly hope so! Iain

He's alright, I'll give him that ;) And yes, the railway museum in Duluth is awesome. I've done a couple of the train rides, too, and can highly recommend a visit. Iain

Thanks, Anthony! It's great to finally have accomplished building a large chunk of the benchwork so it feels like something is taking shape. Iain

Thank you! I'm happy with how the benchwork came together, and it gives me a solid start to continue building on. Iain

Thanks, it definitely helped to have some cheap labor! Thanks for following along. Iain

Thank you! It was quite an effort, but a solid start to build the rest of the layout on now. Thanks for following along. Iain

Thanks! I'm happy with how it all took shape. Iain

Thanks! I'm slowly making decent progress. Iain

Thank you! I am lucky to have the space that I do, and it's quite a step up from the space I had for my previous layout. Thanks for following along. Iain

Thank you! Hopefully I haven't bitten off my more than I can chew! Iain

@@gncascadedivision You can always make changes with the way you are doing it. Go Big or Go Home !!!!

Hah, absolutely! Worst case, I have to scale it back. Way better than the usual problem of always wanting to expand half way through :)

@@gncascadedivision I agree totally !!

Thanks! I'm looking forward to continuing to make more progress this year. Iain

Thanks, William! I've been making a little more progress on additional benchwork, so will share another video soon. Iain

@@gncascadedivision I'm anxiously waiting to see what more you've got done. I like to follow layout builds of the benchwork, track, and scenery. Not real big on watching the wiring process but most everything else I enjoy. How wide is your room there where the layout is? I plan on building a 3 level ho scale layout myself. I think the heights you used might be close to how I do my levels so seeing that and the explanation you gave on the heights between the levels was interesting. I built a building in my yard especially for a layout that's 14'×24' with a 10'×10' on the long left side at the front corner. Inside there at that corner is a 5'×5' closet. The 10'×10' floor level is lower than the bigger part of the building making it waist high when standing in the smaller part. I'm going to put half a helix in the closet and half in the small building along with the staging yard that will come off the top level. I'm putting my work bench and storage in the small building and just cut out a wall section like a 2'×4' window. I'm financially recovering from the cost of the building right now so it will be a year or two before I can start the layout. In the mean time I am building structures, the old wooden freight car kits where you got a box of sticks, and vehicles all to go on the layout one day.

My basement is 38ft along the back wall, then 13ft wide on the window-side wall opening up to 16ft wide on the opposite side. Everything in model railroading is a compromise, and you have to make down with the dimensions of the space you have - this wasn't the orientation and dimensions I wanted / expected, but here we are, so I'm making it work the best I can. It sounds like you have a solid plan for how you want to arrange things on your upcoming layout. Triple deck in HO is just as doable as what I'm doing in N scale, just pay attention to the radius of your curves and it'll be fine. Most of my dimensions are overkill for N and would likely work in HO, but it means I'll have very broad curves and plenty of deck separation to improve the aesthetics. Iain

Yep, that would definitely work. I've seen layouts like that. Especially if you're potentially wanting different heights of decks, makes sense. I know / knew both sides were going to be the same height, so this made more sense, and makes it a little more rigid. Good luck with your layout build! Iain

Yes, eventually I'll add 45-degree supports to all the legs. For now, it works fine, and the benchwork is pretty solid. The additional supports would more be for people walking around when running trains and inevitably bumping into the legs. There won't be much structure down, it'll mostly all be left open for storage. I plan on adding just cloth skirts / drapes to cover all that. Iain

Yes, the tunnels were very impressive, especially for the time. I can't imagine those switchbacks in winter! The original and then replacement tunnels were quite the undertaking. Honestly, the whole route through the Cascades, by all the roads, is impressive for 130 years or so ago. Hopefully I can do it justice in model form! Iain

Yes, that's the one, because the majority of people will have no idea if I just say St. Paul :) Sadly, they're one of the few model stores left in the area, it seems. The Duluth area is definitely very cool. I've gone a couple of times now, and there's a lot going in terms of railroading and history. I'd like to get more into the iron ore ranges and explore. Maybe this summer. Iain

Man I love that store!

Thanks. I've made decent progress on it now, and hoping to continue that in the coming months. Iain

Sorry to hear about all your trials and tribulations over the years! Hopefully you've gotten to enjoy at least some of the basement layouts. General consensus is that you build all the benchwork for multi-deck layout at the same time, and then start on track. Typically even do the wiring, backdrop placement, lighting, fascia, etc. (which is the approach I'm mostly taking). Then, you start from the top deck and work downwards so you minimize risk to any track work or scenery already in place. Not an exact science, and it's likely I'll jump around on parts of the layout to keep things interesting for me, but I don't think I've seen / heard of anyone building individual decks and track before building the next week unless they were making an addition that wasn't originally planned. Iain

Yes, we moved to Minneapolis from Seattle a little over a year ago. This basement was the compromise / bargain in getting me to move here! Iain

@@gncascadedivision I live in Plymouth MN and I’m a n scale modeler as well!!!! I would definitely like to connect and talk trains.

Awesome! There don't seem to be as many N scale modelers here as in Seattle. Most of the local shows seem focused on HO or larger. You can email gncascadedivision at gmail dot .com

I would expect nothing less.

You are more than welcome to mute the sound or just fuck right off.

Doesn't seem like it.

Thanks. HO can also look great in a large area! All the best with your layout. Iain