First Layout - (another) Miami Industrial Switching shelf layout
- Thread starter mschreuder
- Start date
Shortliner2001
Member
This one, Ness Street. designed and built several years ago in HO (following an N gauge trackplan by Mike Fischer) will fit your space without trouble, It has 6 industries and an interchange track (Lower Right) where your cars start at the begining of your shift, and finish at the end of it. The various boxes were used as building mockups. Everything is self contained with no extra fiddle yard needed
U
up dallas sub
Guest
oh wow thats nice, thanks!now i just gotta get a gp 38, all i have is gevo's and c44-9w's
There are definite advantages to a small layout, BUT, it all depends on YOUR ultimate goal. My layout will be able to keep 4 to 5 people busy for several hours, which is what I enjoy. So, for me, having to stare at plywood for a while is part of the bargain. But every time I see work like Lance Mindheims' it sure makes me think about starting over.
Kerry
mschreuder
Member
Here is the latest, and hopefully final version of the trackplan.
mschreuder
Member
Well, my son's football season is over, so I've got some time to start working on the railroad again.
I decided the next step was to start building up some more elaborate mockup buildings to get a better sense of the dimensions, style, overall look, etc.
To make the mockups, I started browsing around my faviorite (FREE) texture website, http://www.cgtextures.com/ and downloaded a bunch of images of rollup doors, concrete, plaster walls, etc. I also did some sightseeing in Miami via Google Street View and grabbed a few screen shots of signs, container stacks, etc. I took some measurements to determine the building footprints and dimensions and started putting it all together in Microsoft Visio with the drawing scale set to 1ft = 87ft. A little cropping and resizing, and it comes together pretty easily. Printed the results out on a color printer on plain old cheap paper, used spray adhesive to stick it to 3/16" foam board, cut out all the pieces with a razor blade, and assembled everything using Elmers white glue.
They're certainly not permanent structures by any stretch, but I think they look pretty darn good for the little bit of work it took. I've got one full building and two 2" building flats done - took maybe 4 evenings or so. I also put together a simple flat of some pictures of container stacks taken directly off of Google Street View. Not sure what I want to do with the skinny spot under the thermostat, but this will do for now.
The next project will be the buildings to hide the holes in the backdrop in the corner where the track ducks into the 'staging' area. I'll then just keep working my way around the room.
I decided the next step was to start building up some more elaborate mockup buildings to get a better sense of the dimensions, style, overall look, etc.
To make the mockups, I started browsing around my faviorite (FREE) texture website, http://www.cgtextures.com/ and downloaded a bunch of images of rollup doors, concrete, plaster walls, etc. I also did some sightseeing in Miami via Google Street View and grabbed a few screen shots of signs, container stacks, etc. I took some measurements to determine the building footprints and dimensions and started putting it all together in Microsoft Visio with the drawing scale set to 1ft = 87ft. A little cropping and resizing, and it comes together pretty easily. Printed the results out on a color printer on plain old cheap paper, used spray adhesive to stick it to 3/16" foam board, cut out all the pieces with a razor blade, and assembled everything using Elmers white glue.
They're certainly not permanent structures by any stretch, but I think they look pretty darn good for the little bit of work it took. I've got one full building and two 2" building flats done - took maybe 4 evenings or so. I also put together a simple flat of some pictures of container stacks taken directly off of Google Street View. Not sure what I want to do with the skinny spot under the thermostat, but this will do for now.
The next project will be the buildings to hide the holes in the backdrop in the corner where the track ducks into the 'staging' area. I'll then just keep working my way around the room.
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tankist
Active Member
they do look good indeed. i wouldn't say "little work", i imagine it still took you number of hours to do these
68 Camaro
Member
Super job on the mockups. That is an interesting website for textures. Where did you find your Antillean container print work? They look good. Lance Mindheim sent me some external printing of the Antillean Logo that can be printed off and placed on wood block material.
Larry
mschreuder
Member
Thanks for all the kind comments! The photos of the Antillean container stacks are just screen shots from Google Street Views along the river. I grabbed a couple of shots and lined them up together and printed them out. If you look close, the perspective is a little goofy from one end to the other, but it serves the purpose.
mschreuder
Member
Fascia Board
A little more progress - I ripped some 1/8" masonite I had lying around down to 6" width and made a fascia board to go around the perimiter of the benchwork. I think 1/4" masonite would have been a little better, but this is what I had and I think it will work out OK. It really makes a difference in the looks of things, hiding the exposed edge of the foam and the wood. Not sure if I'm going to paint it or not - probably wait to see how the colors of everything else work out.
A little more progress - I ripped some 1/8" masonite I had lying around down to 6" width and made a fascia board to go around the perimiter of the benchwork. I think 1/4" masonite would have been a little better, but this is what I had and I think it will work out OK. It really makes a difference in the looks of things, hiding the exposed edge of the foam and the wood. Not sure if I'm going to paint it or not - probably wait to see how the colors of everything else work out.
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mschreuder
Member
Weathering Track
I got an inexpensive airbrush for Christmas, so the first thing I decided to do was to start weathering the track. I followed the advice given in one of Lance Mindhiem's articles in Model Railroader. I started off giving everything an airbrush coat of Polyscale light gray thinned way down with isopropyl alcohol. After that dried I did a wash of artist oil burnt umber and mineral spirits to bring out the detail in the ties. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and really looks nice for the well-weathered roadbed look that I am aiming towards. Along the way I tried cleaning the rail with a folded up paper towel soaked in some alcohol - big mistake! The paint came off the railhead OK, but I've got little specks of white paper shreds all over the place to clean up. The last step I did was to get one of the Floquil paint pens in the rust color and draw along the visible side of the rails. This time I got a little smarter and followed some advice I remember seeing and had a couple of scraps of pine 1x4 soaking in a dish of alcohol. That worked fantastic for cleaning off the tops of the rail without messing up the paint on the rail web - and best of all no annoying white "cling-ons". Next step - try my hand at laying ballast!
I got an inexpensive airbrush for Christmas, so the first thing I decided to do was to start weathering the track. I followed the advice given in one of Lance Mindhiem's articles in Model Railroader. I started off giving everything an airbrush coat of Polyscale light gray thinned way down with isopropyl alcohol. After that dried I did a wash of artist oil burnt umber and mineral spirits to bring out the detail in the ties. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and really looks nice for the well-weathered roadbed look that I am aiming towards. Along the way I tried cleaning the rail with a folded up paper towel soaked in some alcohol - big mistake! The paint came off the railhead OK, but I've got little specks of white paper shreds all over the place to clean up. The last step I did was to get one of the Floquil paint pens in the rust color and draw along the visible side of the rails. This time I got a little smarter and followed some advice I remember seeing and had a couple of scraps of pine 1x4 soaking in a dish of alcohol. That worked fantastic for cleaning off the tops of the rail without messing up the paint on the rail web - and best of all no annoying white "cling-ons". Next step - try my hand at laying ballast!
Great job on the track weathering, especially bringing out the tie detail. One of the tricks I use is have some 1"x2" pieces of scrap foam around before painting. The foam, if it's run over the tracks right after you paint, will soak up the paint, and it's just abrasive enough to get most of it in one pass. If you're using solvent paint, the foam will eventually get eaten up, but you just flip it over, and then go to a new piece when both sides are gone. Can't anything cheaper than scrap foam.
