Now its just a matter of playing around with the building models to get a "skyline" that feels right. For a generic lower downtown Denver (Lodo) the operator will be facing west towards the mountains, Cherry Creek is to the left and Union Station is to the right (and off the layout). Denver's Union Station fronts on Wynkoop Street with the passenger tracks basically occupying Wewatta Street. Wewatta is basically the railroad mainline for much of its length. From a backdrop perspective the mountains are fairly distant so would probably only run about half way up the backdrop. Will have to experiment with how that will really look.
Here is the back row of buildings on the bridge module. I want to keep the buildings in the back relatively tall, mostly 3-5 stories. I think this is particularly important around the bridges to really use that vertical element and suggestion of a brick canyon.
And the back row on the viaduct module. Again taller around the viaduct itself to keep it from dominating the scene to much. When its actually built the viaduct isn't going to be anywhere near as chunky as my stand in.
An end to end look.
Now its time for the foreground buildings. Now its time to keep the heights a little lower to give the viewer a layered look and that brick canyon feel running from end to end. This should make some good picture opportunities. I intend to make all foreground buildings removable for operations. I'm thinking that loading docks would remain in place to show where the car spots are. There are fewer car spots along the front. The area to the right of the viaduct on the front will not have a building but rather remain a vacant lot for a team track.
Buildings for the creek module. Keeping all the buildings on the far left relatively tall.
And for the viaduct module. Again relatively tall around the viaduct with a vacant lot to get some good pictures of the trains coming from under the viaduct.
End to end look of the whole thing.
