dwesterdale

Because I had some downtime this weekend, I started tinkering with a card kit from scale scenes that I saw in another members layout. They're a bit fiddly to put them together (something not so easy to do if you have pickle fingers), but the results are pretty awesome. They look superb up close and from a distance. If I can master making these, I'm going to use the kits to make the walls of the viaduct after all the wiring is done and the layout is more or less in that ready state for scenery. But here they are, they look pretty sharp. In fact I'm starting to think they make my plastic structures look more like toys. In the section with graffiti, I was testing a minwax stain marker on them to simulate damp spots where water might run down the walls, I think I need to work on my technique a bit.

Again the layout is 120" x 28" being built in 2 sections. I'm using 1/4" ply for the top, and since I don't own a lot of tools, I'm going with dimensional lumber for the structure... I chose 1x4 select pine, as it seemed to be fairly hard, and didn't seem to bow much if any on my last layout. Pretty straight forward stuff, I used cabinet screws on the structure. I bought 2 2x4' 1/4 ply sheets into the necessary lengths and braced the middle with an additional 1x4 where they met together. The top is screwed to the frame using simple wood screws. Also my order of kato trackwork is in (except for the super tight curves) which are the 183mm radii curves. With the scraps from the ply I've cut them to the size of the tack bed and raised them from the base using a 3" long screw, and 3 nuts. Two nuts hold it up from the base, and the 3rd nut raises the bed off the top. I probably should have used, washers, but with the amount of supports they seem pretty solid. I imagine, the scenery and backboards will eventually strengthen this further. This weekend I got the trackwork for one module raised up. The other half I will tackle next weekend.

Hi Folks, I'm not shy to say I've been lurking on this site for a while, looking at the photos, and getting a lot of inspiration from everyone here... I recently tore down an n-scale 6'x10' bedroom layout as it was taking up too much of my time, money, and (living in a 800sq ft condominium) space. I'm now in the process of building a much smaller (modular) wide-shelf layout. The new layout planned is 120" x 28" or 10' x 2'4", this will be divided into two 5 foot sections. Eventually I plan to have the two sections atop a rolling base so they can be moved easily if necessary. The theme of the layout planned is urban germany (most likely Berlin). I'm modeling in the era of the early 90s - 2000s, as there is a lot of options for trains, with a focus on high speed passenger service and light rail service. Here is a photo of the plan. I plan to use kato sectional track, although, i'm not a fan of the sectional track, I absolutely HATE ballasting. This will reduce the amount I'll have to do. I only plan to ballast the edges of the plastic ballast and hope to weather them well to blend the two together. To fit a wide shelf with a 4 track mainline, I had to use non-prototypical curves. I plan to hide these behind a scenery divide where I'll also hide a small fiddle yard. The two inner tracks are for the light rail. I've already got one of the kato-lemke regio express trains, they seem to work well on the tight radii curves. Atleast on paper. I've have those tightest sections on back order. The track plan will be raised up on a viaduct about 1-3/4" from the base. and include a small commuter station in the right side. I've made a small card model of how the finished product might look.