Well, here it is all decked out with everything I've got so far: I also put a version on railimages, but Trainboard won't link to it. It's going to be a freelance layout based on the Jersey City waterfront. I have a Pennsylvania RR GP9 from MTL as well as rolling stock from the companies that used to run around here (Penn, NYC, NJC, Erie, Lackawanna, Conrail, and CSX). The three spurs from left to right will serve Gravel, Freight, Tanks. I have decouplers wherever you see flex-track. I'm using Peco flex-track with Rohukan sectional track. The rails match up very well and the tie spacing is similar. If you put them side by side, the ties will line up every 17 ties. You can see the template I made for the roads, which I'm going to make from 0.03" black polystyrene sheets. The buildings are mostly Miller Engineering. That's the Mile Stone Gravel Co. kit on the left as it's my only constructed industry so far. I'm going to build a train-cat tank car platform and a Kibri freight yard. It's been a long time coming, but once I tore down the big layout I was never going to finish it was only a matter of time.
Awesome! Great to see some progress. I'll be following along and can't wait to see the finished product. :thumbs_up:
Might I suggest sacrifice a siding for one continuous loop? Somedays you just want to put the train on track and watch go around.
Very nice looking layout, nice opportunities for some car spotting / industry work. Might be kind of fun, for when you want to go a bit automatic, to add some auto-reversing circuits: http://www.heathcote-electronics.co.uk/SAshutLp.htm#SA1. Look forward to seeing more photos of this layout! John www.ztrains.com
Well, a bit more progress almost exclusively on the painting front. I've been unable to find pin striping tape narrow enough to make good lines (I think I need about 1/32") for the roads, but I can always do it over if I find any. Also, now that Micron has re-released their metal foundry kit I've abandoned the container freight yard idea, so I'll probably have to redo the streets anyway. But, that'll have to wait until zscalemonster finally recovers from Hurricane Irene. It's also more prototypical for a transition era Jersey City waterfront layout anyway.
Pinstripe Tape Check with any of the larger office supply stores. I believe that Office Depot carries drafting tape in many colors down to 1/64". They can order anything that they don't have in stock.
Me too - I sometimes watch four trains going around the layout. Like watching a fish tank ... the days cares seem to dissappear!
Well, I gave into peer pressure and linked the upper right corner so it makes a full loop. I'll be getting a NY Central GP30, some hoppers, and Micron's new Metal Foundry in today so once I figure where everything's going to be, I can redesign the town in the center. I might even be able to fit an industry on the top area too. But, everybody was right, it's great watching the train going roundy-round. It's nice to have a functioning train-set for once.
While I still like the point-to-point switching layout (especially since I took this design and went nuts with it for my harbor layout), I think this is great too. Can't wait to see some trains running on it, Ken!
