I have been working on designing the benchwork and correct scale prototypes for the layout in Autocad 2000. For your viewing pleasure, I have converted to Adobe pdf format, which seems to allow zooming into parts without losing detail.

First, one of my most time consuming and laborious tasks, I designed a scale model of South Station in Boston. This was based on several historical documents and specifically a scanned scale drawing of the original South Station generously sent to me by Dave Thompson from the OGR forum. I first drew the station to scale, then shrunk it down to O scale (1:48). I discovered the correctly scaled station would fill my entire basement! So I added selective compression and sized everything down to 75%, and ended up with the following plan: South Station Model

At the same time, I drew out my layout room and started working on fitting in everything I wanted to try and include as well as general locations for each section. I made sure to place full sized people throughout the layout to make sure people can actually visit my room, and that I can even fit in. Here is a drawing of the layout room, benchwork, and viewing locations:Benchwork Drawing

Finally, I am placing elements of sections I want to model, and currently trying to shoehorn all of Boston into my *small* space. Here is the in progress model of South Station and other track elements placed on the benchwork:Full Planning Drawing