Building my new layout
- Thread starter spitfire
- Start date
C
Catt
Val,From our talks,reading about Parkdale and looking at pictures I feel you have capture the overall feel and daily operations.:thumb:
Thanks a lot everyone!! I am taking a little break from building right now. I should have photo's of the completed benchwork in a couple more hours. 
I'm very lucky to have some "inside information" on Parkdale Yard, which before CP built their massive hump yard out in Agincourt was responsible for freight out of Ashbridges Bay and Keating Channel to the east, from the many local industries in the "Circle" and "Hill", as well as the Wharf lead which served the waterfront. It was small but very busy.
Val
I'm very lucky to have some "inside information" on Parkdale Yard, which before CP built their massive hump yard out in Agincourt was responsible for freight out of Ashbridges Bay and Keating Channel to the east, from the many local industries in the "Circle" and "Hill", as well as the Wharf lead which served the waterfront. It was small but very busy.
Val
Benchwork is Done!
As promised, here are shots of the finished benchwork. First looking east towards the peninsula. Yeah, I have a lot of cleaning up to do.
Looking west from the peninsula with the yard area at the right, and the city section at the back. You can just see the edge of the peninsula at the lower left.
Here's the infamous duck-under, which is on the south side (the bottom on the trackplan).
And this is my buddy Roger who helped me build this. Look how fast he's working - his hands are a blur! Last time I built the benchwork solo, but it's way easier having professional help. :thumb:
That's it for now. I need a shower!!
Val
As promised, here are shots of the finished benchwork. First looking east towards the peninsula. Yeah, I have a lot of cleaning up to do.
Looking west from the peninsula with the yard area at the right, and the city section at the back. You can just see the edge of the peninsula at the lower left.
Here's the infamous duck-under, which is on the south side (the bottom on the trackplan).
And this is my buddy Roger who helped me build this. Look how fast he's working - his hands are a blur! Last time I built the benchwork solo, but it's way easier having professional help. :thumb:
That's it for now. I need a shower!!
Val
Val, it is good to hear from you again. The layout looks great. If you wanted to build a swing gate you could eliminate the duck under. If you put the hinge on the same side as the hinges on the door, it looks like the gate would swing back out of the way towards the city scene for ease of entrance. The benchwork in front of the door is very narrow looking, so it would be a prefect place to locate a gate.
galt904 said:Track plan to finished benchwork in 2 days. I wish I could work that fast.
I wish I could claim credit for that, but it actually took 2 of us 4 days, so that's 8 days of work. Of course, one of us (I'm not saying who
) is a professional builder...Val
Thanks for asking - actually I was able to find a little time today to re-paint the backdrop. Good thing I had lots of the original blue paint left over, but I was sad to see my lovely clouds get painted over. :cry:
Tomorrow, when the base coat is done, I am planning on re-doing the clouds. I'll be using Gavin Miller's stencil and spray method, only this time I am going to cut a couple of larger stencils to use higher up where the clouds appear "closer". I'll post some pics when I do.
Val
Tomorrow, when the base coat is done, I am planning on re-doing the clouds. I'll be using Gavin Miller's stencil and spray method, only this time I am going to cut a couple of larger stencils to use higher up where the clouds appear "closer". I'll post some pics when I do.
Val
Cloud Progress
Because of having to cover up cracks that opened up in the backdrop joins, I've had to re-paint the backdrop. Luckily I still had lots of my sky blue paint left over. Today I painted the clouds, and I never cease to be amazed how easy Gavin Miller's stencil method is.
Anyway, here are the results. Next step - laying the foam sub-roadbed.
Val
Because of having to cover up cracks that opened up in the backdrop joins, I've had to re-paint the backdrop. Luckily I still had lots of my sky blue paint left over. Today I painted the clouds, and I never cease to be amazed how easy Gavin Miller's stencil method is.
Anyway, here are the results. Next step - laying the foam sub-roadbed.
Val
Attachments
Hi Spitfire, long time no talk. Looking at your layout, if you wanted to increase its size to empire you could use the peninsula as a Nolix area, look at John Armstrong's plan for the Athabasca railroad, back in MR some time ago, can't remember. A peninsula was used to raise the trains but it was a visible helix in a peninsula shape. Its hard for me to see how do able according to your diagram as there are no foot marks.
IF you put a view break down the middle of the peninsula, not only will it separate the views of the train climbing but make the rest of the layout appear larger.
Cheers,
Rick
IF you put a view break down the middle of the peninsula, not only will it separate the views of the train climbing but make the rest of the layout appear larger.
Cheers,
Rick
Rick, are you suggesting a 2 level layout? I have to say that is a lot more ambitious than I can realistically take on, although it would be pretty cool. Also, I'm going to have some pretty tall buildings.
