Many people build small or temporary model railroad layouts using sectional track systems like KATO's Unitrack. But
one of my clients wanted to take advantage of the flexibility of making future changes (and a lot of on-hand Unitrack components)
for a fairly large rail-marine themed layout (shelf-style in a room roughly 20'X32' with an alcove).
He also had on hand a number of built-up Fine Scale Miniatures craftsman kits in the form of already-scenicked dioramas. While some of these might be a bit "back-woodsy" for the main deck,
he wanted to incorporate these beautiful models into some part of the layout if possible.
One part of the main deck was given over to staging tracks, and we looked
into building a separate unconnected deck above this area. By making it an unconnected deck, this section of the layout could
be built high enough to clear the staging tracks below.
This branch deck represents a distant segment of the railroad served by
single-track car ferry from the main deck. The resulting design offers quite a bit of switching, suitable homes for many of
the built-up structures, and even a narrow interchange yard representing a connection with another railroad. This narrow yard
is at the back and above a visible scene on the main deck. Most of the shelf layout design is HO Unitrack, but because the
track configurations were already set on the structure scenes, a few short sections of flex were needed to link everything
up.
