2-inch thick 4 X 8 foam panels go for between $18 and $22 around the western 'burbs of Chicago. You can also get 1.5-inch thick panels which might be sufficient for a bit less.
Well first off it's not exactly to scale and I don't have that much area on the left lower corner, although most of the switches and the over all layout is real close to the schematic. And the spurs I am using to park the engines and cars basicly. On the upper left hand side is a Walthers refinery I bought years ago. In the middle right area is a DPM models warehouse I bought years ago and a farm area on the far right area inside the mainline. I am trying to get some new pictures up but don't own a digital camera of my own. I really wish I had started with less switches to make it alot more simple to operate but I had (and still have a ton) alot of track, switches, etc... from years of buying
Are you saying you have TOO MANY switches and track? You could always sell them to another needy modeler who just got back into the hobby... hint hint.
Those Goldenrod trees look great. So how are they made? Spray paint the "leaves" and then brush paint the trunk and branches??
in2nascar; Go to a feed and grains store - they do have those in Tennessee - and buy yourself what is called a sack sewing needle - or at least that's what we used to call them. Drill a hole big enough to pass the needle. Unlike material sewing needles these do not have eyes but rather what looks like an eye with the side sliced open. Loop your wire around this "hook" and pull your wire up through much like an electrician pulls wire down from the attic to a new plug or switch. PIECE OF CAKE!
The basic idea is a: Loop for running Disproportionately large yard for storage Lots of industries to shunt to Operations as: The main line trains drop off and pickup cars at the yard Yard goat makes up trains for both the local and the main The local serves the industries. 3' x 7'Plan: http://www.railimages.com/albums/1_Grey_and_Grandure/aax.jpg 3' x 7'Photo: http://www.railimages.com/albums/2_Grey_and_Grandure_Construction/aad.jpg
First chance I've had in a while to sit down and read posts here, this is a great thread, lots of great ideas. Here's where I am in mine at the moment: More pics here as well: http://www.railimages.com/gallery/paulmarotta?page=3
May as well show a picture of mine. Hasn't advanced much this year as I had hoped, but maybe soon. It's hard to get a good overall shot, but this is probably the best one I have. This is the plan (+/-), modified from an Atlas #N-17 Regards Ed
Ed: Nice rolling hills. I also like how you contoured the hills all the way to the edge of the layout and then painted the outside edge to match the fascia. Are the yellow and gray buildings resin castings or painted mock-ups made of cardboard, foamboard, or foam? Could we please see a close-up pic of them? If they're resin castings, where did you get them??
All the buildings you see are temporary mockups or place holders. The ones you asked about, the yellow/gray ones in the background, were just made from blocks of (white beaded) styrofoam, rough shaped, and painted with the same tan colored latex paint that I used for the base coat on my foam and also for the edge of the layout. The roofs are just manila file folders painted with aluminum spray paint (rattle can) to give a hint of corrugated metal sheet. Even the oil storage tanks are just toilet paper tubes with the same file folder roofs, spray painted aluminum. And the engine house was made from toothpicks, shish-ka-bob skewers, thread and cardboard. Considering the amount of time I spent on it, I should have been working on a better one. They were just supposed to be in place a short while, but at the rate the layout is (not) progressing, looks like they'll be there quite a while longer. If you really want a shot of them I can upload one, but they look a lot better from a distance. Regards Ed
