I thought I would share with you my progression on my new layout. It is pretty small, only 4' x 16" (plus a 4' long hidden staging area), but at the moment that is all I have space for. It has one three-way turnout, and it depicts a slightly run-down industrial estate somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley. I am a UK based modeller and I have never visited the Shenandoah, but I hope to one day
The gauge is HO.
Era: Autumn 2015.
Control: DC analogue.
The main industry receives corn syrup, and has two tracks serving it, each holding 4 cars. These are the two spurs at the front of the layout. The rear spur formerly served a warehouse, but now acts as a car storage area and is generally little used. I may change my mind about this, so I have left myself the option of having the warehouse at the rear of the layout rail-served. But we'll see. The corn syrup facility will be represented on the layout with pipework (on the paved area at the front of the layout), with the main buildings being off-scene.
So far I have ballasted most of the track, installed the warehouse and laid down the grassy areas, and started on the corn syrup area with the paving. I have also started work on the wooded area at the other end of the layout, which will eventually disguise the exit. I am slowly adding more details, such as rubbish, debris, etc. Quite a long way to go before it can be said to be done. I also have some work to do on the backscene, including adding a bit more bracing to the rear.
Operations: With the corn syrup facility, I can have operations lasting 15 minutes a session, or an hour, depending on the jobs, etc.
This is very much a work in progress, but I hope to post updates asap!
Welcome to the forum.I would say at the very least ,you are off to a great start. Your scenery so far looks awesome.I will keep watching your progress and I have no doubt so will a lot of other members.
As one UK modeller to another, welcome. Your layout looks pretty good to me. Mine is still in the embryonic stage. I'm lucky in that I have a dedicated railroad room, only 10x6 feet, but when I get round all 3 sides it'll be OK. Where are you based? I'm in the north of Hampshire.
It's a good day when you wake up in the morning. It's not your problem if you don't.
Looks very nice. It's got a kind of rainy autumn day feel to it (just revealing myself as a Brit there - also hello to Mr catweasel; we would seem to live in the same town. Small world isn't it?)
Thank you all for the kind comments! I'm especially glad it is looking Autumnal - I've taken inspiration from the weather and landscape here in Newcastle and Northumberland at the moment...Very dreary! My favourite time of the year though. This is my first proper attempt, so I am learning a lot, making mistakes, but hopefully learning from them for next time. I have a notebook I am writing all my mistakes in...Volume 1 of many Critical comments are very welcome!
@Catweasel - I'm based in Newcastle, gf family lives near Hexham. Sadly my local club only does British outline, so I am a bit of a lone wolf these days.
I have attached some photos of part of my collection of rolling stock, including some weathering on a hopper car I was doing tonight after work. I only have the one loco at the moment, a Bachmann SD 40-2, CSX (I am a Lance Mindheim follower, what can I say). It is a mighty fine runner, and a bargain at £45.00. I have an Athearn Genesis MP15-AC on order from Canada in GATX livery however, as I want to move away from CSX now. The photos also show my layout as a whole better. It was pouring with rain and dark outside so the photo quality is not fantastic.
Hi there up in Newcastle,UK. Layouts looking good. Are you running DCC? I've got the Bachmann SD40-2 CSX as well, with DCC. Looking to fit a Loksound board in it, but where to put the speaker is a challenge. Also have a Bachmann GP9 and a Blue Box Athearn SD40-2,which I'm rebuilding. I'm a bit short of rolling stock at the moment, literally, as my cars are only 30 footers. More modern stock is required I feel. By the way, the people in your part of the world are great.
It's a good day when you wake up in the morning. It's not your problem if you don't.
I've read a fair bit of mindheim, which has given me some csx sympathies as well... Though right now I've got 2 SP locos and another on order...
How did you get that ground cover? That's my next challenge (that or weathering some cars) and I'm pretty terrified... (of both).
@Catweasel – I am running Dc only at the moment, but I hope to have a DCC system sometime next year. I really want to try out DCC on this layout in prep for my next layout which I will build in a year or so’s time. I have some boxcars and a tank car which I am wanting to sell by the way if you are interested? I can PM you some photos if you’d like? Geordies/ Mackams are a canny lot Although I am not local to the area I am now a permanent resident.
