Hey! Greg! As I sit here at 03:51, having just awaken from a 5 1/2hr "just-kinda-dozed-off" snooze sitting here on the loveseat, found the laptop still on my lap, still on this thread (although "timed-out" eons ago) and it hit me ...
... he
IS going to include that Lumber Company with the well-stocked retail showroom ... isn't he? I need a shovel!
You are an adventurous fella to tear out and start over as you have done. You had considerable thought and labor in what you had. Move prep or not, it was still a major deal!
The current progress is steady ... that's good.
But don't let the nattering nabobs' nagging get to you ... there is something to be said for "continuous running!" The layout at my club is what you might call ... "substantial ... good-sized ... rather big, actually!" But by throwing a couple of judiciously placed turnouts the super-long run from LA to Denver is separated into something we call "Display" running mode. It amounts at that point to two layouts, an upper and a lower, that are gigantic loops for continuous running (for open houses and shows ans time when the layout is ... on Display.) A single trip around the "loop" (at scale speeds) take the better part of about fory minutes! There's nothing wrong with that!
Listen, ISL's are a gret model railroad layout concept, don't get me wrong! I've actually been considering not tackling something as large as I had originally planned for this house and doing a decent-sized ISL instead. I must have a few more discussions with my alter ego (when we can find the time to pencil in a meeting time together.)
In the meantime, since I had no continous running capability, but wished to "run-in" my newly rebuilt/re-cased/freshly gear-lubed OMI Reading GP39-2 chassis prior to loading it up with a Tsunami decoder and a RailMaster baffled Bass Reflex speaker , I had to get a set of Bachrus® saddles so I could start the thing running and just let it go for half an hour!
The set-up works great, but it would have been much easier (and less expensive) to just set the thing on the rails in motion on a continuous running cabable "family layout" and let 'er rip for a while!
I must admit, it's a conversation starter as it sits on my living room cocktail table!