Layout scenery ideas

[pnosferatu]

HI,

 

I'm building my first real layout... i've attached the track plan I hope! Basically it's all wired up, the point motors are in, I'm about to ballast... but I've got no idea about scenery (i'm not a creative thinker!) can anyone help me with some basic ideas of what to put where? I've got a veritable mish mash of diesel locos and one 4472 so there's no real setting in time! I just want to make a good looking layout and take my time with it!

 

I've got no set ideas and am willing to do whatever (in fact the more stuff I can do the better) be it making terrain, tunnels, towns, lakes, fields etc!

 

Can anyone help?

[Dungrange]

It doesn't look like you've left much space for scenery, so I'd tend to just keep things simple with some grass in the corners.  If you're looking for buildings, then I'd probably consider a signal box in the triangular shaped are in the bottom middle.  An engine servicing point or engine shed on one of the lines off your turntable.

 

I notice at the top edge, you seem to have two tracks that look as though they are touching.  Is that the case?  It looks as though anything that you drive from your centre circuit into that pair of sidings to the left will hit anything driving on your outer circuit.  I also note that these sidings are rather short - not much longer than the length of a large locomotive.  Plenty of space to stable locomotives, but nowhere to park a rake of wagons or coaches.

[DavidB-AU]

The clearance up here looks very tight.

 

[Pete the Elaner]

Agree with the previous comments, but I can see why you have set it like this: it looks like the curve is 3rd radius.

Maybe a streamline short radius point off the curve itself may work, although it is significantly larger so would leave you with a weird looking bulge.

 

As for scenery, Flying Scotsman is a preserved loco, so that gives you an excuse to run it in a more modern setting.

 

My thinking is that railways exist to move things. We need to pretend trains are actually going somewhere but the sidings provide some way to show this. What are these going to be used for (goods or passenger) & where will the loads go afterwards? They are currently locked inside your railway system & presumably need road access so maybe a level crossing in the top left corner would be somewhere to start?

[pnosferatu]

Thanks for your replies... as it's my first ever layout (excluding the basic one my dad made for me on my 5th birthday) I'm just experimenting... the track doesn't touch but is quite close so I'll make sure I'm careful.

 

Having thought long and hard, ive decided to make the theme like a heritage railway, like the one i used to go in the forest of dean as a child. So the car park in the top left with a footbridge to a station on the sidings. Then countryside around the outer areas with maybe a hill, a tunnel or a lake to make it a bit more exciting. 

 

The area around the turntable will be some sort of maintenance and storage yard.

 

I'm planning to build a big layout in my loft (with my wife's permission of course) in the near future so will take into account rolling stock storage when building that. As it stands I'll just put the rolling stock on as and when.

 

Once again, thanks for all your help!