Tinkering together a track plan ... in 3-D!

The bench has been ready for months but I've been putting off laying down the track because, well ... because I'm a scaredy-cat, that's why.

I suck at track planning. I'd much rather just piece a loop together and watch the trains go round. And that's all I've done to date.

But I found that John Armstrong track plan -- see it? Way back there in the upper left? -- in a July 1954 issue of Model Railroader last night and a light went on over my head. I could almost see the room get brighter.

So tonight I found as many of the storage boxes as I could that were stuffed with the collected model railroading track and rolling stock of many years. Many, many years. Some of this stuff hasn't been trotted out since 1989.