A lot of efforts are put in (understandbly) the visible part of a layout – it is the part that any modellers want to wow and impress. It is the part that visitors will remember the most.

A good layout is also about taking care of the invisible but equally important part – what lies unseen. Just like a car, you want to ensure the transmission mechanism (in our case wiring), wheel axles and brake plates (legs and bolts that hold our modules together) work properly and maintainable.

The keyword is MAINTAINABILITY!

No one wants any frustrations arising from poor electrical connections or unstable structure that will cause more headaches than actually enjoy running our trains.

From the start (and even from my first N-scale segment layout), I placed great emphasis and priority in ensuring the maintainability of my modules. The rest is secondary. Hence, that was why it took me 1 month to plan, design and finalise the track plan. A lot of efforts (and it was worth it) to have construction plans to visualise every perspective and as basis for group reviews. I received a lot of suggestions and tips in improving the design and to consider some “danger points”. As they said, measure twice, cut one.