OK, the tracks are down, trains run well. What is next? Mountains, tunnels, flat ground cover, ballast, city and buildings, streets? I know there’s got to be a proper order learned by experience. Appreciate your expert advice. Scotchman
Order? What order? Other than certain things like having the track down and tested before covering it with a mountain, there’s really no ‘order’. I tend to lose interest if I do the same thing all the time, so I bounce around, some tracklaying here, paint some track there, wire some here. And again, especially in areas that will be hidden, test run things thoroughly before it’s covered up and a real pain to fix. Test the whole thing before ballasting, any fixes will be much easier if you don;t have to clear away already glued ballast.
–Randy
Here is my present approach:
I would build some of the more important areas first, just to make sure things will fit right. Significant buildings, mountains, and tunnels are likely important elements to your layout. Especially where those three elements might come together, maybe also in a location of tight track spacing, you’ll want to make sure it all works.
Personally, I don’t have mountains or tunnels on the layout. I test fitted some of the important buildings before I laid the track, so I know they already fit.
The other items, like ground cover and pavement, and buildings where you know you have plenty of room, can come next. Many modelers suggest ballasting last. I have not put down ground cover or ballast, but it makes sense to put down ballast last so that it lays over the ground cover, just like the real world.
I’ve also painted the benchwork various shades of brown, tan, and green, just to give a good base for the ground cover later.
I agree with Randy. What order are you talking about? I would hope that you have the backdrop already installed!![:D] After that I tend to work from the back walls of the layout forward. Nothing worse than climbing over good scenery to get to a new project that is behind it.[:$]
The order I work in is.
Bench work, enough track down to get trains sort of running , wiring
Then play time [#oops] I mean thorough track testing[:D]
If the plan has a back scene or scenic divider that goes in next don’t ask how I know this one[:$] .
After that pretty much what ever I feel like at the time.
There is no real system once trains have just enough track to run on with some operating interest and the back scene is up.
Its a hobby it is supposed to be enjoyed .
[:P]Systems orders and analysis are what we do during normal working hours to get the cash to have fun with trains.
regards John
All of the above is correct and everyone so far is correct.
There is usually some kind of logical thinking involved when building a layout. Once the trains are running, most folks turn to the scenery part. Buildings have to fit certain areas as well as the hills, mountains, valleys, and streams. These items should be thought out in advance if possible. Even down to the particular kits that will be used because they make a difference in the space they take up. After that, some sort of plan should be formulated for the remaining scenery elements. Roads that connect towns and industries, trees to fill in blank areas, etc. None of these is critical. As time and work goes on, don’t be afraid to change things if what was put in earlier doesn’t work later.
Just as track planning was fun, scenery planning and building should also be fun.
My rules are:
- Don’t cover anything you will have to access with anything that can’t be moved - up to and including mountains (or sections thereof.)
- Don’t put in scenery between future worksites and the table/aisle edge.
- Insofar as possible, work from the back to the front.
- Nothing is set in stone. If you don’t like the appearance, modify it (Usually a modified mountain will have the same general shape as it originally did, but the waterfall might have become a ski slope.)
Note that nothing above precludes having fully-developed scenery from the wall to the fascia while half a meter away the landforms haven’t been set up and all detailed scenery is still future tense. Also, no matter what your original plan might have been, experience WILL cause you to modify it. Don’t obsess about the ONE RIGHT WAY - this is a hobby, not an organized religion.
The right ways - emphatically plural - are the ones that work for you.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in Universe 13, Alfred E. Neumann)
Order? We don’t need no steenking order!
Once the track is down and the wiring is done, I work in “scenes.” I’ll take one or two square feet and turn it from the pink prairie to a small but finished scene, structures, roads, landscaping, detailed interiors, and everything right down to the shrubbery. Then it’s on to the next scene. I find this technique keeps me interested. I never do any one thing long enough to tire of it, and the progress as each scene is completed is very satisfying.
Everyone here is dead on. There is a certain “right way” fallacy that people come into this hobby with. Rarely is there anything right or wrong about proceeding in a certain way, in a certain order, or with a certain method. The key is what you enjoy and what’s bugging you.
As the others have said, there is no order, other than a couple of real no-brainers – like benchwork before the layout base… but even then, you COULD build your layout on the floor and lift it on to benchwork later if you really wanted to.
What I work on at any given time is largely determined by what’s bugging me at the moment. If the lack of water in my river is bothering me, then that’s what I’ll do next. Admittedly, this will turn out better if I scenic the riverbed first, but I don’t actually have to.
my order is as follows:
-
Lay down track
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Have fun, ie: run the trains
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Whatever i feel like doing afterwards
the only thing i noticed is that for me, its best to lay the ballast then everything else around it. its easier to clean and belnd in for me.
Hi!
OK, if you are absolutely certain that the trackage is as you want it and the trains have no problem with it, then you are ready to move on. Keep in mind that it is much easier to change or fix the layout now, as opposed to later.
I would have the structures all placed (temp) first, and rough out roads and the like first.
Is there an order to “what’s next”? Well, I think to some point there is, but it varies by layout. In general, I would start the scenery from the furthest reach point and work inward. And wherever practical, leave the ballast to last (and perhaps the line poles as well).