Museum of Science and Industry

Once the buildings were placed on the layout, the lighting designer began the job of lighting two cities, mountains, plains, and any number of other man-made and natural geographic features. At the same time, the project team began testing the trains on the layout, ensuring that they stopped, started, and slowed down at the right time.

Maintenance is always a concern for such a large exhibition. To help the technicians clean and repair the railroad, the layout contains access hatches that elevate small sections of the scenery. These hatches let the maintenance crew reach the interior areas of the layout. The hatches are elevated by the same crank found on many trailer hitches.

To clean the tracks, special railroad cars that clean as they move forward are run across all the railways.

Certain sections of the railing were also built on "frictionless" plastic, allowing technicians to slide the railing forward towards the layout. The maintenance crew can then get lifts and other gear through to maintain the Boeing 727 airplane overhead.