Construction uses a mix of new and traditional materials.

The layout consists of two flat decks. the mainline has grades up to 1.5%. There is quite a steep grade down to the waterfront, about 5.5%, and about 4% down to the museum.

The lower deck is built in sections. Sections are a grid design but with longer members as L-girders or C-girders.

the timber used is cheap 45x20 pine battens normally used behind wall coverings. per linear metre it is the cheapest stuff available. Much of it is straight and the rest gets straightened out when combined in an L-girder or screwed along the edge of a sheet of ply. it has a few knots but I buy and carefully. Remaining knots get "injected" with PVA glue (USA: "white glue").

All glue I use is exterior grade trasesman grade construction PVA - it is stonger than the wood itself.

I use grabber screws (USA: drywall screws) but in general screws are only there to hold the joint until the glue dries. I leave them in on high-load joints and remove them elsewhere.

The sections are reasonably light considering their size (1.3 to 2 metres long). I went from this

to this

ready to run trains (if the track were laid yet) in under 30 minutes, working alone. Several people would be required once the scenery is attached, just to avoid damage handling such large units.

The upper deck is permanently built in. Minimum thickness on the top level is important, so plywood-on-grid construction is better than L-girder or extruded-foam slabs – hence the rectangular shapes for the sections.

Supporting the layout on legs is harder when it is this high, and they make the under-layout space less useful. I use adjustable wall-mounted Bohnacker shelf brackets on both decks. My workbench will hold some of it up too.

The visual impact is maximised by diorama style of construction: I will have a lighting valance above and a fascia on the front, both in matching dark tones, with most of the room lighting inside the box. I will hang curtains below, at least when visitors come. one vertical section completes the visual frame around the modelled scene (see for example Flemming Örneholm’s masterwork in the October 2006 Model Railroader).