The Saga of My Ever Shrinking Railroad

[vsmith]

Thanks, I got that from your layout

 

[vsmith]

Added some paint to the backdrop to give some depth shadows, and added some building photos printed on heavy cardstock. Seams to make a difference.

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 15.JPG < Link To

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 16.JPG < Link To

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 17.JPG < Link To

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 18.JPG < Link To

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 19.JPG < Link To

I really like the effect, and I will add some more printed building flats to the rear backdrop
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 20.JPG < Link To

The only trouble is finding pictures that are large enough and flat enough to be usefull. I'm trying not to reuse the same buildings twice but its not easy to find the right pics.

 

[trammayo]

Excellent stuff Vic - really fills the scene in and compliments it. I have been thinking of something similar for my trailer but would need a laser printer because the inkjet prints tend to blur with the damp (unless I laminate them?).

 

[C&S]

Your back-scene is coming on really well, Vic. I particularly like the building with palm trees sandwiches between 3-D models, and the houses at the end of the staging yard.

Have you tried Googling http://www.cgtextures.com/ < Link To www.cgtextures.com for images? Many of them are European but there are some that are pretty universal, plus some useful trees including Los Angeles and Moroccan palms. I've found images for my G and HO layouts and have just started looking for stuff to back my latest Indonesian project

 

[vsmith]

Powerplant underway, foamcore walls, Piko windows, Precision Products doorway, strathmore and wood trimmings.

The bigest problem with large scale is thats its... well, so dam large! Layouts getting crowded.

Adding corbeling:

Just strathmore museum board cut into rectangles, scored and bent and glued down, also added a cut up Marx tinplate bridge, I only paid $10 for it so its not rare, but dont tell any Tinplate guys, I dont think they'd understand

also added a Freight House, same construction as the powerhouse

Us indoor guys can get away with murrr-derrr compared to outdoor standards

 

[Dtsteam]

Nice buildings Vic - particularly the wood trim - that looks excellent. I have been offered more of the garage and I am sooo tempted next winter.......
My powerplant is way crude by comparison, but it is by far the largest building on the trainset. You can't escape the fact that a powerplant doesn't look right unless its bigger than its neighbours. Having said that, I wish I'd seen your plant before I built mine.

 

[Netty]

I really like the backscenes, consider the ideas stolen Mine would of ended up just flat but the little bit of extra relief makes a big difference. The trees look best I think.

 

[Catandsouth]

Us indoor guys can get away with murrr-derrr compared to outdoor standards

As someone with an Ice House that has no back section (there's a siding there instead), I'll second that. Really like the new additions, Vic. There's a rather interesting new loco on the shelf behind the first Powerhouse picture. Care to tell us more?

To pick up on the comment about trees - I was in the pet-store today buying cat food, and was reminded that aquariums have quite interesting false plants in them, both plastic and also cloth (?), including what would be giant ferns in G scale. Prices tend to be less than G scale trees from the usual model sources.

 

[vsmith]

Giles, that engine in the background is The Monster, a model of an AC Price 16 wheeler built oin New Zealand:

Here it is on the Fairplex layout in Pomona

Without a doubt the biggest engine I ever built, back when I still had an outdoor layout and a glimmer of hope to expand it. Mostly now its a shelf queen but it will run on the indoor layout.

With all the pressures summer is bringing to get non-train projects done I dont know how often I'll be updating this thread, I have a building on the bench, but after that theres just one left planned. I'm making my buildings smaller as I've found that building large buildings significantly makes operations harder due the reach issues, so its time to simplify things in the name of being able to actually run this thing

 

[Dtsteam]

Thats a really nice engine, Vic. I particularly like the double articulation. I see from the Pomona shot that it has earned the coveted Borracho Springs decal.
Please continue this thread when you can - we wouldn't like to lose both 'big layouts in no space' guys, now you know who is selling up.

 

[vsmith]

Some revisions and new additions:

Moved to powerplant, fits better here, cut off the third floor, it was just too much, this may be turned into a different business, still deciding that.

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 29.JPG < Link To

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 30.JPG < Link To

New building , this originally was a brewery, but since I already have the Lucky Lager business, this will be a bottling plant Coca Cola or something like that.

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 31.JPG < Link To

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 32.JPG < Link To

The Dog will go back to its original spot, where I thought of placing it where I considered it was only a matter of time before it got damaged.

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 33.JPG < Link To

Finally, I found another ceramic building, a western themed building this time, needs a few repairs but it fits nicely in this corner.

