I glued 3/4" foam to the top of the benchwork.
I ran an operating session on the temporarily connected track to figure out if the layout would support a 5 car freight train and a short passenger train at the same time. The idea is that the freight train comes into town in the morning and starts switching out cars. The passenger train then arrives, and does a quick turn-around, and departs. The freight train completes its switching moves, and then leaves town as well. This plan worked without any awkward switching moves being required.
Once the Walthers Santa Fe brick depot kit arrived I realized the station had a larger footprint than I expected, and didn't fit in the intended spot. This prompted a re-arrangement of the industries on the layout, and then a track plan change. The diagram below shows the new track and industry layout. Note that the structure sizes on the diagram are only rough estimates.
I'm still waiting to receive one more building kit, the Walthers Santa Fe brick freight house. Once it arrives I can be sure that everything fits as planned, and can start gluing the track down. Next up will be wiring, once the terminal blocks I ordered arrive.
I spent a fair bit of time looking for appropriate refrigerator cars to serve the Sunkist packing house. The ATSF/SFRD reefers appear to have been popular and seem to be out of stock most places I looked. I managed to get a set of three Intermountain 40' RR28 steel reefers, and a set of three Athearn 50' RR30 steel reefers. The paint schemes on these are more appropriate for the 1940s, but since I didn't have any luck finding any in the 1950s scheme they will have to do for now.
Athearn reefers:
Intermountain reefers:
