The JACALAR RR

Thanks Jerry, I am very pleased with how well they turned out. You may have reversed the two plans. The curved spurs, taking up all the space in the front corner is the current plan, and the three simple spurs heading to the upper right is the proposed.

Nothing gets set in stone until I get the remainder of the buildings (or most) built up, and I play on the actual layout. I find I do my best design that way, using the XtrackCad as simply a guide.

 

Did some more fooling around with the track plan, and finished the rest of the WS Scenic Ridge buildings this weekend.

Here's what the layout currently has in the area



and, here's what I'm leaning towards (slightly different than the prior version)



Besides the elimination of the mostly unused leg, by reversing the positions of the two switches on the vertical track running up at 13', I now have a "main-line" to take from either my mountain tunnel/bridge (the lower curve, following the bench work) or Laurel Gulch (the straight down at 13', curve starts about 6 inches later), or can switch into the yard. The current layout, and the initial proposal, still limited that option to only coming out of Laurel Gulch, while coming off the mountain had to go through the periphery of the yard.

The road out of the mountains will run parallel to the vertical track, just to the right of it, and I think the town will be on both sides of that track, centered around the two switches.

 

JACALAR Urban Planning

To help me get a feel for how this will all work, I printed out this area in 1:1 scale, and laid it out on the floor, putting the buildings up. Here are all 12 of the town buildings from the SR kit. I did it this way, before ever touching the actual layout (didn't want to pull up track to "change my mind" again)



The blue squares to the right will the MicroStructures Gulf gas station and MicroStructures Parkway Diner. The blue on the upper left will be the new N scale WS Drive 'N Dine. Will fill in near the tracks with parking, maybe small park, etc.

Here's looking at the entrance to town, coming from Laurel Gulch and the mountains



I've left enough room for a 40' wide road, plus parking.

A bit more of the town which will be in foreground area



The road here will also service the industrial spurs, so will have a lot of truck traffic. You can see that the cross street will go across the grade both here and into the backdrop (behind the hotel). The main road along the track will curve as well (why the buildings are at an angle on the upper left).

Another wider view



I have some other industrial buildings I'll use to fill in some of the space, but I think I'm beginning to like how this might come together.

 

Planning Help

In working on the urban planning, I had a lot of 4-legged help, particularly from two 4 week old foster kittens. This is Lexi





She kept wanting to see what was inside the buildings, and, more importantly, what was under the paper.

We have Lexi and her brother, who were rescued at about 7 days of age. We've been bottle feeding them since. In another few weeks, they will be big enough to be spay/neutered and then put up for adoption.

 

That is why they are in the house, and here the "layout" is paper. No cats in the train shed

 

Building the town

With the urban planning complete, and nice Saturday, I got out to the layout reasonably early, and tore into it. Changed the track to the new layout (still have to wire the turnouts and drop feeders), but with some construction paper to simulate the streets, here's how the new section begins to look

Here's an overview of the commercial area of town. The pink cutouts are for the MicroStructure's Gulf Station and Parkway Diner.



Turning the corner to the left



and here is the industry area

 

Here are a couple closeups





The real streets won't be quite so wide, as I cut the paper wide enough to also include the sidewalks. And, of course, lots of detailing, etc to go (months). But, now I have the area worked out. Will have to start "at the back" with the backdrop and ballasting, and work my way forward.

I've also completed a WS Sonny's SuperService Gas Station. This is the "ready to build" version of their pre-built structures. This station will be on the road leading to Laurel Gulch

 

Thanks, Mark. I didn't want the crowded look. A parade, with floats and balloons (Macy's style)... yeah, well. Or, have a marching band crossing the tracks, while a runaway loco comes barreling down on them.

I spent a whole lot of time on the hotel, and am quite pleased with it. About 6 hours of detail painting (why I didn't do the others in quite so much detail).

 

Very nice Rick, I'm enjoying your thread.

 

Thanks JSL / Jerry / Jim. Today was wiring the track and switches that I put in, yesterday (went ahead and weathered / dropped feeders from most of the new). Also, first layer of plaster cloth on the new riser into the mountains, since the old one had to be pulled out, the curve being that much different. So, unless you like photos of me under the bench, bumping my head, swearing, etc., no more this week.

I did get a number of the Detail Associates Rail Scene backdrops. Will have the city and downtown scenes behind the town, across the double track, so that the streets continue on into the backdrop. Also, a Walthers working oil pump, which will go in the corner at the far right of this current scene (where the tacky glue bottles are in the above picture). That area will be raised above the track, with the outside track running through a rock faced cut. The Rail-Scene oil fields and tank farm will be on the backdrop there.

I'm actually going to start in that corner, now that the layout is operational (only 36 hours down, not bad), since it is the farthest reach point on the entire layout, and work my way outwards into the town. If I can get all the "hard/long reach" area complete, the rest of the scenery should flow well.

 

Oil Field Beginnings

Like all good projects, one wanting to complete one thing leads to all sorts of prerequisites, which lead to others, including solving singing turnouts (at least if it was something good...). Going into the town project, I already knew that I would need to first complete the corner area between my mountainous area and where the town is, simply because it is the deepest stretch / reach of anywhere on the JACALAR, and I need to get it done before working on any scenery which will be in front of it.

Initial plans call for an oil field, and I've seen no reason to change those ideas, so, without further to do or fanfare - the beginnings of the the oil field!

An innocent query to Mike Fifer about some buildings on his layouts backdrop led to my discovery of Design Associates' Rail Scene backdrops. Not only buildings, but some cool oil field and tank farm. Here are color copies of the actual backdrop, simply cut out and taped to the sky backdrop



You can see the three tracks, with the furthest back track also being the lowest, the other two being elevated to head into the mountains. The penciled in rectangle is where the cut out for the oil rig goes. Here's a closer look at the backdrop



When ready, the actual RailScene backdrop will be neatly trimmed and glued to the wall. I am also planning to paint more distant hills / mountains above and behind these, adding more depth.

I made a base for the corner module, with the hole cut out. I will use plaster cloth to form terrain on this base. Just as the base in the opposite corner, where The Caboose and the hardware store are, this will be able to be lifted out, and the detail work done off the layout.



Here's the pump in place, with the rock face that will be along the tracks



I still have to decide the exact terraforming to do on this module.

 

Rail Scenes -- City buildings

My real interest in the Rail Scenes was to provide more backdrop of the town, creating depth. Again, just copies of the real backdrop (and not even trimmed), but these two photos give you an idea on what this will look like

 

Nice progression Rick, the oil pump turned out nice. I have never worked with back drops so I appreciate you sharing the process with us.:thumbs_up: