metro-red-lines-n-scale-blog

I've gouged out a 20' wide flood control channel from the foam in my layout.

Some fictional historical background: It doesn't rain much in my layout town of Cortes, CA but when it does, runoff water from the mountains has flooded this fair town in years past, the last time in 1938 when the town was devastated. The State of California and the US Army Corps of Engineers built a flood control channel out of the canyon stream to avert flooding.

When I dismantled my old HO scale layout, I used Evergreen sheet styrene for streets and paved lots. There was so much of it I decided to salvage as much as I can, so now I cut it up into 1 1/2" wide strips for the bottom of the channel. Next I bought some .080" sheet styrene from Temple City Trains today and used that for the walls (not shown in picture). The walls were meant so simulate 8' high by 10' wide concrete panels. I originally cut scale 8x10' panels but they all were of inconsistent height, so I just cut strips (I did cut my right index finger, ouch...), set it in a mire box and with a razor saw I cut 10 strokes, enough to simulate panel gaps while leaving the entire strip intact. Once done I will paint the entire channel with Polly-Scale Concrete.

As I mentioned, I stopped by Temple City Trains today and got some styrene, plus a couple turnouts and a 90-degree crossing (for my trolley line

I also went to Michael's craft store in Pasadena and got a roll of cork (nearly the height of N scale roadbed), some Testor's styrene cement, a paintbrush, a small T-square and some small magnets (for uncoupling?)