First Layout Progress...Mountain Side Town

[MinnMonkey]

Since it has been awhile since I posted any photos of my progress I decided I would post a few. Although progress has been slow, it has really sped up time when things are slow.

Since my last post I have laid the inner-yard. It is kind of hard to see in the pictures because the roadbed is black. I also purchased the Woodland Scenics Town and Factory Kit.

Although the scale isn’t perfect, I am using some old Micro-Machines I had as a kid for vehicles. In the background you can see my new Bachmann 4-4-0 steam locomotive. It will be the focal point of a park I intend to create, so it didn’t have to be much.

The last picture is of my unfinished control panel. Since space is very limited, I built a sliding drawer under my layout for the control panel. It really works well.

 

[Victorsmalls]

That is looking awesome, keep up the good work

 

[Sir_Prize]

Looking awesome!
That back corner worries me though... A derail looks to be a possible BIG problem.
Having the Kato track helps, but nothing is perfect... when humans are involved.

 

[MinnMonkey]

Looking awesome!
That back corner worries me though... A derail looks to be a possible BIG problem.
Having the Kato track helps, but nothing is perfect... when humans are involved.

The layout is wedged up against the wall, so the train won't fall on the floor, and when I start building the mountain, I will be sure to have plenty of access panels, or even a removable mountain top.

 

[SouthernPacific]

the pike is lookin good :thumb: , and I like the use of the Micro Machines

Thom

 

[MAGIC_CHEF]

I was just wondering if you could hook up more then one kato unitrack turnout to one kato turnout control switch?
by the way nice layout so far MinnMonkey

 

[Sir_Prize]

Oops!
sorry long reply back...
Cool! Looks like you've been reading and got everything figured out.

 

[MinnMonkey]

I was just wondering if you could hook up more then one kato unitrack turnout to one kato turnout control switch?
by the way nice layout so far MinnMonkey

I have never tried it, but I suppose you could. I can throw all 3 of my wired switches at the same time with 3 different control switches, and they all use the same power supply.

I took a Kato turnout control switch apart to see how it worked, and it is a very simple design, just a couple of stiff wires that momentarily touch when you flip the switch, there are no capacitors or resisters.

 

[MinnMonkey]

I have been focusing a lot of my time building the buildings that came in the Woodland Scenics Town and Factory Kit. I have been building them, and my girlfriend has been painting them (she does a much better job at painting than I ever could). I am still trying to figure out the best way to layout the downtown buildings.

Here are a few pictures:

Here is the"Kitts Transfer" DPM kit. I modified it a bit so a train can drop off a car inside the building:

Next is the Cafe across the street from the main rail-yard:

Lastly, I found that if you put a couple Micro-Machines inside a building, you get a car dealership, though I am not sure if I am going to keep it like this:

 

[ls1gto]

Looking great!

 

[MinnMonkey]

Wow! Nearly 2 years and no updates by me :-(. After a couple major life changing events (all positive BTW), I am finally getting some time to work on my layout again.

I am currenlty in the process of adding a 2'x3' urban section with a subway, street car, elevated passanger line, and a small industrail area.

Unfortuanitly I forgot to take pictures while doing the benchwork, but the construction was similar to the rest of the layout, except instead of using 2" foam, I used 1" on top of flat board (the kind clipboards are made out of).

I am currently working on the subway, and hoping to get pictures posted within the next couple days.

 

[bigsteel]

i just saw this thread and lov it so far :thumb:.it looks like your layout is turnin out great and i cant wait to see the new urban section.--josh

 

[jesso]

Can't wait to see your progress! Looks good so far.:thumb:

 

[MinnMonkey]

Here you can see the exsisting layout, pluse the track for the subway. The subway will be a single track loop with one station. There is a second track that will run through the station for visual effects but will not have trains on it.

 

[MinnMonkey]

The new addition (the white part in the photo above) will have 3 layers. A subway level, a streetcar / tram level, and an elevated level.

Here are the current plans for each level (the older part of the layout is to the right of these plans):

Subway Level:

The subway level will be a single working track loop and a asthetic 2nd track in the station (left side). On the oppisite end of side of the loop, there is a track that will bring trains up to street level. On the top and bottom of the track plan, there are two tracks that lead back to the old layout.


Street Trams:

The street level will be one continious loop with a couple turn-offs. There will be several passanger platforms long the track. Towards the bottom on the right side, the tram can go below grade to the subway level, also right outside the tunnel the radius is much greater to allow the larger subway trains to come up to street level, however they will not be able to continue past the first station. At the upper-right the tram can exit the urban layout and enter the staging yards or continue to the rural layout.



Elevated:

This is a very basic design with one passanger station on the left track, and a small industrial siding on the right tracks. Both tracks will connect with the staging yard and rural side at the top right, and dead end at the edge of the layout.

 

[MinnMonkey]

I have been working on my layout quite a bit the past several days, unfortunitly, it has been on things that don't show much progress.

First, I redid the wiring of the layout. I found that in order to add and wiring before, I would need to pull out the entire layout. Now, I have all the wires coming to the front of the layout, then patched into my control panel.

Here is a picture of my control panel (unfinished of course):

I have also installed the risers on my the urban side for the trains to get from the subway level to the street level (it is a mighty 8% grade and my trains operate quite well on it!):

Last week I purcahsed a Tomix passanger train that most resembuled typical US subways:

Lastly, I have been working on re-arranging the small town downtown. I have decided to only put buildings on one side of the street and open up some room for a river

 

[TrainNut]

This is really neat. I'm going to have to look into that WS town and country set. It looks like you got a lot of neat buildings that all somewhat match in time and design. I especially like that Tomix subway train. How's the quality of it compared to Atlas and Kato?

 

[MinnMonkey]

This is really neat. I'm going to have to look into that WS town and country set. It looks like you got a lot of neat buildings that all somewhat match in time and design. I especially like that Tomix subway train. How's the quality of it compared to Atlas and Kato?

The WS town set was really a good buy. I bought mine from wholesaletrains.com and was able to save about $30 on it.

The Tomix train really runs well. The center car is the powered car, but both the front and back cars have working headlights and tail lights. I don't have any experience with Kato engines, but it runs just as well as my Atlas engine.