Unable to use viewblock on 4x8 - What should I do?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Hey guys, I’ve got a 4x8 layout that looks like this:

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd264/Guilford_Guy/Model%20Stuff/?action=view&current=NH4x8.gif

On the “bottom” part of the layout, the smaller red structure is a station, and the larger one is a freight house. On the “top”, the little red structure is another station and the rest of the “structures” are industries. My control panel is on the side with the yard, and I don’t have the option of using a walk-around throttle, therefore killing the idea of using a viewblock to make the distance between the two stations seem bigger. How should I go about detailing the middle of the layout to break it up a bit? Maybe make it like a city or busy town? Thanks.

2

I wouldn’t rule out the viewblock option so quickly.

First, walkaround throttles are quite feasible for either a DC or DCC control system. Every DCC manufacturer (with the possible exception of Bachmann EZ DCC) makes a compatible walk-around throttle for their DCC system. In DC, you can easily build your own, or buy some very nice walk-around throttles that hook to the output of your existing power pack, and feed the block control panel from the throttle. You can add an extra jack on the far side of the layout for the throttle to plug into (your choice, applies to both DC and DCC).

Relocating the controls for any switch machines on the far side to a local panel on the far side is not that difficult either. The block controls (if you use DC) probably don’t need relocating. The need to change their position while operating on the far side of the layout is probably not that great - the block controls would only come into play with 2 operators - and one would likely be on the correct side of the layout to handle any block toggle flipping.

Once you have set up walk-around control and local turnout throwing, you will likely wonder why you ever stuck with a central panel. Even on my little 4x6 layout, walking around to the far side made switching moves so much more practical. Coupling and uncoupling and lining turnouts is so much easier close up than across the layout. Just stopping a train accurately and realistically at the station is much easier in front of you than from across the layout.

And

3

I am not a huge fan of view blocks as I like to sit and watch them run. It doesn’t matter if it is countryside or built up areas I like to be able to see the train without moving. View blocks take the train out of sight and if I am not walking around with it I am twiddling my thumbs waiting for the train to reappear. Now if you want to do some switching by all means get up and follow the train around and manually throw the switches. But are you always going to want to be walking around and around the layout just to see the train?

If it was my layout I would make the terrain rise up in the centre and build a town or logging camp or have a winding road going up with whatever on either side of it. Or leave it in a wilderness state.Terrace one side and have houses and leave the other side wilderness. The landscape often rises up from the RR as it often follows waterways or is in a valley. Just don’t make the landscape rise to dramatically or it will look like a train in a hole. I have seen this before.

A good landscape can offer visual separation while not blocking the view of part of the layout. Just my [2c]

Brent

4

I would put in a winding stream running from one end to the other. You could put in a couple of bridges for scenic interest. Add a few trees along the bank to provide separation without totally blocking your view of the trains.

Enjoy

Paul

5

You could go for a ‘partial’ view block, and arrange the two sides to give radically different appearances. On your ‘yard’ side, go urban - railroad below the streets, bridges over the yard, track on the left end vanishes under an overpass. Buildings several stories tall, most of them flats, with low spots and gaps so you can see what you need to see on the far side. (Mock this up with cereal boxes and such before you invest anything in serious buildings.)

On the other side that left end curve comes out of a tunnel in a low hill into a semi-rural farm village scene - a few small stores, farm supply along one spur, propane dealer along another, a house or two, water course (culvert under the tracks) and lots of low-growing trees. Paint the backs of the far-side buildings a neutral blue-grey and break up the sharp outlines with vegetation.

Of course, if it was my layout there would be a low knoll just right of dead center - with a five-tiered pagoda on it.

Chuck (Modeling Cetral Japan in September, 1964 - including five-tiered pagoda)

6

Thinking outside the box, you can do what I did and make a low tech walk around throttle/control panel,

I simply moved my control panel to a cart with casters, carefully marking all the wires connecting them to a terminal strip on both the cart and the place where the control panel had previously been. I put on a power strip with a surge protecter and an on/off switch on the cart and connected all the house voltage items then plugged the surge protecter into a heavy duty extension which plugs into an outlet very near where the control panel was previously located. ( I cheated a bit and each station has a mini control panel which controls the switch motors to the turnouts used for local switching to industries and the local effects like lighting and animation)

I color coded each of the wires and labeled both of the terminal strips then connected 15 feet of flexable wire to each input.( I used speaker wire which I color coded with color tapes) I then bundled all the wires into a cable and connected the little cart to the layout. I then attached the heavy duty extension to that cable with cable ties so I have a very thick cable that connects both to the layout and also to the house voltage.

I just push the cart around the layout to follow the trains or do switching or I can sit down at the control panel with it at the edge of the view block (so I can see both sides) and watch the trains roll.

It is very 1950’s tech, but the layout is set in the 50’s after all. I’ve had this set up since 1989 and haven’t had a problem with it.

LittleTommy

7

Refer to Dave Vollmer’s N Scale Juniata Division – On two hollow core doors – Note how your attention is drawn to “the background” of the town buildings in the middle of the layout – A viewblock. See the construction pictures + YouTube videos.

The left hand side is the original layout, and not that dissimilar to your layout plan – Enola Yard (right hand side) is a recent addition and quite effectively view-blocked from the original layout.

