i was incredibly inspired by model160.com's small layout http://www.model160.com/galleryidx/?album=4&gallery=3 that i wanted to do something similar of my own. ive been inspired by many many here on the boards who have built amazing amazing displays and have helped me (thanks mike cawdrey for all those emails!). yup and im still pretty much a n00bie personal i rode on this line (on amtrak california) ALOT visiting my girlfriend in davis (also was a ucdavis grad and lived in davis for awhile and biked through here alot). from san francisco so this line means alot to me. not only that it has alot of history too. i loved looking at all the abandoned section of track along this line. but alas it would be wonderful to build out at least the interesting areas along the way from SF-DAV but thats impossible due to space. specs -my first "big" (well its small) project -roughly 39x16in and consists of a just dual trackage in a straight line for pics -will have a backdrop, will have correct lighting (im a photographer by trade so this will help haha!) -there will be a connecting 39x8 "yard" behind my printer haha -using unitrack to keep things simple, will ballast -"loosely" based on that area. im not going to have highway 80, just all farmland and grass. kind of a fantasy mix of current and past times. -current abandoned spur will be an active spur -keeping this ultra dirt cheap so dont mind the unconventional use of cardboard. here are some pics of the area: google link: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=davis...near=Davis,+Yolo,+California&t=m&z=17&vpsrc=6 not exactly sure what this short abandoned spur is for but its cool thinking of where it used to lead or what not
progress to date progress has been slow due to having a full time job and wanting to be braindead when i come home afterwork. but hopefully someday ill get it done. i always love seeing other peoples progress shots. making a wooden frame so the cardboard wont warp. leveling up the roadbed so i can create a ditch. i thought i would throw in there some foam trackbed to deaden sound regardless if it works or not haha.
making a ditch. soon ill cover this with spackle or water putty or something to create some uneven terrain.
no black friday shopping for me meant i had some time to work on my layout. going to fill in the slopes with spackle or putty or something once i get my hands on that stuff. might have to do something about the steepness may narrow the roadway even more, seems too wide. im just eyeing things if you go to davis you may still be able to see this GP15. most common now are the red white and blue gensets
Love the use of inexpensive materials in this layout/diorama...a great example to those that don't believe they can 'subsidize' a small layout! Sincerely, Bruce
yup thanks! i try to keep it cheap. sure cardboard isnt as work-able as foam or some more expensive materials but just takes a extra time to get it to work. once spackled it will be hard and sturdy. i guess you pay for convenience with foam and such! the materials for the base really only cost me about $3 for the wood framing of the carboard underneath. i just bought 4 tubes of ground-colorish acrylic paints to paint the ground with too with a yelp.com coupon to a local artstore for $8. this project so far has cost me $11 (trains, cars, track not included but which were bought cheap used from a local trainboard member too!). (by the way, side note, ace hardware this weekend has a 50% off coupon...which i will use to get spackle or putty with. pm me if you want details)
printed a temporary backdrop today. what a difference it makes. in the future ill play with lighting as well as make this backdrop twice as tall to cover the wall in photos. hopefully this weekend ill get a chance to spackle and putty up the cardboard and lay down some earth colors.
HA! I lived in Dixon (8 mi. fr. Davis) for years... that last pic is pretty much 100% accurate LOL.... not much to see behind the trains. I like your angle of attack.... if someone would give us proper Amtrak California colors on their F59's *AHEM ATHEARN COUGH* you'd be in business! I love riding that line right into Sac; it cuts behind the train museum and drops you at the old SP station on I street. So.... KEEP BUILDING! There are a lot of us Nor-Cal guys around here and I can't wait to see your progress! Are you gonna do I-80 and an IN-N-OUT in the background?
YES ATHEARN COMON! enough with the fantasy ones already lol. i have one painted up right now but am still waiting for athearn. thanks for the encouragement! btw, are you the same emd that did the goldhoffer tug on DAC? since in and out is still probably 2 miles back from where im modeling, its not going to make it into this small display. i wish i had the room. and since this is "loosely" based on this area, i wont have i80 (i think its an eyesore). but instead ill be doing more farmland as well as adding my own small run down buildings where all the blank space is right now. i kind of want this layout to remind me of my times traveling through there, but as well as generic enough to be anywhere so as to not limit myself in the photos i can take and what motive power i can put on the display
Nice job so far. I rode my bike along a lot of that track in October, and I thought it would be nice to model the Davis interchange with California Northern and UP. I'm busy modelling the area around the Oakland port (Jack London Square), so I put it on the back burner. While I was riding my bike, I saw an east-bound Capital Corridor go by, headed by a GE Dash-8. Until Athearn gets it together to release the F59, there are still a few of the Atlas N-scale Dash-8 Amtrak California's locomotives around. I picked one up from The Train Shack in Burbank (and their website shows that they still have one left...GE DASH 8-32BHW #2051).
yea that place would be nice, especially with the davis amtrak station in the middle of that wye. i thought about it. but then again it would be a future addition to this layout when i have space. i picked up one of those dash8s awhile back too. it was actually my first loco, woohoo! would love to see your oakland work! i love to see anything local how would you guys go about varying something like the flat areas of my layout here? for the foreground, im not sure what i can do. i want it to have some farmland/grassland and maybe a little pond on the lower left. should i leave it all flat? it looks too pristinely flat. any ideas appreciated, thanks!
Here is a link for the only AMTrak California cars available that I know of. http://lookmodeljapan.ocnk.net/product-list/22 And it's looking great so far.
WHat about some grain fields? Those give texture and color variation, but are very proto on a flat base.... and maybe an old rusty tin-roof barn? Lost of those in the Solano Co. fields.... Oooh! And some tractors! There are nice John Deere oldies on Ebay....
haha helps to have someone from the area haha. yea ill have to decide now. i love greens but i also love wheat fields too. ill definitely add some sort of old barn/building out there! ive been waiting to find some athearn procor tanks. finally after a year i got them. bad thing about this hobby is that things get sold out fast if you dont preorder or hop on it! im still excited for my cloud background even if the diorama isnt finished yet. i never had a model display like this before. its like a kid at a candy store. much excitement and fun over simple things. on another note i think i plan for a buildup of cardboard on the bottom left with green/grass/slightly hilly for 1/3 of the display and then the rest of the 2/3 divide that somehow into flatter farmland. ill have to research how farmland is divided.
Looks good! I find that most farmland is fenced/bordered straight but is rarely squared to roads, train tracks etc. because the farms use as much square acreage as they can. I say kick a 20 degree slant into your property lines! Will look more proto. Also crops are ringed by tractor paths (dirt). Did you know that most of Orville Reddenbacher's fields are out there? Oh and some drainage tubes/culverts may look good... Not too late too add under the roadbed I hope! Last idea- def. add poles/wire along your tracks, it's everywhere on this line! Sorry if I am being pushy I have simply way too many miles on those amtraks too, and have wanted to do a project like yours for a long time!
Looks like a great start....... I too have logged thousands of miles on the Amtrak Capital Corridor. You have me thinking about what I have always wanted to try, the causeway between Davis and Sacramento. It would be a simple double track but the bridges and earthworks as well as the causeway is intriguing in my mind. There is also that long run in Solano County where the tracks past Dixon are running through the marshes of the Delta would be another area.... If it weren't for the layout I am building ....... But I may try to build one or the other as an N Track set.
