Bookbear1, Nice use of the scenic divider and arrangement of your stream/buildings on your layout. Doesn't look like a roundy-round loop at all. Keep us posted on the progress of the scenery!
Nice layout Bookbear. I want to start on something small like that untill a build a place for a big layout
I hear ya, TJS. I SO want to build a larger layout but space just doesn't permit. But I am having fun with this one. I did add some clumps of trees as several suggested. Pics below: I'll be doing some more foliage and I almost have another building finished. I am ordering a tree kit from Forest in a Flash and see how they work out. I've only used Woodland Scenics stuff up until now. I appreciate all the nice comments and suggestions. Being a "lone wolf" a forum like this is my only real modeling contact, and the feedback is valuable!
This weekend I finished the larger grain elevator and put together a small fruit stand (it was supposed to be a snack bar, but hey! it's my world...). Placed them on the layout, futzed with position and cemented them down. Added some foliage people, and cars, too. This section is coming along, I think; but there will be a gas station and the combo passenger/freight station added. the Bearly Co-op (they are ALWAYS fighting!) the produce and fruit stand (yeah, I know....really big apples, aren't they?) part of the little hamlet of Bearly Halt, shoing the tavern, general store, and produce stand all in all, a productive weekend!
Hey, didn't the late oil painter Bob Ross say that just about every show. Along with his "happy mistakes"?
Well, after a long break, I've started on the "city side" of the new layout. I have the materials (kits and kit bash bits and pieces) for the four buildings I plan on, and I worked on the positioning of them. Allowing room for streets and sidewalks, this is what I have come up with: The yellow squares are the building's footprints Here the sidewalks are in place, also the wiring for the lights in the buildings, though you cannot see it, its behind the scenic backboard.
Bookbear, I love the look of your layout. It reminds me of my father-in-laws stories of when he was a kid here in IL. With an avitar like yours, I hope we'll see a black and gray CB&Q SW switching at the grain elevator and a red and gray GP-30 pulling a local! Great work on the structures BTW
Thanks for the compliments, guys! It was really the look I was going for, since I am from Illinois (although I left when I was five)...and of course, out here on the left coast, we only have two seasons, 'fire' and 'earthquake', so I only see fall colors in my mind and on film and in books. I really DO need to get a CBQ switcher, closest I have now is a GP7. Its an Atlas, and is the best loco I have....quiet, great puller, really good slow speed performance....by far the least tempermental on rough track, too.
<forehead smack> I just realized I never posted the pics of the gas station and the passenger/freight station from the country side of the layout There were the last things I did before taking the nearly 6 week break from building. So, here they are: (Don't you wish we could go back to those gas prices?)
Your little layout is taking shape nicely. Seeing your progress is giving me some motivation to soon get back into building another layout. I'm currently taking a break from modeling, but I think it's almost time to return.