Haven't named the towns yet with the exception of South Spokane on the "Upper East Slobovia" level, but the track gang got to within six feet of the helix down to the "Lower East Slobovia" level.
So, we had to run a train. The Empire Builder took 11 minutes, at track speed (I limit my train speeds to 30 smph), especially since the varnish has to run thru the South Spokane yard limits, and navigate curvature and grades.
Here is a shot of the varnish at the current end of the track construction.
Here is the track plan of the upper level. The trains leave from the eight track staging yard on the bottom of the below graphic.
The train goes down the monster helix four turns on the outside track to the middle level.
A big shout out to the other crew members that have made it possible to get as far as we have, with so much accomplished in the last year on the layout once the room prep was done:
Thomas Szczesniak, Officer of Permanent Way, Spokane Southern Railroad
Allen DeBraal, Chief Operating Officer, Northern Illinois Railroad
Warren Bjornson, Chief Operating Officer, Alberta Pacific Railroad
Laurie Zeman, Chief Financial Officer, Spokane Southern Railroad
Tom doesn't have a home layout, so his horsepower hour payback will be in perpetual trackage rights (and permanent access to the executive beer refrigerator) on the Spokane Southern. I trade "horsepower hours" with Allen and Warren and work on their railroads to repay horsepower hours.
I can't wait to get to the point that I can start hosting operating sessions, when I can start repaying track access charges to a few layout owners that I participate in proto-op sessions on.
Life really is better in the basement. 
Regards,
Jerry
Edited to re-establish links
