Lot of work......

I've been lucky to have a lot of free time lately. I've used a good bit of that time to work on the layout. The two big things I've done are: Finish all benchwork and install most of the lighting. 

On the benchwork, I got the upper deck in and mostly complete. I've still got a little bracing to do for the upper. This bracing is the angle iron that I pictured in an earlier post. I used some "track type" shelf brackets every 8' to provide most of the support for the upper deck. To add extra support, I'm adding in the angle iron every 24". It's slow going as I have to custom fit each piece and drill mounting holes. I hope to get most of that in with the next week or so. 

The upper deck lighting valance is also complete and mostly braced. To brace it, I used some shelving "L" brackets mounted upside down from above. You can see that in the photos to the left, especially in the photo of the peninsula. 

For the lighting, I'm using strip florescent lighting composed of two bulb 8' sections and single bulb in 4' and 2' lengths. The bulb I chose was an SP35 which to me offered a good balance of brightness and warm sun look. Once I get the lighting and bracing complete, I want to get the backdrop in place on the upper deck and then get them both painted. After that, it's back to laying track.