I hope this works this time. I’m trying new pictures and hope to give a little better description of what I’m looking for. There is approximately 4’ X4’ that I need to fill. Where the big log truck sits I have a small saw mill to place. The town will be to the left end. Store fronts with a street paralleling the end of the lay out. Railroad depot some where on the end. The mountain will be a pine forest with the logging road disappearing to the back.The stone bridge up is N scale everything else is HO.
Any ideas for the big open space. I like rural things.
I hope ever one has patience I’m struggling with new camera soft ware and new windows 7.
Thanks
Will your town be across the tracks from the station or all on that side?
Are you looking for rail served industry or “something?”
For a small rail served industry you could put a customer for your sawmill, say a box or pallet maker. An unloading platform for a team track, a place to unload a hopper of coal, with a conveyer to pile it and load into a truck later.
Non rail served, a farm, if it’s a dairy, could put cans on a platform, if it fits your area/era.
My biggest concern with your layout is “reach distance”.28inches is max! To solve the reach distance problem in my saw mill area, I used a shallow pull-out kitchen drawer for the pond area and a lift-out in the building complex area. If you desire rural industries, consider an Ethanol plant, a grain elevator and bakery complex, or a stock yard and packing plant.
Time is 1950 ish some where on the west slope of the Colorado Rockies. The layout started as a 5’ X 12’ and is now 5’ X 30’ I walk around and reach from both sides. Not the best and if I had to start over it would be 3’ around the wall. Ideally the depot should be across the tracks, with it’s back to the viewer. ?? I might get a spur in for the saw mill??? I am open to all ideas. The track plan a basic folded figure eight and running in one direction for ease of operation for the grandkids.
Lee, darn good looking layout. Is the track to the mill in the foreground where the bridge is, or on the back where I think I see some track?
One of the things I might do is build a incline that follows the main a round then make plateau and have the mill there. Then build your mountain with the town on the side of it.
Here is a picture of my mine that might help you to understand what I am trying to explain.
I use a switch back to get to the mine due to poor planing. But I think you might get my idea. Mountain will go up another 6" by the mine and and another 12" toward the rear with the town of Alton perched on the side.
You live in the ST Louis area right Lee? Alton’s river front was my impression. If not here is a shoot of Alton.
Sorry for all the pictures and hope I was of some help.
Hi Ken
Re: Question. The road with the truss bridge is HO and should proceed to the town on the front half of layout.The road with the stone bridge is N scale and becomes HO before it enters the town some where near the train station. The mountain area is N scale where you see the farm house which is a horse farm and to the right of that is a dairy farm. The stone bridge road leads to both farms and disappears into the back area.
I’m thinking of lowering the left front corner of the layout out board of the tracks, to gain a small access to the lake. Your suggestion to associate something with the saw mill also has me thinking. When building, during are before WW2 builders did as little digging as possible. Which means the buildings would be stair stepped up a slope.
Any comments welcome.
Thanks
Lee
Well, since you don’t have any track in that area, I would put a large wooded hill there. Think small mountain. Now that by itself would not really be too interesting, so you may want to think about detailing it. Break up the smooth hill look with some rock cliffs. If you are modeling in the west, maybe add a hidden cliff dwelling in a rock canyon that splits the center of the hill / mountain in sort of a V shape. How about adding a fire tower, or a ranger station way up on top, maybe a campground near a canyon. A mule train might look good too.
If you do decide to put a hill / mountain there, put a lot of small scenes around for people to find. Things that you would find in a national park or other vacation type area. Hide then in and around the trees and cliffs. Since you would be working in a relatively small area, I would use a lot of individual trees instead of puffball type trees. That way you can insert details IN the forest.
Don’t make it too tall. I wouldn’t make it any higher than where the base of the water tower is. With trees on top of that, it will be slightly higher. It will be a challenge to get it right. One side could be rock cliffs. One area could have a shallow slope, and other areas a steeper slope. The top could be almost flat, but with hilly terrain.
