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
MRH-Mar 2013
