Confessions of a route-builder

Building this route has been largely enjoyable so far; it's also been relatively straightforward because of the following resources which I've relied on very heavily:

• Google SketchUp (GSU) - an absolute breeze to use
• Google Earth - particularly useful because of its integration with GSU, enabling me to get near-to-accurate dimensions for plans of structures and the like. Shortly after I started the route, and after I'd laid most of the track, Google decided to release high-resolution coverage for Oxfordshire. This has proved invaluable ever since - a bit of shame it appeared after I'd made a start.
• Personal knowledge of the route. This is indispensable: I wouldn't have made a route if I was unfamiliar with it in any way. I guess most MSTS route-builders start with the fact that they know the route they plan to build. It also adds to the fun once the route is completed - at some point I'll be able to race past my house in Kidlington in whatever rolling stock I want. Now that beats reality.
• Location visits with a digital camera (currently a Canon S2IS which I'm very pleased with). Images can be used for creating textures and improved representations of scenery objects, as well as for recording detail and the position of structures, etc.
  
• The 'Branch Line Videos' cabride DVD of the Reading-Coventry section, purchased from that 'Mecca' of railway video/dvd merchandise known as Wolverton Rail. I discovered this shortly after starting on the route. It's a few years out-of-date now but the signalling has barely changed and the main lineside features are still around.

Perhaps this list will be useful for any budding route builders out there.

Here's Culham yet again - for comparison, the cabride DVD on the left and the MSTS version on the right.