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/New Beginning 34.JPG < Link To

Only one building left to add, and its going to be the toughest because the corner, next to the newest ceramic building above, is the trickiest to fit something into.

 

[vsmith]

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/Layout-New Direction Reduex 4-17-12.jpg < Link To

Possible Long Term plan, eventually extend across the remainder of the garage, add a river wharf and an engine facility. The layout will eventually be modeled after the first railroad in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles and San Pedro railroad, which went from the port (swamp) to the city (dusty pueblo). although my port will more likely be a navigable section of the lower Colorado river but I still might make it somewhere along the rugged California coastline. this will take along to time to do, as I have an aweful lot of stuff to consolidate just to clear up the area.

 

[vsmith]

Feeling like a little more reckless experimentation, big change in the works, no changes in the layout proper but a big change in geography

Here is the Master Plan, I am repurposing the layout as an full-on urban harbor terminal type line,

I have been fighting doing this for a long time, mostly just being pigheaded about keeping the desert theme, but I just could not make it work in my mind all the while the layout plan just screamed urban waterfront,I finally realized that most of my big stuff is not decaled for the Borracho line, just numbered. and that I had alot of stuff than would with very little effort, be convertable to the urban theme layout. what finally did it was reading this site one too many times:

http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/IndustrialLocos.html

One day my mind just clicked (or is that snapped) "yeah, I could do this without any major surgery" so there it is..

The boats will all be movable, just sitting on the surface, the aisleway water will be a fold down section that during ops will be kept down for layout access, and up for photo taking, the biggest single change will be switching from link/pins back to knuckle couplers, probably Bachmann's.

Haven't decided on a name yet, but the era will likely be post-war 1950's just before these lines were beginning to disappear. No name yet, not really worrying about that, some ideas:

Brooklyn South Rwy - keeps the BSR already on some engines

or maybe something a little more unique:
Gotham District Transfer
Gotham Harbor Transfer

As I said, I'm really not in a sweat over the name. So here we go

 

[C&S]

Wow, that's quite a change of scene, Vic, but it makes good sense of the crowded track plan. 1950s era - big city location - does that mean you'll have to retire some of the steam locos and replace them with (gulp) internal combustion critters?

 

[vsmith]

Nope, the little steamers will always be there for the Pizza, its the bigger engines that will get used here, some that are semi mothballed currently, so it will be a mix of steam and dismals. One tricky thing will be converting some of the larger freight cars with bogie trucks, and the other converting back to knuckle couplers after I dumped a bunch of them online, d'oh!

I'm already very close with the current layout, I just need to add a little more track. I am going to cut and lower the benchwork at the harbor transfer barge. Thats a heckove lot easier than raising the track everywhere else, the water surround will be added at the same lower height. Whats the old movie? Dont raise the bridge, lower the river?

No hurries, I still have to clear a bunch of junk out of the way and reclaim possession of my garage but I can keep modifying rolling stock and gathering material for more backdrop buildings as I go along

 

[Dtsteam]

I think its a great idea Vic. Having spent a few hours exploring the BEDT website, and barely scratched the surface, I can see where you get your inspiration from. Little steamers,critters, boxcabs, electrics and even streetcars - the list is endless. As ever, I'm looking forward to the build. I've just got my head round a pop-up railroad based on a portage line, and you give me this for inspiration.....

PS. I stable critter C&S no 5, so when you're ready to rock'n'roll let me know, and he can have a vacation - I'm sure it'll please you-know-who as well.

 

[vsmith]

After some feedback from the smaller scale guys familiar with dockside type railroads, track plan has been revised a tad to include a holding spur next to the transfer barge and a run around at the gantry crane spur.

I should consider calling this the Spaghetti Central

 

[C&S]

I should consider calling this the Spaghetti Central

Or you could just go with Spaghetti Western RR
Good idea having a run-round loop near the barge slip.

 

[Tim Brien]

Vic,
your fertive imagination continues to amaze. Personally, I could never 'downsize' but obviously your continual changes keep you interested in your modelling. I woke up a few months ago feeling totally disinterested in continuing in largescale, for the forseeable future, as I simply ran out of steam. There were just too many projects underway and the prospect of finishing all of them was simply too daunting.

I do not know how you keep producing without seeming to lose interest occasionally. As they say, "A change is as good as a holiday."

 

[Madman]

So many ideas, my head hurts Vic. I don't know why, there's nothing in it.