Also the bridge across Enola Yard is a type of viewblock – This Enola Yard rail-fanning video illustrates the prototype bridge, and the hillside vegetation on the yard’s left with the effect of a viewblock.

Your “currently flat” layout is a good candidate for scenery foam carving (to be more viewblocking). You’ll see mild elevation differences on both Dave Vollmer’s layout, and the Enola video.

8

hi gentlemen,

we “all” seem to forget a 4x8 has more then two sides.

Also on this 4x8 some positions can be found to have a view on both sides at the very same time. Not being able to follow a train is not a real issue.

Smile

Paul

9

Good point Paul. I guess my brain is programed to view while sitting on the long side.[:-^] When I’ve had layouts of this size that’s where I always sat.

How high do you think a view block should be in on a layout like this?

Brent

10

I had (keyword: had) that problem.

I hve a backdrop in the middle of my layout. i just ran wires from either side of the layout in to the track. All I have to do is plug (or screw) the wires into the power pack depending on the side i am on.

Hope i’d helped?

11

Hooboy. Your topic title and my new computer just threw me for a loop. My computer keeps giving me unexpected messages. Things that worked in Windows XP don’t always work the same in Windows 7. I went to reply to your topic and saw the pop-up message, “Unable to view…” Now what??? Then I realized it was not a pop-up message- just the title of your thread. Joke on me.

Now, on to my actual reply. I once built a small two-sided layout with a viewblock and an extreme simple control system. It was N scale 2 x 4 feet so it could sit on a card table with room to access on either side. The walkaround throttle was simply a light compact cheapo power pack with a four foot pair of wires connected to one end of the layout. It could simply carry it from one side to the other.

I still do not understand why you cannot walk around, unless you are up against a wall.

But I have ANOTHER crazy idea. Don’t use a view block but use some other scenic device to make the two sides of your layout seem like different places. Instead of a mountain or raised city area or hill, why not a LOWERED area. A depression or deep valley. Or a slightly lowered area in the middle filled with “water.” (No, not real water, I am little craqzy but not that crazy.) Yoiur layout could represent two sides of a lake or harbor.

12

hi gentlemen,

quite a while ago the term Bellina Drops was introduced, a fine modeller named Bellina found his crew gathering always at the end of his peninsula’s. Not at the isolated scenes further down. So he added backdrops at the end of the peninsula to make train-watching from there physically impossible.

Personally i prefer to be able to look just over a double sided backdrop, pretty low though; which gives me a less “closed in” feeling. With the layout at armpit level and my backdrops or scenery at moustache level, the backdrop will be about one foot high. The above is on peninsula’s only, IMHO a backdrop against a wall should be higher, at least above eye-level.

Smile
Paul

13

If you don’t want a board through the middle then creative use of landforms / buildings is a good way to visually separate the two sides.

It doesn’t have to be a massive mountain or a wall of buildings: the suggestion of stuff will cause the mind to “fill in” the rest of the view block, even if your eyes still see trains on the other side!
(In graphic design, when the viewer’s mind completes the picture based on partial information, that’s called “closure”).

My little 23"x41" layout (which is close to the N-scale 4’x8’ equivalent of 2’x4’) has two scenes, waterfront and mine that are separated by some steep mountains & trees:

!(http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/mcfujiwara/Mt Coffin and Kalama RR/MtCoffinKalamaRR-planshoulda-revise-5vi11.jpg)

While it’s really a three-sided divider (the track loops around one end out in the open), the corner rockface creates a gorge and acts as a mini-Bellina Drop.

The mountains in the middle are made from 5-6 layers of 2" pink foam which, when rasped & shaped, resulted in a mountain 8"-10" high, and 6" wide (at the most, at the base):

!(http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/mcfujiwara/Mt Coffin and Kalama RR/DSC05649.jpg)

!(http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/mcfujiwara/Mt Coffin and Kalama RR/DSC05650.jpg)

This looks way artificial (because of the steep incline), as well as easy to see over, but ground cover makes the mass “recede” and the trees add 3"-5":

!(http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/mcfujiwara/Mt Coffin and Kalama RR/DSC06209.jpg)

!(http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/mcfujiwara/Mt Coffin and Kalama RR/DSC06188.jpg)

Even at this height (45"), I am able to see over the hills & thr

14

Sorry for the late reply everyone, thanks for everyone’s help! I’ve been thinking about all my options and I’m still confused. I would love to have a walkaround throttle/layout but the issue of money arises there. I was lucky to have gotten a well-paid one time tech job that allowed me to buy the Zephyr, but unfortunately as a teen with no job, I have no income and my parents have to be careful with money since both my sister and I are going to Scotland next summer for a theatre festival. Plus, it would be really hard to install a little panel for it since the layout is just… a mess. I’ve decided just to finish it as best as I can with my dad and for my next “real” layout I’ll hope to do everything right. And also, the little cart idea wouldn’t work so well since I’ve got only a foot of space on one of the long sides…

My dad’s purpose for the layout anyways is to just “watch it run” while I was looking more for operation. He says he doesn’t want anything to block his view also, so I guess I’ll just have to find a way to fill the space to satisfy us both. Oh well! I’ve definitely learned something from all of you though and will keep it in mind for my future layouts. Thanks again!