yep. the whole left side at about the foot mark or so will be the mountain. That little climax in Randgust's signature caught my eye. once I've got the design finalized I'll get it printed out in full-size and make sure everything fits / looks good before laying the track this time, because it could look good on the computer but in real life it might be a bit awkward. also for the early 1900's what type of trucks were the rolling stock using? I plan to try to attempt to scratchbuild a few cars.
I bought a sheet of 1 1/2" 2x4ft eps foam which was the smallest size I could find (that the right stuff? its not blue but white?) to go ontop of the 2x3(cut to fit) OR I could make a wood frame for it and use the 2x4. heres an example of using the same style layout on a 2x4 space with less straight areas.
I forgot the run around track lol. Heres a version with the run around inside the mountian. the hill still runs off the layout I just now noticed I was missing that piece I like it more.
This will answer your question....but.... Micro-Trains | The Ultimate in N and Z scale model trains most RTR cars from them (and other builders) come with them. I've scratchbuilt several cars, and I'll give you one clue. There's little glory in scratchbuilding an underframe and its harder than it looks. It's a lot easier to get the older and obsolete cars from train sets, salvage the frames, use those, and build on top if you really want some custom older cars. I still salvage plastic bolsters from old car frames even when I am making something new or rebuilding stuff. Bachmann in particular has some real POS 1880's cars (mostly due to their trucks and paint) that can be rebuilt and upgraded to some nice cars with some work. Taking used 'train set' and 70's cars, chunks of cars, and components of cars and making accurate equipment is still way easier than starting from a sheet of styrene. I'm modeling 1920 on the HVRR, which means there's a lot of stuff that was bought in 1880 and later that's now beat to pieces and still running on a logging railroad, if they own it.
