Hello everyone! I am going to begin construction on my layout for my condo in a few days! Finaly! It has had to be postponed because of a death in the family. However I am now on the road at a hotel in Montgomery, and will arrive in Ft. Myers Tomorrow. I built all the benchwork in MN and it is all in the back of my car!
I hope to post pictures of the process from time to time on this thread. I will upload some photos of the assembled benchwork soon. (Assuming I can get photos to be visible[:S]) Expect that this thread will be resurrected over the next few months. Hope you all can enjoy![:P]
If you need to trim benchwork or use power tools you don’t have in Fort Myers, send me a message. I am usually off work on Thursday and Friday, and can help out.
But we need details. What scale are you going to be modeling? What part of the country is your layout set in? What is your era? What roadname(s) will you be modeling. Do you plan floor to ceiling scenery?
Well, I was born on a cool spring morning way back in… oh, you meant… [:P]
I model ho scale. I have a room sized layout in my MN residence. I model the GN in MN, in MN[(-D]. This layout will also be GN, but totally freelanced. It will have no specific locale, and little adherence to prototype track arrangement, just gonna let my imagination take the wheel.
This layout will be set in a slightly earlier era than my larger MN layout. I model the early 60’s in MN, but the mid to late 50’s will be the focus of this layout. That way I have an excuse to run some small steam power! (Looking for a Bachmann 4-4-0, GN, preferabley with sound. PM me if you have/know of one.)
I am going to run a loop around the outside edges, and then model either the Blandin paper mill from Grand Rapids MN, or simply a smallish town with some assorted Industries.[:^)]
Hi all. This is the track-plan I have come up with for this layout. I am open to helpful sugesstions, and very little is set in stone. Some non negotiable things include the rear, hidden staging, and the continuous operation loop. Most everything else is fair game.
On the left you will see the Blandin Paper Company Complex. The multiple tracks include chemical recieving, clay receving, pulpwood unloading, and of course a shipping house with two tracks. I may expand the shipping area to include 3 tracks. The track will all be Peco, a change for me, but I have been very impressed with their flextrack. I almost prefer it to Atlas for a few reasons, which I won’t get into right now. Anyway, feel free to offer your praises, critisims, whatever!
Actually the staging is something I would change. You have a short piece of track to the right of the first staging track with a crossing. I would eliminate that. You would get more use out of extending the second staging track the instead. You could use it as a caboose track or for engine storage.
So, those two “tails” are for a reason. With those tails, I can back a train into them from either way. I gain an extra few car lengths. I want to be able to have a train come from either direction and have somewhere to go. It is a bit unconventional I know, but with the limited space I felt it neccisary.
The longest staging track that has the crossover, holds a small passenger train. That train will be run on the loop when I am working in my office, which is on the other side of the room. So I can park cars on the crossover during operations, and then move them when I want to run the passenger set.
My first concern would be access to the “hidden” staging track and especially, turnouts. Murphy says when you have a derailment it WILL be in an unaccessable point on your layout. Is it possible to fix casters on the support legs to move the layout away from the wall even just a little so you can get in there for maintenance and retrieval of “wrecks”?
You could even use straight wheels which would roll easier than swivel casters just to allow you to pull the layout away from the back wall even if only 18" or so?
I agree about the reach issue. I wonder about the streets. Having streets that “hit” the divider will be hard to model. I would just remove these portions of the streets.
So, hypothetically speaking, if a derailment occured in staging, it is a very easy reach for me to grab the car. I am 6’ 3", and have made sure I can reach all parts of the staging area over the divider.
As to the streets ending at the backdrop, I’m not sure what you mean by that. You will have to elaborate. I’m a bit slow this Monday!
Hey, Dawg, I like your plan. Go for it. I like the freelance concept and the excuse for running steam. That is exactly what I did early on when I first got into HO scale.
I say, do it your way, and see what you like and dislike, what works and doesn’t work. I am anxious to see what you come up with. Keep us posted on your progress.
Streets reaching the backdrop have nowhere to go, so to speak. Various techniques seem to be used from just ignoring the abrupt horizon to painting a perspective continuation of the street vertically on the backdrop but using real artistic talent to create the perspective (or old fashioned drafting skills if you learned any drafting in school) or even fitting a mirror strategically to reflect back creating a sort of automatic perspective. That last would be tricky to get right I should think.
The preference suggested is to not have any streets reaching the backdrop divider. That’s the easiest way to deal with the foreshortened horizon problem all backdrops present to the modeller.
Ok. I see what you guys are saying. I did learn basic drafting in high school, so I could try to do something like that. I don’t know if I can totaly avoid streets intersecting the backdrop, but I can see what I can come up with. Thanks for the tips.
Streets touching backdrops is not a big problem. You did not say how high your layout is, but judging from your pictures it looks about 40 inches. As layouts get higher, or your viewpoint gets lower, streets hitting backdrops becomes less and less of a problem.
Garry has one on his beautiful layout that was handled with forced perspective that is fantastic. Another person on here made it look like the road dipped away as it hit the backdrop and this was also effective.
My favorite technique was to have the road curve as it touched the backdrop and conceal the transition with a hedge line.
Most likely, you will be the only person to see it except for invited guests and photographs you share. A road hitting a backdrop is not much of an eyesore in person. It is only in photographs where it becomes more obvious.
What I am saying is “build it as you want it”.
Techniques for dealing with this could be an interesting new thread.
Hi all. This is the track-plan I have come up with for this layout. I am open to helpful sugesstions, and very little is set in stone. Some non negotiable things include the rear, hidden staging, and the continuous operation loop. Most everything else is fair game.