No room for that, was one of the most annoying things I have herd in my model railroading adventures. Sadly in some cases there is little room for all the things we want to model, but if we look at the available space and really give it some consideration, you’d be surprised on what you can do. For those of you who do not know, I model in G scale. I have been modeling a 30 mile segment of a now defunct short line. To really make things interesting my layout is in a 28 foot by 18 foot basement. So I have learned to squeeze the most out of every inc that I can. One thing I learned when I have visited other model railroads, is that many corners go un used. On one layout visit, the owner showed me how he used his corners. He said that if you look at a building, from any angel you only see at best 50% of the building. So he cut some of his buildings in half to fit in the corner. He then reused the back half’s some other place on his layout. Below is a good example of getting the most out of the space. Image No. 1 shows the corner and track. There is little room there for much scenery. Not quite so. Image No. 2 shows the finished building for the space. First off note its just sitting on an unfinished part of the layout, for taking pictures. Note how the roof was angled. Both left roof and right roof was cut at angels to meet the walls of the layout room. Image No. 4 shows that the building is little more then a facade. Almost like an empty shell. Image 5 shows how the building fits into the corner. In many place I have used techniques like this to give the impression that there was more of a building there then there really was. IE. Some of you may remember my tool shed and sand house. See next post for the continuation of the story.
No room for that…… Part 2 The tools shed and sand house are only half of a building. The open side is right up against the isle side of the layout. This gave me a chance to model the inside of the tool shed and sand hose as well. Some times your limitations can open new modeling doors for you. I have plans for a second passenger station to be modeled like the tool shed and even a store that will be cut at nearly a 45* angel to show the insides and all.Even the roundhouse in the last image has used these techniques. Its hard to tell but the last two (2) stalls with closed doors are really just flat facades on the wall.
