Regarding layers.

Tree layer disabled and enabled!

Layers are a recent feature of the last two versions of Trainz. I feel people have had a bit of a hard time getting to grips with them, due to there being a Route Layer and a Session Layer. My guess is people accidently place things on the wrong layer and then find they are missing things when they re-load a route. I myself found it a bit difficult to get to grips with layers but once you get it its a very useful tool indeed. Since starting this route revamp i've used layers throughout.

A good thing about layers is you can store rollingstock in a route not just a session, which means the route has the stock in place, not needing someone to remember to open a session to get it how you intended. This however isn't why I love layers.

Layers are great for route construction, for example I try to keep all my trees on a seperate layer, meaning I can lock the layer from being edited, this makes it easier to grab little assets near the trees without moving trees about. I can also hide the layer removing all the trees. I've done the same for grass and a few assets that are fiddly and I regulary move by accident.

But my favourite use of layers is the ability to bring a route to life.
This is a preserved railway and preserved railways regularly have a lot of visitors. Sometimes few.

No people!

People!

Another feature to bring the railway to life is the use of themed events that many a heritage line have. For example heres Dukey's Railway with Classic/Vintage car weekend in full swing..

And the event is over.

Regarding the people and the railway being busy on these days, I also have a seperate layer that makes the carpark busier, including the new overflow carpark!

Its very busy today!! Note the overflow carpark inthe distance.

I hope you enjoyed this insight into my layers use!