07-18-2009, 11:56 AM
I don't know how I missed this thread! That layout looks perfect for the space you have available! If you wanted to make a removable "fiddle yard" to bring different rolling stock on and off the layout, that harbor on the upper right corner could consist of a tugboat and barge loaded with freight cars on wheeled cart that could be rolled into position to offload freight and load other cars for transport elsewhere. If the car was built 12 - 15 inches lower than the layout with an automobile scissor jack bolted to the top of the cart and the bottom of water scene with tugboat and barge, the scene could be rolled away from the layout and lowered so that it could be stored under the layout when not in use. In fact, if you don't need all of the space under the layout for storage, books, etc, you could put a staging yard on a shelf under the layout to store your extra rolling stock, and service it with the cart. I fact, you could eliminate the cart by mounting the tug and barge on a dumb waiter at the end of the layout transversing between the layout above and the storage/staging yard below.