It's not too often you get to mix your work skills with your hobby's, but I'm in just that position now.  Over the next year or so, I will be constructing, with some significant help from Sylvia, a six foot by fifteen foot O-gauge toy train layout in my basement.  The name of our layout is the Lighthouse Cliffs Railroad which is set in an environment much like Cape Cod.  Why "Lighthouse Cliffs"?  Easy--we got engaged in the surf on Nauset Light Beach on Cape Cod in September 2004!

So how does that fit in with my work as a project manager?  Simple -- building a train layout is nothing more than a project -- a temporary effort to produce some product or service.  In our case, the Build a Toy Train Layout Project will result in a product, the layout, with the following elements:

• Supporting legwork (also called "benchwork")
• Tabletop of plywood overlaid with Homasote
• Installation of track and roadbed
• Installation of electrical wiring and switches including "bus wiring" for command control of the trains and accessories
• Integration testing of track and wiring (also known as "do you have power at the track?")
• Installation of storage under the layout
• Installation of layout skirting (to hide the benchwork) 
• Some completed scenery where power tools are required to shape the Homasote material
• Installation of Digital Command System (DCS) transformer, accessory power unit and hand-held remote unit

In the layout's on-going operations and maintenance mode, various accessories and structures will be installed controls and lights and scenery completed.  We plan on completing that work by November 2008.

A downloadable copy of the 3-D view above is available here.

A downloadable copy of the layout plan in a grid format is available here.

(Expand both downloaded items to full screan for maximum resolution)

On to the Assembly of the Toy Train Layout Benchwork -- click here!