Workin' on main street

T

Tyson Rayles

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Sep 25, 2001
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Poverty Acres, North Carolina
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I finally have gotten back to doing some work on the layout. I had hoped to have main street done by now but stuff keeps coming up. Thought I would go ahead and post a few in-progress shots so everybody wouldn't think I gave the hobby up :D :rolleyes: :D :p :D ! The long building on the right is from my first attempt at this layout. It will stay basically the same except for some changes in the signs. The two buildings on the left are being kitbashed from their previous life (also on the first version of this layout) and are still a work :rolleyes: in progress as well.
 

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Hi Tyson,

Beautiful work as always and really like your structures. What type material are you using for your roads. Looks to be just what I'm looking for. I bought myself a bunch of those cars and trucks for Christmas and there really neet. Sure hope your feeling a lot better. Ron :)
 
Hi Ron, been feeling pretty good lately thank you! :D I use n-scale cork roadbed for my roads. One and a half strips is the perfect width for a two lane road. I then smear lightweight spackling compound over it to fill the seams between the 3 pieces, then lightly sand and paint.
 
Excellent!!

What a nice little town that is Tyson!
I like the way you can look down the street, & see more buildings on the next street back.
Great work, my friend!
:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

(that approaching "front" does look pretty dangerous, though! :D :p ;) :D )
 
layout

Tyson that town of yours looks pretty believeable.You could be strolling down mainstreet USA.I on the other hand am having trouble get my mainstreet to layout properly. I want to incorporate as many structures as possible but the area is shaped like a teardrop inside my double track curves.Does anyone have a source for city planning:confused: any suggestions would be appreciated. Tyson you said that you used 1.5 sections of n scale cork, would that be roughly equal to 1 ho section. In the parking area sections do you use pieces of cork or cardboard and then paint the whole thing after it's been spackled and sanded.
 
Thanks Belg! It's been so long since I've seen anything HO I don't know about using it for the road. If it's around 1 and a half inches it should work. I usually use sheet plastic or balsa for parking areas. One reason you may be having a problem laying out your main street/town area----" I want to incorporate as many structures as possible". Unless you have a fairly large area it's very hard to put New York city (even in n-scale) in a small space and have it look right. Ralph I've been debating your suggestion for a couple of months. You really don't see that much around here. They usually set the water tank on the ground wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy up and outta sight on a mountain somewhere (gives increditable water pressure, so much so check valves sometimes have to be installed so your garden hose doesn't explode if you turn off the nozzle!). :D But I like the idea and it is my railroad......................................
 
Tyson, I hope you're well on the road to good health again.
I've been admiring your street scene, nice job you did .. (as usual :) ).
You have a talent for making things look natural and I'm gonna pinch your colour schemes for my DMP buildings. Don't worry, they won't be identical to yours :) . I have to fit about the same number of buildings into the right hand end of my loop and considered 1/16th thick balsa as the base/sidewalk height (I think that equates to approximately 8" high kerbs).

Thanks for sharing
Errol
 
Re: layout

Originally posted by belg
Tyson that town of yours looks pretty believeable.You could be strolling down mainstreet USA.I on the other hand am having trouble get my mainstreet to layout properly. I want to incorporate as many structures as possible but the area is shaped like a teardrop inside my double track curves.Does anyone have a source for city planning:confused: any suggestions would be appreciated. Tyson you said that you used 1.5 sections of n scale cork, would that be roughly equal to 1 ho section. In the parking area sections do you use pieces of cork or cardboard and then paint the whole thing after it's been spackled and sanded.
Click to expand...

Hi belg!
Many times, in the compressed world of a model RR, it's the placement of structures, & the angle they're viewed from, that's more important than how numurous they are...one thing that can really make any scene appear larger, is to view it at, or near eye-level. (all scenes, both real & model, appear smaller when viewed from high in the air)
Try to avoid making streets perpendicular &/or parrallel to the layout edge, &/or tracks...have them going off at odd angles to the tracks & each other...this actually makes the scene appear larger, & is far more visualy interesting than a square, grid-like layout. The fact that you're working in a teardropped-shaped space is to your advantage here.
The photos that Tyson posted here, are a good example of what I'm talking about...notice how the streets angle away from your field of view...your "mind's eye" is telling you, "That steet is going somewhere...there's more around that bend in the road."
In the first photo, the house at the end of the street implies that there are more streets behind these foreground structures...
My brain is telling me that I'm looking at fewer than a half dozen structures in any one of these photos, but my eyes are telling me that I'm on a main street, somewhere in a small mountain city.

As for streets & parking lots, I like using cardboard...it's cheap, easy to cut into any shape or size, & can be painted & weathered to be a very realistic representation of many types of road surface

Also check out a book called Building City Scenery by John Pryke (Kalmbach Pub.)
 
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