As Bigkid said, it would be nice to incorporate all kinds of things in a layout, but in a room 130 square feet, there is only so much one can do. Someone asked me on as an aside on an offline email if I had decided on a plan yet. I thought I should check back in, and make clear what plan I have in mind.
That said, I quite probably won't be able to get all the staging tracks in under the upper level (Yard in purple near the top of the drawing. I may need to do as John C suggested having some kind of roll out shelves or cassettes to keep cars on. That can be worked out later. The purple tracks are at the 0" level, the pink tracks are the 3.3% grade, and the yellow tracks are at the 8" level. I have most of the track purchased, GarGraves with Ross switches. I need to buy 4 more switches, not counting the possible yard I mentioned above. I have some of the wood needed to build, but not enough yet to really start. The top of the benchwork for the lower level will be somewhere in the 40 to 48" range. I hope to be starting construction this fall after all the leaf cleanup and mowing is done. I want to put in another trak light fixture, that I have in the box in the corner first. Once we get there, I'll start a new build topic.
I haven't gotten very much more done with my diorama either. Here is an updated photograph on that. It is sitting on a child's play table my wife got at the thrift store recently. She is a wishful thinker that we may have grandchildren someday, so we have all kinds of stuff that has come from the thrift store.
