This pre-war layout is designed to suggest one created by a (rich!) child who loves playing with electricity. Highly visible cloth-covered wires connect the powerful Z transformer to the tracks and accessories.
Train magazines are filled with "high rail" layouts, that fill
whole rooms with realistic, accurately scaled landscapes. By contrast, my "low rail" layout fits on a 4x8 foot table top, and is
designed to maximize interaction and play, rather than realism. It was assembled over a weekend using Lionel Fastrack on a cheap artificial grass carpet from Lowes. Accessories are all track-powered. TMCC is included for the engines but not for the switches or accessories.