Val
Val
Maybe you could expand later when you finish the layout to have a 2nd level? You would nee to clear a spot for a helix though
Val, my bad; for some reason I thought you were in N scale. In N scale what I am proposing is very doable; its doable in HO scale but the "blob" from the helix would eat a lot of room and look ugly. Why is it doable in N, because with 17 inch radius, your peninsual needs to be about 38 inches wide; in HO with 30 inch curves, your peninsula wouldn't fit. If you put the helix in the corner, you'd have a 5 1/2 foot by 5 1/2 foot blob that would visually dominate the layout.
No problem Rick - suggestions are always welcome. If it were N scale I'd say a 12 x 18 ft layout is already an empire.
I did consider the possibility of turning a train at the end of the peninsula but the radius would be too tight so I discarded that idea in favour of some industrial track. One of my main goals with this layout is to have as many types of my favourite scenery as possible. The peninsula gives me a chance to do a harbour scene, and those tracks will serve as "modelled staging" for the yard.
Val
I did consider the possibility of turning a train at the end of the peninsula but the radius would be too tight so I discarded that idea in favour of some industrial track. One of my main goals with this layout is to have as many types of my favourite scenery as possible. The peninsula gives me a chance to do a harbour scene, and those tracks will serve as "modelled staging" for the yard.
Val
Well, I have one more idea but I'm going to check it out with some one tonight before I again suffer from premature verbalization. IF you don't hear from me on this thread, you'll know it was another bad idea.... lol!
Val,
I get the feeling you're more into the holistic MRR than any one particular aspect. You're looking for a layout that offers a good scenery:track ratio, some continuous running and some operation.
I think the plan you have is very good in that sense, and will be a manageable 1-person layout. You'll be able to build and detail it without it becoming an all-consuming task, and it's not so complicated that you'll spend more time maintaining it than running it.
Based on the pics on your website, I suspect you're going to do a fantastic job on this one too, and your results are going to rival Doc Wayne's.
Now howsabout some progress, huh?
I get the feeling you're more into the holistic MRR than any one particular aspect. You're looking for a layout that offers a good scenery:track ratio, some continuous running and some operation.
I think the plan you have is very good in that sense, and will be a manageable 1-person layout. You'll be able to build and detail it without it becoming an all-consuming task, and it's not so complicated that you'll spend more time maintaining it than running it.
Based on the pics on your website, I suspect you're going to do a fantastic job on this one too, and your results are going to rival Doc Wayne's.
Now howsabout some progress, huh?
Progress Report
Ok Squidbait you slave-driver you!
No pics yet, but yesterday I was able to get about a third of the foam sub-roadbed down. I started with the easy part - the yard area - because it's totally flat. I'm using 1 in. extruded insulation foam this time around. On the first layout I used Homasote, and while it's fantastic for driving track nails into, it's also becoming very hard to find. Also, it has to be painted both sides to keep it from absorbing moisture from the air, which is pretty time-consuming. And finally it's not great for carving contours, whereas foam is perfect.
I was shocked at the price -- it's gone way up since I last checked it out. It now costs as much as plywood!!!
BTW, you are right on with your assessment of what I'm trying to do. I love buildings, interesting little scenes and superdetailing and planned the layout that way. I already have lots of buildings, and it was a bit of a challenge fitting them all in. That's why the city is such a large part of the overall layout. Continuous running is a must, and although I've never actually done any operations I know I'll want to.
Here's a shot of the city to be -- a temporary placement of the buildings to see how it's going to look. As you can see, a lot of the buildings are not finished yet.
Val
Ok Squidbait you slave-driver you!
No pics yet, but yesterday I was able to get about a third of the foam sub-roadbed down. I started with the easy part - the yard area - because it's totally flat. I'm using 1 in. extruded insulation foam this time around. On the first layout I used Homasote, and while it's fantastic for driving track nails into, it's also becoming very hard to find. Also, it has to be painted both sides to keep it from absorbing moisture from the air, which is pretty time-consuming. And finally it's not great for carving contours, whereas foam is perfect.
I was shocked at the price -- it's gone way up since I last checked it out. It now costs as much as plywood!!!
BTW, you are right on with your assessment of what I'm trying to do. I love buildings, interesting little scenes and superdetailing and planned the layout that way. I already have lots of buildings, and it was a bit of a challenge fitting them all in. That's why the city is such a large part of the overall layout. Continuous running is a must, and although I've never actually done any operations I know I'll want to.
Here's a shot of the city to be -- a temporary placement of the buildings to see how it's going to look. As you can see, a lot of the buildings are not finished yet.
Val