@Zomboid, honestly, I was terrified too but modelling ground cover is easier than it looks (famous last words...!), although practice helps too. I laid down a base of fine sand and left it to dry. I then painted it a dark brown. I then drybrushed this with a layer of slighty lighter brown. Then another even lighter brown, followed by a very small amount of almost sand coloured paint. In the areas where I wanted grass I brushed on a light coat of PVA glue (you can do as much or as little of this as you want depending on how much soil you want to be exposed. I then covered it with a layer of grass, intermixed with some darker grass (labelled as “burnt” grass I think?) When this is dried thoroughly, I got some grass tufts (available on ebay, or, if you want, in Games Workshops) and glued them down randomly (glueing them down randomly is harder than it looks!) I tried to make sure the tufts were different sizes. I also got two different shades of bushes and glued some of these down, but mainly along the edge of the grassy area along the line of the rails. I also got a couple of small pieces of Woodland Scenic fine tree branches and placed them down as well to form slightly larger, straggly bushes. Finally, I made some rubbish & debris out of brown paper. I am still improving my technique, but this is what I did this time and I was fairly happy with the result. I hope that helps, good luck.
A few pics of my recent work - I have built and installed the "hidden" staging (ahem, not quite hidden I know!) and added to the scenery. The van that is rusting away will one day be in the middle of a pine forest which has yet to be installed. I have also run my first train since ballasting the main part of the track and so far everything is working ok.
The hidden staging is the small, narrow wooden extension you can see. I have yet to complete the backscene to cover the entrance of trains.
I have attached a few pictures of my latest purchase, all the way from Canada, an Athearn Genesis MP15-AC. I plan to weather it, and add some details onto it to make it look like a remote controlled loco. I am going to practice the weathering on the (Significantly!) cheaper Bachmann loco first however!
I have also attached a photo I took yesterday of the local railway depot in the "snow" before I got on the local metro to do Christmas shopping.
What I have learned so far: Big Things & Small Things
I've written a list of some of the things that I have learnt while building the layout. Some things are fairly minor, other things are much more significant. So, in no particular order:
1. Ballasting is a pain. I should have used real crushed stone, rather than fake ballast. It is taking me ages to clean up the track.
2. I need to be more patient. I am much better than I used to be in this regard, but it is hard to restrain oneself! I now force myself to take a step back periodically to look at my work and see if it is progressing how I envisaged.
3. Even code 100 track can be made to look ok with some weathering and painting. I will try code 75 next time I build a layout however.
4. I really enjoy composing a scene in my head and then trying to make it reality, and I think I enjoy this aspect of the hobby as much as operating. Maybe more so.
5. I really enjoy trying to make my photos look as realistic as possible. I am nowhere near achieving this goal yet, but I enjoy the process of improvement.
6. I think I would be more satisfied with a layout based to some extent on a prototype scene. To this end I have been doing some research to establish the locale for my next layout...
7. I am happy I can weather buildings to a reasonable quality, but I need to work on weathering rolling stock. I am finding it difficult to work up the courage however (importing rolling stock to the UK, or finding it within the UK for that matter, is not cheap!) I have been reading some articles & blogs about this however, and hopefully in the new year I will make a start on this. I’d also like to include plenty of graffiti too.
8. Making trees look realistic is hard. I am still very unhappy with my efforts. I have realised that it is worth investing in the right materials to make this element work.
9. I should have worked harder on the carpentry element of the layout – especially the backscene. The flaws in backscene, such as the slight gaps at the corners, are now frustrating me. Better planning at this stage would have really paid dividends. In my defence however, the main baseboard which everything else was built around (fascia & backboard) was recycled from a layout I built as a kid over 15 years ago).
10. Scratchbuilding is something I would like to do more of. I have made a mock-up of a warehouse to practice some techniques on (photos to follow when I get home tonight). It is a steep learning curve, but a satisfying one. I found that while I enjoyed building the Walther's warehouse that is currently installed on the layout and modifying it a little, that it lacked realism as I had not based it on a particular prototype.
11. Finally, and most importantly, I have really begun to think about why I enjoy model railroading. I still haven’t quite put my finger on it. But I think there are two main reasons.
A) Since I was a kid, I have enjoyed the size and raw power of railways. I really enjoy the satisfaction I get from trying to create a scene that looks and feels “real”, from the scenery to the loco and its cars (including operating it in as close to prototypical fashion as I can).
B)Furthermore, the sense of personal improvement I get, especially when I make mistakes, motivates me and inspires me to do better. Every time I sit down to do some modelling I try and learn something new, however small this lesson may be. In my everyday job I work in the financial sector, so it is very refreshing to do something creative. For the same reason I enjoy writing articles about the First World War (I studied history at university).
Critical comments are very welcome!