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3: Marty felt the weakest point from an appearance stand-
point of the double deck layout was this view of the helix
from the bottom of the stairs.
3
Getting Real Column - 7
operators to the bare minimum, and then take whatever steps I
could to improve the yard area and the layout’s “front door.”
The solution I came up with is shown in Fig 5. It was a slight
improvement, but the area I describe as the “front door” to
the layout didn’t capture the verdant Vermont countryside I
wanted to depict. That labyrinth of benchwork and track really
bothered me. It wasn’t long after reframing the helix that I
knew no amount of “rebuilding” was going to get me where I
wanted to go.
Although I wasn’t quite sure what the answer was I knew the
SNE layout wasn’t it, so I spent New Year’s weekend 2011
with a crowbar and cordless drill in hand. By the time I’d fin-
ished SNE 4.0 was nothing more than stacks of wood, boxes
of screws and salvaged flextrack, some open grid benchwork
around the walls, and the grid benchwork for the bottom deck
of the peninsula. I have to admit there was a “What did I just
do?” moment (Fig. 5). And I seriously considered completely
emptying out the basement and putting in a pool table. But
cooler heads prevailed.
Redesigning the layout
Once I decided there had to be a better way, the primary focus
shifted to correcting the shortfalls with the first version of the
layout and, more importantly, to avoid the introduction of any
new problems in the process!
4: Diagram shows the planned changes: Boxing in the
helix with an extended fascia and adding a branchline on
top, essentially covering the top of the helix with scenery.
4
index contents
MRH-Mar 2013