faraway Wrote:I am just sitting in front of the edge of the layout and "learn" to live on the wrong side of the buildings... You might smile but it is a psychological issue for me to know the tracks are there but they are hidden by the buildings...

Fully understand - going through the same issue myself in some ways. But it's a matter of being prototypical for me more than anything and since 99.999% percent of the time, no one but me will be operating the layout - I'm pretty sure I can live with it.

I love the look - even with just the plain unfinished white structure boxes, I think it's great!

And after 48 hours he understood why it is a good idea to have a massive plywood kernel to put the styrene as a cover on...



I wish I had some good plywood and a band saw to get the building shape for sure and would have to glue on the styrene as an optical cover only. Refer to Gary's bank building if you wonder what I am talking about :cry:

Woohoo! That building could definitely use a plywood core! Still, the way you are doing it is just fine, and I always admire your efforts.

The thing that sets you out from the masses is that you are always working on something, always refining your layout, with new structures appearing on almost a weekly basis. Alot of us get bogged down in thinking and talking about the hobby, but not Reinhard, he is always building something!

The restructuring of the foreground buildings continues on the right side. The raw buildings structure has been build last night and I cleaned up the area on the layout early this morning. There are still some traces on the floor... have to clean it up. The openings for loading docks etc. have been deferred intentionally to have a homogeneous styrene sheet be be bent around the curve.


This building is more far away from my standard sitting position and does not block my immediate view. It can not be final glued in place because it spans over the boarder of the removeable door segment.


ps. The white paint will come on the building when the white stuff visible through the window disappears ... I need frost-proof paint in spray cans!

I have second thoughts watching the structure in it's place. Should I replace the inner curved wall of the building with a straight wall?
Would that a) look better b) be more prototypical? I did see in Vernon lots of buildings with one curved side following a given track but none of the buildings has the curve on the other side too. May be I overdid it with both walls curved?

Some time later....
I gave it a try. Straight wall is ok but the building is very dominating now. Would be fine in the background but in the foreground? May be I have to sit another day behind this new wall hiding my beloved layout...


Some more time later....
This is leading to nowhere. Both versions of the building are out of proportion for the layout and the place of the layout. The old building is back and I will scan Vernon again and again for a suitable/shrinkable prototype.

faraway Wrote:Should I replace the inner curved wall of the building with a straight wall?

Definetely yes.
When I saw the structure my first thought was: Banana! If there is no need for a curved wall no architect ever would build one. A straight wall means a shorter wall, less difficult, less expensive and more inside volume.

I didn't like the curved inner wall for the reasons SP1 mentions. But, I also agree that the building now dominates that part of the layout. What about keeping the curved wall building, but cutting it a bit shorter?

Putting the right structure in that spot certainly is a difficult problem to solve. I don't think either large building looks right, curved walls and all. I like the photo with the smaller building in place. I wonder if the corner would be better suited by small square or flat walled buildings placed along the track following the curve maybe two more like the one above? They could be joined (like sides on an octogon or seperated, belong to the same industry, or perhaps seperate companies? I think breaking them up might look better and keep it from looking like one huge building blocking your view.

It would certainly make it a switching challenge for operations and would force you to make sure that the right freight is spotted infront of the right customer.

I'm sure that what ever you come up with will look great though!

Could you fit a warehouse /other industry under construction into the space beside the smaller building? Some construction equipment and footings for the walls, possibly a truck delivering something or a crane starting to set a building side into position? - it would reduce the amount of track that is actually "hidden". might need a bit of the ground excavated for "services" being installed or waste water removal

I did have another look at Vernon and came to the conclusion that even smaller warehouses would have at least the size of the last huge building. But there are also some smaller industries with small buildings like the original and now again put on the lot. The estate this small industry own is small in US terms but it would easy fill the lot on my layout. A truck and trailer fits easy on that kind of property and can often do a U-turn too. This properties often do look not very well organized. A lot of stuff can be found laying around.
I will keep posting ...

It became a small industry quite similar to the old one. Some green had to go and a simple unloading device for tank and hoppers has been added. I had that unloading device still on the shelf from an earlier industry. It has been build after a prototype ( http://reliancemixers.com/images/Railcar...Header.jpg ) to unload covered hoppers in a chemical plant.

After a really long time finally my LAJ CF-7 arrived. I swapped shells and they are running on the former SantaFe chassis equipped with Athearn Genesis F7 motors and ESU Loksound decoders. They are very silent and smooth performers. I am happy to see real LAJ engines an my layout after talking about LAJ for month and month... Have to do some weathering when the first excitement settles down

Hi Reinhard,

Are these the latest release Athearn CF7s with the anntenna stand and roof air conditioner factory fitted, or the original release without the roof details and you have fitted the details yourself? Although I already have all 4 LAJ CF7s from the original run, I have ordered the latest offerings with the roof detail.

Thanks,

Jez

faraway Wrote:It became a small industry quite similar to the old one.

I think this industry looks just great. Nice structure and I like the unloading pipe arrangement too. More inspiration for my ISL!

jeznew Wrote:...Are these the latest release Athearn CF7s with the anntenna stand and roof air conditioner factory fitted, or the original release without the roof details and you have fitted the details yourself? ...

Jez, the CF-7 are on the photo as I got them some hours ago. The cab roof is populated with antenna stand and roof air conditioner and yellow beacon.
-I did chop of the two middle exhaust stack of the 2619.
-Looks like the beacon on the cab roof of the 2563 is also not prototypical (I love it, do I have to remove it? Don't know yet).
-MU cable stands and MU hoses are missing. There are a couple of photos that show lots of missing MU hoses on CF-7. Only the pipe comes out of the front, makes a 90° turn down and ends without a hose connected. I think standard LAJ operation did run without CF-7 MU consists.
-Ditch lights will be added too. That starts again the problem to find matching ditch lights. I have got some SMD LED to try my first operating ditch lights but I need a housing for them. The CF-7 ditch lights look like cubes with a lense at the front.