Before there was railroads on this earth there was, scenery. I was thinking that when I expand my railroad, in about 5 years, that it might be kind of interesting to do the scenery first over the entire layout. Mountains, water swamp, flatlands, etc… and then decide where the best route for the tracks and sites for town locations should be based on the ‘lay of the land’. Just like they do in real life. Now that’s prototypical or some may say just plain expensive and stupid. Anyone else thought about “putting the cart before the horse?”. Any thoughts[?] [#wstupid]
Mark…you need to hook up with the Garden Rail group!! Go ahead…plant that railroad in your back yard. Send us pictures of your new layout!!
I thought about a garden railroad but in Vancouver it rain way to much. I’d never get to operate the railroad[:(]
If it is an indoor railroad, that is more work. You do all the scenery, and then you lay the track, meaning you will have to rip up some of it. Now, if you aren’t worried about the extra work that may result, go with it, it might give a better effect, and more people will do it, making you the leader of the pack!
Visualize! I love the story about Disney World and the comment at it’s completion that it was a shame that Walt did not live to see it. The response was “He did!”.
Part of the planning of the layout should be the lay of the land, scenery, industries and then making that vision fit around the warts we run into. In MHO a layout is never “done”. We may be able to operatee trains on the benchwork, but all those visions are left to be added.
If you really want to do the scenery right that means putting in changes in elevation, etc. If you do that then when you decide to put in your railroad you will have to rip out large chunks of scenery to install risers and subroadbed under where the tracks will go. A major pain.
If “scenery” means you take a sheet of plywood and put a layer of ground foam on it, then it won’t be a problem, but then again the scenery won’t be that effective either.
Dave H.
I haven’t done this for a layout but have for entire free lance railroads. I crumple a piece of paper and then flatten it. The more crumpledy and less flattening represents more mountianous territory. I then figure out where the water would flow, lakes swamps would form, and make corrections so I don’t have any “dead” seas. Then work some general geology and position the cities, towns, farmland, mines, etc. Finally survey where a railroad would go. I had a more detailed procedure for this all written up. It was posted on the Youth In Model Railroading Web site but I see that is now under re-construction - so I don’t know if it will come back or not.
I first did this back when I was a Sophomore in high school. It worked so well to create the “Pine Ridge & North River” railroad, that I kept saying, “I need to write this up and share it”. It only took 30 years before I finally formalized it and presented it to the YIMR group.
It is an interesting notion, and could be done with determination and great patience. I mean, we placed humans on the Moon, right?
However, modeling is not the same as trying to make a buck by running a railroad. Commercial railroads had to engineer their best approach to any paying customer, and it got very epxensive, both in human lives and in capital. I don’t see why you would want to replicate that aspect of it by first building realistic contours and then carving the railbed out of it. Makes for extra work and some waste, maybe a lot of both. The other thing is, that as a human planning a toy layout, you are already biased towards an eventual plan, so your topography is not likely to be as creative or extemporaneous as you might think. Additionally, you might find, much to your dismay, that you can’t do much of your dream track design with what you have at the end of the creative phase. Best to go with the tried and true method of getting the track plan and overall theme nailed down first, and then create what you must to effect that.
There is a wise saying going back to Roman times (at least):
Via trita, via tuta. (Roughly, “The beaten path is the safest one.”)
Hey there, thanks all for the input. I know it would be alot more work but, I was thinking I would be really cool if the scenery and the layout as a whole had a story line. A story line that evolved with the building of the railroad. The openning up of the (layout’s) land and it’s resoures to better the layout’s economy. Maybe even come up with some kind of micro economy whereby railroad companies rise and fall and towns turn to cities or ghost towns based on the micro economy. An economy that decides what I can buy and when; at the hobby store (my lovely wife would love that - if there was black friday everyday on the layout [:D]) NO NO NO!!! I’m not crazy I swear. I’m just entertaining the thought of what one could do once they were tired of watching they trains go 'round and 'round and the waybill card system started getting alittle stale. Maybe none of this makes sense to anyone but maybe it will give some chance to brainstorm on the possiblities. What is your railroads storyline - past, present, and possible future?
What happens if you can’t find a pass through the mountains?
Day late and dollar short.
But that is what 3d software is about. Yo can build the mountains first, design the railroad to it, and make corrections to either.
Save a lot of labor.
I know I read an older article in a model railroading book (probably a Kalmbach one) where someone did exactly what you’re talking about - built scenery first, then the layout on top of it. Doesn’t seem like the best way to go, but this hobby is about fun, so do it if you want to.
Update: Just found it - in good 'ol “How to build model railroad benchwork” by none other than Linn H. Westcott
It says it was done on an MR project railroad: “N scale Enfield & Ohio”. Interesting stuff.
Tunnel
Thanks CARRfan I’ll have to look for that one. Many thanks for all that have replied to this idea.
You should have some sort of plan for the whole thing before you drive nail one. Once you have the scenery and track figured out, first in your head then on paper (even to the extent I went to by using sheets of freezer paper taped together to make a 12"-1ft. drawing on the floor where the RR will be) then go to work. Once the track base is down, then do the scenery on the far side (from where operators/spectator will be) of the track. once that’s done, lay the track and then do the scenery on the near side. That way you don’t slop scenery material on the track.