That's a nice plan and the construction certainly will allow anyone to crawl on it. I like the SCARM plan you had printed out. I printed mine on 8x11 sheets on my inkjet printer. Of course there weren't that many sheets since the layout is only 11x8 with the whole center not printed since it is access. For a garage sized layout, you did it the smart way.
Who did the printing for you? Hoping to do the same. Really looking forward to following your progress.
To JackO,
Thanks for the interest and reply.
The printing was done by an outfit called 'Accent Imaging'. Problem with them is they have only a 30" width so I had to seam 6 sheets. Also, there was no overlap so I had to line the sheets up edge to edge. Difficult to say the least. If you are going to print your layout design 1:1, I suggest finding a printer who has a wider format like 60"+.
DL
To eddie g,
Haha. Unlike so many, we are a one car family.
DL
To Mark,
Thanks Mark. The real work is just beginning.
More photos soon.
DL
To E-UNIT-79,
Thank you.
Planning, planning, planning. Then, work, work, work.
Stay tuned... Much much more to come.
DL
So, did you do this drawing or did you have someone do it and print it?
If you know some 'out-of-work model railroad elves' let me know.
The 'drawing' was generated with SCARM by yours truly. (It has taken many months of planning and re-drawing to get to where it is.) I then exported it to an emf file and ultimately converted it to a digital pdf and sent to a commercial printer. The scale on the first draft print was slightly off so they had to re-scale and re-print it. If anyone out there is thinking of going this route, definitely check the scale of the print when you receive it.
I rolled out the sheets, positioned and seamed them together. I used a piece of masking tape every 2' or so to 'tack' them together. Once it was 'right', I used a quality clear tape to carefully bind the full length seams. If I did it again, I would find a printer with wider capability like 60" or more and include an inch or so of overlap (maybe 2 seams instead of 5).
Next, I cut the printed template to mark where to 'cookie-cut' the homasote and plywood for the various grades in elevation. I taped the template to the homasote as I proceeded to maintain correct location. (see the latest photos)
More to come...
DL
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Images (4)
DL, I'm an 'out-of-work model railroad elvf'. 
Forced retirement. However, I don't have a magic sleigh to get me to wherever you live!! 
That is the same procedure for taping I used on my 8 1/2 x 11 sheets I printed on the home inkjet. The photograph shows one shelf of the layout, with a stack of prints on the far left shelf.
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Mark,
You have a lot of patience! When I first hit print preview 1:1 on SCARM, there were 425 total pages! I thought, 'no way, no how'!!
DL
DL, 
Considering the 4' x 6' center of the layout is open walk-in, I was able to get it down to a little over 100 pages.
Mark
Congratulations on your progress! The air conditioning will be a great relief!!
After a year of planning and 6 months of hard work, there are trains running!
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Videos (2)
I say you have made great progress in a short time! The videos are great!
