A little background...I have always been partial to the CNJ/JERSEY CENTRAL LINES railroad since a little boy. My uncle Mike and his father Mike (my grandpa) were CNJ men working the Marine Department - tugboats in NY harbor. I spent many weekend afternoons cruising up and down the Hudson River playing tugboat captain in the wheelhouse or blowing the steam whistle on CNJ ferryboats. The CNJ four track mainline ran past my childhood backyard. I commuted on the CNJ ferries to school in NYC and rode every CNJ passenger train I could. During college I started working in CNJ tower service and years later left train service as a CONRAIL (former CNJ territory) freight road/yard conductor. After putting in my papers at the Railroad Retirement Board office in Newark, NJ...my trip home was on a NJT passenger train pulled by a former CNJ GP-40P locomotive!
Because my 3-rail CNJ is now operational (as of 12-11-2020...but still not complete), I feel that this posting is perhaps the best way to thank all my train friends (CNJ Bill, Corsair 29, O-HO Bob, Mark and Steve B./Joe B 'the twins') who helped and still are helping... 
...but especially my best friend HO Bob who recently passed and was the prime 'contractor' working with me nearly every day for almost 5 years. Miss 'ya alot Bob.
With knowledge and familiarity of the CNJ, I had always wanted to build a true 3-rail o-gauge 4-track mainline layout for fun and realistic operation. In the planning stage for quite a few years (without any written down track plan)...and after a triple by-pass in 2018, my wife Susie said..."Walter go build your layout". Boy I love that girl! We met in kindergarten grade school and are now married 53 years with children and grandchildren.
With advance apologies to all on the OGR Forum...let's get started...All Aboard!
When planning our home, the basement became 'train territory' for me. Pre-planning allowed all support machinery - furnace-well/water supply tank-heating/AC/piping-electric panels to be centrally located in a machinery room. This way there was no obstructions that would impede the trains.
Getting the train room ready starting in 2015, I wanted to have all the prep work done before/whenever the layout construction started. The walls were completely finished with 1/2" plywood overall and then 'rocked' floor to ceiling followed by painting sky blue all around. The main layout wall corners were rounded and the ceiling was dropped to 9' clear so no pipes or ductwork intruded. 64 LED dim-able hi-hat lights were installed into the black ceiling along with AC ducts and security system + fire alarms. 4-gang 20 amp outlet wiring was every 6 feet or so and separated into 5 groups all connected to wall switches that allowed all basement electricity to lights and wall outlets to be completely shut off when done running trains.
Got the tiles on Craigslist but still had to spray paint them all black!
After the walls were painted...sky blue around the layout area and tan in common areas...and the ceiling and electrical work was done...it was time to finish the wall molding and trim.
After many years of planning and work on February 23, 2018...the first CNJ train item was unboxed and placed onto the wall. The BIG Little Railroad layout construction has begun!
About a month later I was in the hospital getting an unplanned triple bypass!
To be continued...
The rounded corners show a high level of detail awareness, cool touch. 
