Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been here for a while. (Then again, I may not be all that big of a splash…) This is because I have been actually building a layout. I now have a 2x6 ft Timesaver-based track plan on a set of shelves from Menard’s. This is only about 4 months behind schedule - for such a veteran procrastinator as myself, lightning-fast work! [:)]
The track plan has 6 spurs, arranged with 3 trailing and 3 facing, no matter which way the engine is pointed. No runaround / turnaround or continuous running (yet - I have a complete 18" radius circle but no wood to put it on). Right now my “industries” are indicated with a Post-It note and lean heavily towards the food industry. This is because I have mostly reefers on the tracks. One locomotive, an 0-4-0T. A bobber caboose is available. Planned era is 1900 and the fictional Ft Wayne Belt Line. Research (my favorite part) gives me about 100 real-life industries in town to choose from.
I’ve got you all out procrastinated. My shelf layout is “L” shaped 10’x8’ and 2.5’ deep. I have had my track plan in place for almost 2 years. I’ve got a couple of buildings sitting here and there which I move from time to time trying to decide what would go best where. I plan to have a cement facility, a freight station, some warehouses, a diesel servicing facility and some sort of manufacturing plant. I’ve based it loosly on some industrial parks I have driven through locally. Keeping the scene in Florida I have no mountains or hills in the plan, maybe a stream with a couple of very short trestles and a lot of trees.
All that is fixed in place is the roadbed and the track but I haven’t progressed any further. Maybe this fall I’ll get energetic and make some final decisions, get some buildings finished and start scenicing in earnest, as long as we don’t get hit by three hurricanes like last year.
BTW my railroads are SOU/NS interchanging with SCL/CSX. Since I depicting the 1980-90 era I swap out loco’s depending on my moods. Nothing newer than GP50’s and SD45’s.
BRJN: Develop to a CD! then go subscribe to a image hosting site, (railimages.com, imageshack.us, photobucket.com etc) upload your photos and paste the forum code to a post here.