Airport on layout

I’m going to echo the theory that the best bet is a small rural airstrip. But I would also agree that suspending an airplane wouldn’t work well. So, for myself what I’d end up doing is mixing the design of the airport in my new hometown with that of the location in my old hometown. The town I used to live in has a small grass strip that runs parallel to the tracks. There’s only about three small hangars there, and hardly any activity, but if the hangars were flats along the backdrop and the strip itself ran between the track and the backdrop, I think you’d have room for it. Especially if it was placed in/near a corner and the strip runs into the backdrop. The other strip, near the town I live in now, is more developed. It has a small group of guys that do repair and maintenance work there, and the strip is paved and lit, but still quite small. (I wouldn’t want to even think of landing anything larger than a crop-spraying plane there.) You could have a couple of guys working on a plane if you wanted to simulate activity without suspending a plane; or if you had a lot of plane kits you could also create activity by simulating a fly-in; that’s a pretty big deal that happens in about midsummer at the airport here.

The newest container terminals at Los Angeles, and I think Long Beach, have rails on the dock. They can transfer containers directly between ship and train.

If you can’t land a B-52 on the runway, why bother modeling it?

It would be nice to have enough space to model a port, complete with a container terminal with on-dock rails, Castle AFB, several industries, mountains, and various farms, perhaps even some commercial and residential areas.

I had an airport on my old layout in Las Vegas, and it was set near an apple orchard. The planes were suspended in air with a white wire rod that was hidden inside the pesticide spray stream made from cotton.

I’m thinking of recreating the scene on my existing layout for a camera shot, but I want the scene removable afterwards…

http://home.mchsi.com/~ironmaster1960/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

a corner of a taxiway, and a windsock seperated from the railline by some chainlink fence would not take up too much space, and still provide a place for that Santa Fe Skyways DC-3, DC-4 or a TWA connie waiting for takeoff orders.

I was doing my own research on Google Earth by following train tracks from Bakersfield and backtrack al the way back to Chicago. Was taking notes with some particular htspots because of this DVD that I have been watching and one of those places are Tehachapi. And guess what I found for you! Tehachapi is not only one of the busiest spots and the most mountainous railway on the entire BNSF line but it has an airpot right next to the tracks!

So I think if you gonna model airport near your trains, do Tehachapi! 35’07"N and 118’26"W

I’m taking a different approach; I’m building a heliport. The guidelines for marking and lighting a heliport are available at the FAA’s website, and there’s just enough HO-scale helos available to make an interesting variety. My plan is for several Hueys and a pair of “civil-ized” CH-53s, all of which are made by Roco/Minitanks. I might toss in a pair of visiting Apaches (Roco).

Another approach I’ve considered is to build, effectively, one end of an airport. Miami International, for instance, has CSX rouding the perimeter near one of the main runways and a smidgeon of the hangar areas. I’m thinking of scaling that down to a hangar area servicing 1 or 2 of the Wathers’ DC-3s. Using the right backdrop, I think the illusion would not be hard to pull off.

Juan

Being in the airline business I naturally want to include some sort of aviation related scene in my layout. Living in Tulsa I have the perfect prototype to model. At the Tulsa International Airport, the BNSF mainline runs next to the departure end of runway 36R. Even better Boeing (now different name escapes me currently) has a mfg facility there that is served by BNSF. They build various parts for the Boeing commercial jet division and get aircraft parts cars as well as coil cars.

I plan on modeling the taxiway leading up to the threshold and the touchdown zone of the runway as well as the Boeing industry (I already have the LBF aircraft parts cars). Both will take up approx. 2ft of layout space about 12"-14" deep. I am getting some images for a backdrop and will figure out how to scale down a plane, a little forced perspective will work out fine if the scale stuff isn’t exactly right.

It can be done, if you use google earth, you can see what I am talking about, just search for Tulsa International Airport and go to the SE quadrent of the airport you will see what I am talking about.

Mike in Tulsa

BNSF Cherokee Sub

Another approach would be to model at least a part of an abandoned airfield. This unusual website has photos and maps, and some of the photos include rail lines and rail service.

Collection of listings for abandoned airfields in the U.S., including details of their history, reasons for their decline and demise, along with maps and photographs. Browse by state and then by region or location within the state. From a career pilot.
URL: http://www.airfields-freeman.com

Dave Nelson

I have seen small airports modeled on modular layouts and they look too small.

Even the smallest grass strip is about 2000’ long and that works out to 23’ in HO. An International airport would be about 10,000’ or 115’ in HO.

Even with selective compression, they just don’t look believable

So I’m twelve years late, that’s yesterday in digital web-years. Besides, I did not begin completing these projects until 2017/2018.

Anyway, if anyone out there is still interested, (after all that’s how I got here) you might look at my 1/48 scale Caribbean airport diorama. I used a number of O scale items in this diorama. It is 4 x 3 feet and fully lit with working MTH beacon and water tower. Taxiway lights are blue LED.

https://imodeler.com/2018/11/a-day-at-the-airport-caribbean-cargo-operations/

Here is a “crop dusting” diorama in HO. The Stearman is 1/72 to give it a bit more center presence in the diorama. This is approximately 2 x 2.5 feet. It is interesting that I built and weathered the woodland scenic’s dilapidated barn in HO scale. The HO kit has no lighting and was around $40. I now have the same barn in O scale, lit, and ready built, for $119. While both are equally presentably for display, I have far more invested in the HO version than the pre-built, lit, O scale version.

https://imodeler.com/2017/10/the-yellow-nose-of-texas/

If you read my other articles on this site, you will find information on the construction details for various aspects of these dioramas.

I am presently doing an O scale layout on the carpet with a few TV themes. Most prominent is the Petty Coat Junction/Green Acres agricultural theme that came up after I purchased an MTH 4-6-0 locomotive that looks very much like the one in the show. Unfor

Gidday ironwrench, [#welcome] to the forum.

While all your modelling is impressive, the effect that you have achieved with your Stearman prop is really impressive.[bow]

I must say though that no R-1830 I’ve had the privilege to service has been that clean![swg]

Thank you for sharing.
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]

Gotta agree with the Bear, very nice modeling. It also should give pause to all the nay-sayers who think you somehow can’t do model aircraft with our layouts because there’s just not enough room.

I suspect some of them are the same folks who tell you you don’t have room for a layout because there’s no place for a 120’ turntable and half-moon roundhouse on your trackplan. It’s as if they think that selective compression only applies to modeling railroads.

Lots of ways to have just enough airport to be believable. You could do an aviation gas tank farm with a spur and even provide a switching opportunity. An entrance sign and road leading off the layout edge can suggest a largish airport. A ramp and a hangar or two can provide enough space to display several aircraft.

Or you don’t even need an airport at all. Remember, aircraft can fly-in from considerable distances. Go ahead and hang something at an “altitude” that looks right “flying” over your terrain. Then there are helicopters, which can take off or land practically anywhere. And amphibians need only a stretch of calm water, although missing any bridges is important…

A proper bush plane like this Beaver needs only a suitable field to land on.

Just as with railroads, a little imagination applied to the problem of aviation can still result in compelling modeling.