I love storms. My brother was a Spotter long ago and I would go out with him every chance I got. I'm so jealous of you guys right now. I spent 3 weeks in Lincoln with out a single storm. Now that I'm back in SF, its storm city back there! Hope you guys stay safe! Anyways, I think Thunder Ridge is a little far reach from tornado alley. Remember, I'm going for the tall mountain gorge look. *recap* "Thunder" Ridge was so named shortly after it's construction because of the thunder like sound which resonated across the river valley as trains, particularly trains pulled by steam locomotives, passed. It has nothing to do with actual storms, though on rare occasion a lightening storm may grace the valley. But it would not be anything close to a storm capable of producing a tornado.
Though it could just be the standard emergency siren. Hmm. I think I'd rather squeeze something like that in right next to the backdrop near the green dot, behind the park. Or maybe behind the fence behind Delpho's grocery. Yeah, then I could put a cell phone tower behind the park! Ooo the ideas keep coming!
WOW I love this track plan!! After starring at this for a bit I think where the green dot is would be a good spot for the town junk yard or scrap collector{think American Pickers}and where the red dot is a gazebo with a band playing or a wedding with the playground nearby and park benches and walking or biking paths with some old timey lighting. The building to the south could be a white church with a small grave yard behind it and the paths from park could lead to there and or connect with the dirt road in the northwest part of the layout. Well just some ideas for you. I can vision the morning daylight running around the outer loop and a Bachmann consolidation running freight around the inner loop or even an atlas shay pulling logs cars. Ok that was my 2cents worth. I'll be watching this thread for sure! EDIT: I was just at whats on your workbench thread and I see you have loco's covered nicely so disregard those suggestions. Also while I'm editing this post instead of a church you could go with a school or baseball diamond. Those things make me think small town America.
Traincat baseball diamond!!! Maybe next to the school, or like back home right next to the park on the other side of the street...
Actually, I was contemplating putting a scrap yard behind the wooden privacy fence, mostly as a backdrop element, but maybe one or two abandoned cars between the fence and backdrop. Those are all great suggestions, but I'm still holding off for that one unique scene that no one has done before. If I cant find that scene, I'll definitely come back to this one though!
I was thinking the building on the southeast corner of the intersection would be a restaurant of some sorts. We had a place back home called Lee's Chicken that had a giant chicken sign. I might go for something similar, maybe even make it rotate. Ooo, maybe a giant buffalo for a Buffalo Wild Wings restaruant! Instead of rotate, I could put the wings on and make them flap! hahahaha
Mark, I'm wondering if a single track twice-around, using the ridge as a separator ala Alan McClelland might be better? I'm also wondering if much of the "operations" potential might be better off in an "off-layout" scheme. Here's my thinking: on a small layout, it's hard to have realistic double track operation. You are not far removed from the ping-pong table Lionel layouts of the 1950s--one track on the outer track going clockwise, a second train on the inner track going counter-clockwise. Perhaps a single line, with two trains going in the same direction, would actually give you more operating possibilities. One train could be servicing facing switches; one train servicing trailing switches, or one train doing both. And having to clear the main for through traffic. So a single line with a few passing sidings, and perhaps switching off the sidings? On your current design, once you get two trains running, you'll never have time to switch, unless one train is running continuously on one loop, with a switching operation on the other. I think that's just what happens on smaller layouts: unless you go to a point-to-point switching layout or perhaps an out-and-back, you have to tend toward a lot of through running. I just can't see getting a lot of scenery, broad curves, and two loops into your size in N, or even Z. So I think you will have to make some compromises. My suggestion is to consider a single track layout with broad curves and lots of scenery. I don't have time tonight to sketch anything out. But a 28" diameter loop on a 48" wide layout should present a lot of possibilities.
Yes, I understand this. However I'm a roundy round guy myself so I planned it this way. About 95% of the time, I just turn the trains on and let them run. The other 5% of actual switching is simply parking one train and bring out a new train to make some laps. If I wished to focus on operation possibilities, I agree the design would need to be much much different. This is why I reduced it to a single crossover between the outer and inner loop. The four industry tracks I have included will add visual interest to their scene while the actual use will be staging whichever train is not making rounds.
The official construction of Thunder Ridge begins!! Tonight I was able to take some time to graph the plan onto the foam board and get a look at the latest version of Thunder Ridge full size. This marks the official start of construction on Thunder Ridge! Here's the bare 4x8 sheet of foam board. The top board is a white 3/16th inch piece of foam board which I will use the cookie cutter method of making the sub-road bed from. I'll then raise the sub-road bed cut out about 8-10 inches above the black 1/2 inch piece of foam board which will be the base of the layout. For the next step I was originally going to print out the plan full scale and trace it, however I figured I'd use some techniques I learned in some of my drawing classes. I drew out a 1 foot grid on the board. Next I just match points from the plan to the grid. Once I have all the points mapped (where ever a track crossed a grid line I put an x), I just connect the dots.
Once the plan was fully mapped, I put some models down to further examine the fit of everything. At this point, I'm sold. I'm very excited to continue this layout. But since I'll have the center backdrop, I decided to mock that up in Photoshop to see how that would separate the scenes. By simply hiding Thunder Valley from the town side I feel there is much more depth to the scene. (Keep in mind, the actual backdrop will have building flats, ect. to help push the depth) Then over to Thunder Ridge we really see how much space I'll have to work with for the river gorge. Remember, I'll be putting about 10-12" of cliff and scenery above the rails and the river gorge will drop down about 6-8" below. I'm going to order track tomorrow!
Micro Engineering Code 55 on the mainlines, Code 40 on the run around and stubs. I'm also going to hand-lay the turnouts (this will be my first ever attempt). Again, Code 55 for the four off the mainline and Code 40 for the 4 on the stubs. I'm going to go the PC board ties/solder route on the turnouts.
The benefit of beveled corners! Oh boy do the beveled corners help save space! The simple act of cutting the corners off of the 4x8 plan provides me more room maneuvering the corners than I had with my 40x90" plan with corners in tact! I have no more regrets pushing the limits of my space from 40x90 to 48x96!
I found a jack pot of Atlas Code 55 at the LHS yesterday so I picked up 4 pieces to play around with. Nearly all of my cars have the MTL pizza cutters, but aside form that issue I think I'll be using the Atlas Code 55 for the town and Thunder Pass, and I'll use ME code 55 on Thunder Ridge to give the two lines through Thunder Valley a bit of variation. I'll still be using ME Code 40 for the stubs and passing siding. I guess this means I'll have to save up for some FVM wheelsets.
Just ordered some rail and PC Board turnout ties. I'm going to build the turnouts in three groups. The single off the main line will be one, the crossover and passing siding turnout will be a second, all being built with Code 55 rail. Then the four stack ladder for the stub ends will all be the final group built with Code 40. Like many things on this layout, building the turnouts will be a first time experience for me. Wish me luck! I'll keep you updated on my progress.
I like your layout design. I LOVE rocky mountain terrain. If my little girl didn't want a town so bad and if I didn't want the turntable, I would probably be doing a mountain pass myself. Good luck on the turnouts.
:thumbs_up: When I put my first temporary layout out on a white door, some random family member asked me about the "lack of scenery". I took a pencil, drew some random lines, and turned and said: "OK, now it is the Salt Flats." biggrin:
Cork is down and the glue is drying on the Thunder Ridge line (the inside mainline). First train is expected to roll by midnight tonight!
Tick Tock Mark! haha ok, so it's only 11:30, you still got time. Can't wait to see you try your hand at those turnouts! Mike
