Muddy Creek & Northern in N Scale. Layout Overview

The lower level including the town of Muddy Creek, the paper mill and the sawmill is the initial stage of the new Muddy Creek Railroad layout. The layout will consist largely of smaller modules connected several narrow but fully sceniced and portable sections to allow normal use of the living space with a large upper section suspended from the ceiling & lowered to operating height by cables. Depicting an imaginary shortline in the Adirondack Mountains of NY during the years around the First World War, the MCRR hauls logs & wood products from its timberland as well as iron ore from several mines in the Northern wilderness.
The layout will begin at a yard in Muddy Creek, representing the terminus of a mythical branch of the New York Central's Adirondack Division, a branch built by an overly optimistic Central for a boom that didn't materialize until World War I. Coming into town from a staging area to the South, it shares track rights with the Delaware & Hudson.
The NYC tracks enter the layout from a staging yard at the bottom passing the paper mill. Freights & passenger trains stop on the station track at the Union Station. Locomotives are turned in the yard and if necessary, are serviced at the minimal service facilities. D&H trains enter Muddy Creek on the same tracks and generally leave town as soon as possible.
The newly organized MC&N has acquired the under-utilized yards & local sidings and has taken over serving the few industries in town, including the paper mill. The second section of the project will be laying rails to the furnace & iron mines, logging camps and small settlements on the upper level. The MCRR leaves town to the North and after crossing several miles of bogs reaches a sawmill. There it will begin a long climb to an upper level, heading to the timberland and mines whose products are again in demand for the war effort.
Smaller steam locomotives are preferred on the MCRR. A Consolidation & switcher are on order. A Class A Climax is being built and a Shay will be ordered for the logging road & doodlebug or a home-built will handle passenger & mail traffic to the one-horse towns to the north. NYC Ten-wheelers running into town would be welcome but they seem scarce in N scale.
Stage one of the Muddy Creek Railroad, construction of the sawmill module is largely finished with the scratch-built sawmill complex including drying platforms underway. Track that was recycled from a previous layout has been layed but the regularity of ties is unacceptable. A rougher look is necessary and will hopefully be achieved by removing it and hand-laying track. A wye is located at the sawmill to turn logging trains for return to the camps up the mountain.
The upper level will be suspended from the ceiling and in its raised position, will be recessed between two beams.
Light weight benchwork is essential for this layout. The completed sawmill section is a simple 1x2 perimeter frame with several 1x2's on flat. 1" pink foam is laid on top of the flats and lightweight scenery added. Hills are 2 part foam mixed & poured over bubble wrap, reinforced with fiberglass screening & pressed while the foam sets, resulting in a sheet about 3/8" thick and while still flexible, draped over rigid foam risers with some temporary wads of newspaper for contours. The 7'-6"x2'-8"' sawmill section, as built, weighs approx 13 lbs.
Most town structures are already built from Design Preservation kits. The paper mill requires some more research before scratch-building the early 20th century buildings. The mine & blast furnace will be based on stuctures and practices in Lyon Mountain, NY, an early iron manufacturing center in the Northern Adirondacks.
The second level shown is schematic only, showing locations of major facilities and settlements. Planning is still underway.