Layout decisions on the Sn3 railroad

Today it hit me.  Perhaps someone we knew that passed away recently did it, but as we age we do indeed need to prioritize what we do with the time we have left.  Hopefully years - but who knows.  My brother and SIL are doing "death cleaning" to simplify and I get it.  Time is a valued thing.

So today I decided to concentrate on building my Sn3 layout to completion and run my N scale layout for train running time (for now).  Yes I am super spoiled with two model railroads - lucky me.  I suppose the train stores are also lucky.  

On the Sn3 layout, I have four building kits to put together.  They are in the extra.  Two were made by Raggs to Riches (my favorite kit maker), one by Wild West (a very close second) and the blacksmith was by Western Scale Models - now out of business.  The Ragg's kits are out of print but the Wild West one is still available in multiple scales.  

I am starting with one I have put off years - the blacksmith shed.  The kit is a bunch of plans and elevations and a box of sticks.  Yep - you build this kit just like you build a house - piece by piece.  It also has a whole box of scale details - right down to hammers.  It will go where the brown square is on the layout picture - the far right square next to the service station.

Once these four are built, I have two buildings left that have no kit - the Montezuma Warehouse and the Dolores Grain Elevator (in the other extra).  They are currently foamcore quickies covered with printed paper.   I scanned these from Mike Blazek plans and elevations of the real building, colorized them on Photoshop, printed them on my color printer, and pasted the sides and roof to the foam core base.  OK but they need a redo - getting a bit shabby.

My Sn3 railroad will be the first layout that I will get totally FINISHED!  I will need a whiskey then.