Recent content by flyingtiger

Thanks fellow Minnesotan!

Thank you sir! I obviously agree with the idea of starting small and expanding for many reasons. It's nice to have something "finished" within 20 years, if you know what I mean. Then you are on to the next area, and so on. Also, I don't have the room for a huge layout, and to me, it would be...

Overall views of the expansion. Next project? Build another expansion along the opposite wall, with rolling hills and farmland, then connect it all together so I have one large continuous running loop. That will require some modifications on the original 5x9 near the DQ, to have...

Since I moved the large Agco building to the expansion, I had to do something in the spot where it used to reside on the 5x9 layout. I went back and forth between a gas station, or an old fashioned DQ. I opted for the DQ for a bit more interesting scene. I also needed to have a reason for the...

I connected the expansion to the main layout with a removable bridge. I keep thinking I need to add sides to it so trains don't fall off, but they traverse it with no issues, so I dunno. I had to modify the existing 5x9 layout slightly where the new bridge connects.

A couple of more views of the downtown area.

More views.

Looking down the street.

Now we cross over a street to reach the last customer on this spur. The customer Agco (this name may change) was once on the 5x9 portion of the layout, but I always thought it was too big of a building for that layout, especially considering it was on the small farming community side of the...

Now we start entering more of a downtown area with the main line along the backdrop, and the industrial spur along the front of the layout. The spur serves two more customers, and a third siding is along the front edge of the layout, with the customer "off the layout." This siding can be in...

Moving along, there is an area where a spur comes off the main line to serve several customers, including the King Plastic Corporation we just viewed.

Next is a more modern building, but still could have been built back in the 70s or even 60s. It really needs more weathering, especially on the holding tanks. One more thing on my list. This one is actually rail served behind the building.

Next in line is an abandoned building that was never rail-served. This is something I think layouts need more of. First, if you are in a modern city, many of the buildings are abandoned, and many were never rail-served to begin with. I think that creates an overall more realistic feel to the...

Next, I actually swapped out my Walthers Headquarters Building for one I purchased on ebay that was built and weathered because it looked way better than mine, and weathering a pre-built one, like I already had, was going to be too much work in my opinion, so I took the easy road. Well worth...