LEGO City construction has begun

After a few false starts putting together my LEGO railroad, I'm finally making progress. My first few starts failed because I kept short circuiting the track and trying to do complex stuff such as running 2 engines at the same time on different loops with 1 controller. I went ahead and ordered a second controller off eBay (still waiting for it) for < $10 shipped (new ones are over $40) so that I could have 2 independent tracks. One track being similar to an elevated (L) train in a city such as Chicago and the other being a freight train. To complicate matters, I wanted to have the freight train track cross my road sections as much as possible at right angles.

So while I still have a lot of work to do (I want to make the upper track go through a building and have to build some stations as well as more buildings and vehicles), I am making progress. I know that I'm crazy as I'm spending lots of time playing with a child's toy.

Here are some pictures of my mess: