Building my train Part 1

I have wanted the Lego santa fe set but cannot afford $500 for just one car.  I was thrilled to find letbricks had a version of it.

The only problem is that there were 3 bags but the majority of the parts were in bags withoug numbered bags, just mixed pieces. 

Above is the result of 2 hours of work which caused back pain and leg spasms (first day)

I learned from all this a few things 

1) I should have spent a few hours sorting the pieces in small bowls before trying to find pieces when I was building (2777 pieces)

2) keep pieces of blue yellow and gray/dark gray separated.

3) sort pieces that are transparent or pieces that are rarely used in a separate place

4) separate plates from beams

5) keep modified bricks separate 

After 4 hours over 2 days I came to this point

I've got 5 more cars to go!