Finally I managed to get one near completion!! Hi, I'm a newbie to N scale - I started with a 3'6 x 5 Trix Twin HO three rail AC layout when I was 8-9. This kept me interested into my teens, but the locos died. I then started up with a Hornby-Dublo OO three rail system, and ended up with a room-sized layout about 9 x 12, which I started to scenic, but the family moved and that was the end of that layout. I tried again in the 80's, with a 3.5 x 5 HO layout, using Peco flextrack and turnouts, modelling German steam. This got as far as running trains, but no scenery. My two boys never showed an interest, and as we kept moving, eventually I sold off everything 11 yrs ago. I thought the bug had stop biting - I was wrong. End of 2005 I started an HO layout again, modelling B&O, NYC and PRR steam and diesel (1950's), creating an imagined Niagara region passenger and freight interchange, based on the Atlas track plan #29, but realized that I was being too ambitious. This layout is temporarily on hold, as I 'discovered' N scale!! I am in the process of building a hollow core door 30" x 80" layout, based on adapting the original Gorre & Dafetid design with an extension. At the moment I am using a single MRC 2500 controller, but I have wired the layout for DCC with all remote turnouts - now I have to pluck up the courage to put decoders in the best of my engines (old -vintage- bachmann, atlas, life-like steam and diesels). Here is my original track plan using Atlas sectional track (designed using RTS). The door has a 1" pink foam sheet glued to it, and the track and scenery built up on this. I actually built most of the track plan using flex track, on WS roadbed, using my own WS style inclines and risers cut from pink foam, then covered in WS plaster cloth, hydrocal and sculptamold, with rocks cast in hydrocal. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/attachment.php?attachmentid=1175&stc=1&d=1158122260 Here are some pics of the layout (I still have to build the trestle over the stream from the waterfall (still to be constructed) to the lake, and finish off the industrial section on the left hand end, plus finish the roads, add bushes, people, etc, etc..). Sorry about the picture quality - the lighting in my garage is very bad.. Lefthand end: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/attachment.php?attachmentid=1172&stc=1&d=1158122260 Right hand end (Gorre & Dafetid inspired) http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/attachment.php?attachmentid=1171&stc=1&d=1158122260 A view down the layout from the left hand end.. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/attachment.php?attachmentid=1173&stc=1&d=1158122260 I think I have spent about 150 hours on this so far.... It was much easier than I though, once I decided to take the plunge!
boatman, I love the layout. Serious grades - true maountain RRing. I tried a G&D based plan on my last layout. However, I was too ambitious and tore it down when things weren't going right. Your layout definately holds to the spirit of the G&D. I'm curious, have you calculated the grades on it. Since it would be wider and longer than the G&D published in 101 Trackplans, I'm assuming your grades are lower than 5%. Geeky, Did you get your GM&O loco figured out? Eric
Thanks colorado50, Surprisingly, the grades are between 3.5 and 4% - I tried to use an incline of 2" per 2ft (width of a piece of pink foam board) as a maximum. I have no idea what is the longest train I could run - so far I have just tried out a Life-like diesel with 4 freight cards and a caboose. I'm still trying to get everyhing to run smoothly - since putting down the ballast, I have lots of little spots where a truck jumps the track. I am begining to think it may well be a combination of ballast grit on the sides of the rails, out of alignment wheel sets and too-light rolling stock (I need to weigh them and bring them up to NMRA weights). also problems with the turnouts sticking - too much glue - but hey, it's my first almost complete railroad in 40+ years. john s.
yeah, it was a different brand decoder. Was on channel 1 not 3 like the other one. Also, I was using some wires to power ther track and something in one of the wires wasn't right so my program track wasn't working right. Come to think of it, the same wires I used on my HO switching layout when my sound decoder wouldn't work. Perhaps it isn't broken either. I've been oggling more decoders. I think I need to start selling mt LL locos on ebay so I can afford decoders for my engines that take drop ins.
Ed: About 95% of my structures are mock-up buildings instead of plastic or wood models...primarily cardboard and foamboard with empty saline solution cans, medicine bottles, deoderant stick containers and shampoo bottles. I've painted green styrofoam and green floral foam for structures too. I'll try to post some links.
Dave, Stil waiting to see a topic about your layout including your vision, pics and history of the layout
I have always admired Ed's layout. Here is a variation that makes a radical differance: By flattening it and a few other changes it becomes a main line (the loop) with a yard for running and a shortline with switching. Enjoy
