Hi, thought I would share some pics of my first layout, after being an armchair modeler for 30 years. I wanted to have a small town, and an industrial area. And I wanted trains to be able to circle, instead of just a point to point. I have a runoff track to a future staging yard along a wall which will help quite a bit during operating sessions. I have quite a bit of work to do, especially with finishing the double-sided backdrop and finishing the majority of the industrial side, plus LOTS of little things here and there that are not finished. I have really enjoyed building the layout, in spite of many frustrating setbacks and duh moments. Best of all, I have a son who is super into trains as well. I plan to update the post with more pictures as I finish the layout. (Oh, and I really need a new camera!) Thanks for looking! I guess I exceeded my quota for adding pics. I will have to add more later I guess.
This looks really great; the detail is excellent, and would love to see more pictures of what you've done so far *Thumbs up*
Thanks! Man, my layout was a piece of cake next to the monster you are building. Helixes intimidate me!
I do have a track plan I will post, and yes, I will do an aerial plan as well. I have been wanting to do that, and I think it will look cool. I will post both and more pics after my 3 day grace period. I just joined the forum. Thanks for the compliment!
Great looking layout. Alot of operation for a small foot print. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Have done a lot of updates to the layout in the last couple of months. Sorry no trackplan yet, due to some technical difficulties. Hopefully that will be resolved soon. First up the scrap yard... I am mostly finished, though it needs more scrap. I weathered the precast junk pile to improve its' fake look, and I added some other details here and there, including real pieces of rusted metal. Those look pretty good methinks. Just need a lot more of that type of stuff to fill out the scrapyard. And I need to weather the piece of equipment as well.
I also added the BLMA Models Cell Tower kit. I plan to add some cables running down the tower to the telco hut as well. I think that will really add quite a nice bit of detail. You can also see behind it that I added a general storage area for containers. Still need some more detail in that area, and I am thinking of fencing it all in. (Which gets expensive.) I really like those great looking JWD Premium Products cable reels. They make fantastic stuff!
Next up is the Mason City Steel Supply building I created out of a Walthers Lakeville Warehouse. I was fairly annoyed at Walthers. I bought the re-packaged kit, and after it sat at home for a couple of months, I finally opened it to discover that several of the sprues and accompanying parts were missing. Mostly the lower brick wall pieces. I contacted Walthers and they told me it was a known issue and they were not sure when replacement parts would be available. Thanks a lot! So, I decided to just use styrene, and print out a real block wall from a picture and glue it on. It doesn't look as good as I had hoped, but it will do for now. Overall I was pleased with my first "kitbash."
I also added another really nice BLMA product. The billboard. I needed something to stick in the corner of the layout, and it fit the bill. I printed out my own Billboard ads, one for Amtrak, and one for Tron Legacy, one of my son's favorite movies. I plan to add the Billboard owner logo at some point as well to add some more life. Also added some rooftop details to the nearby industry. Here is an overall look of the "City" side of the layout. Still one big hole to fill (planning on a completely scratch-built - scary - structure that takes tank cars), and lots of details like signs and power poles.
I also replaced the rather fake looking benches that were in my Town Park with these much more realistic specimens from JWD Premium Products. Forgot to point out I added a scratch-built brick structure to fill out the Grain Elevator on the City side. These trash cans really add a nice bit of detail to a suburban street scene. Thinking about adding more next to these with different colored lids, to represent recycling. Not sure though - that may overdo it a bit.
Last updates for now... Added some signage out front and on the American Hardware Kit. Also added a flowering hedge and the water tank up top. Still need to add some visitor parking only and handicap parking signs. Lastly, it's amazing what a bit of lumber, a forklift, and some pallets can do to liven up a lumber yard. Again, I hope to have a trackplan soon. I tried to do an aerial view with a series of shots, but the images do not match up well. They tend to get warped towards the edges, so I gave up for now. Any good critiques greatly appreciated. Let me know what I can do to improve. Lots of things already bother me about the layout. But, learning a lot too.
I like your town on a hill a little above the track. Reminds me a bit of the geography of Guthrie, Oklahoma on the Santa Fe.
Great work, I like how you fit everything in without over crowding the layout. Still looks nice and open. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Finally finished the Main Layout work, in the way of structures at least. My last one was pretty much scratchbuilt, and I think it came out pretty good. Not based on any prototype, just in my head. I also added some power lines to both sides of the layout. Now if I could only get the dang trains to actually run right, and stop stalling!