Long term project plan for N scale

[dgrafix]

I have a mutant blob taking over my balcony!!
This is one of the middle sections to my layout, there is the high speed double lines top and bottom and the middle line will be the inner turning loop line going up a hill. I have changed some things from the -original- plan. Will post the new scarm when I can get to my PC...
I guess once it's dry I will have to take a tiny chisel and do some archeology on the "lost tunnels" I have carved through the base foam (that will hopefully still be liftable once I excavate it out).. hopefully the masking tape on the road bed and over the tunnel portals won't get invaded by... THE BLOB! and provide some "lines of detachment"
first time I have used this squirty stuff so fingers crossed

 

[Rico]

Interesting, let’s see how this turns out!

 

[dgrafix]

It is more experimental at the moment than anything. I have tape under everything i am not sure about so can pull it up if i end up hating it without damaging the blue foam and use them as rocks elsewhere.

 

[JeffH]

Very interesting. When I first laid eyes on it, I saw the beginnings of a diorama with a WW2 pillbox bunker protecting a beach head.

 

[dgrafix]

Very interesting. When I first laid eyes on it, I saw the beginnings of a diorama with a WW2 pillbox bunker protecting a beach head.

Hehe yeah i am seeing that now you mention it
Its 2 blocks of foam covered in this fluff stuff which will eventually be the top of a hill. There are 2 tunnels for the inner and upper line, and the bottom line will run past the bottom of a cliff/steep slope to the top.
I am planning to have a flat scene behind it extending the hill into the distance

 

[dgrafix]

Phase 2, now the first lot is dry I can add some more where needed.
I decided against the middle rocks so will use them somewhere else, as it hid the tunnel portal which is N scale but with an extra CM to accommodate the Kato road bed +2.5mm cork earth layer.
I'm also playing with the idea of having a natural rock bridge.. I sprayed it on but will see what I can do with it later.
Just need to re think that corner where the tunnel is.

PS found a good way of re using the foam bottle for multiple sessions
Basically take tube off and gun let it dry and then just poke it all out.. rinse and repeat. I was worried they were only one use. Also be careful with this stuff, until it stabilises it is very nasty stuff. PPE like gloves are a good idea maybe even goggles, because if you angle it wrong it can blow air and it can spit a bit.

PS Here is the revised east end. I decided it would be too fiddily to go under the main line at the top just to curve round.

 

[dgrafix]

Interesting, let’s see how this turns out!

Here is the peice after shaving and plastering the spray goop.
Still experimenting with the best way to paint this stuff and my samples are still cooking

 

[dgrafix]

Little update, managed to get the base colour down and a black wash over everything. Going to highlight the rocks with a dry brush after adding some organic colours to cracks etc and maybe see what it looks like with the track and trains on it.
Can't do any grass yet but I have one of those high voltage grass things in the mail. I am fighting with whether I should order some portals or make my own

 

[dgrafix]

Need a simple "bridge" 280mm long at N scale. I was thinking about it and found this cable duct in my storeroom. At exacrly a 2 mm gap it fits the track with standard double spacing like clockwork.
Anyone got any ideas how I could realise this? The nearest prototype (i can think of) is the run-up to the Albert bridge in saltash (without the fancy trussed bit)
Anyone any ideas how to turn this random bit of plastic into a nice looking girder bridge? As i say the fit is glovelike, which is always interesting!

 

[logandsawman]

Need a simple "bridge" 280mm long at N scale. I was thinking about it and found this cable duct in my storeroom. At exacrly a 2 mm gap it fits the track with standard double spacing like clockwork.
Anyone got any ideas how I could realise this? The nearest prototype (i can think of) is the run-up to the Albert bridge in saltash (without the fancy trussed bit)
Anyone any ideas how to turn this random bit of plastic into a nice looking girder bridge? As i say the fit is glovelike, which is always interesting!

maybe easier making them look like a cast concrete bridge, may not be prototypical, but something in the line of the concrete barriers they put between the roadway on some freeways...

 

[dgrafix]

maybe easier making them look like a cast concrete bridge, may not be prototypical, but something in the line of the concrete barriers they put between the roadway on some freeways...

yes that is exactly the kind of thing i need. My layout is a high speed one and although i will be running steam they will more be museum peices in the modern world. So i am going for something like these. It seems most modern girder/prefab bridges on HST lines have walls, i assume this is because of the wind @200 odd MPH.

 

[dgrafix]

Got some fully round action today, made a full loop for first time (temporary but fun)
Thought I'd take the TGV out and round while the little "museum train" was waiting to use the line on the reverse loop

20230722_002104.mp4

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[Snowman]

Sometimes you just can't help yourself. This is one of those times.
---------
We'll start with this post, by our intrepid thread starter here (and over there too, oddly enough):

Did you know one of the first trains had legs?!?

At some point ran on what is possibly one of the oldest railways in the world which began in the 1790s, featuring the world's oldest railway tunnel and bridge 🤯 interesting stuffs -->

modelrailroadforums.com

He makes reference there to it "being late," (well that's my own explanation anyway, and I'm sticking to it) and "crawling on all 4s."

========================

So I'm looking at these photos of the foam...trying to reconcile them with the forum name of the guy who posted them...

dgrafix. Now you can read that two ways: d grafix. Or...

...you can read it as: dgra FIX! AHA!

Nope. Those aren't spray foam at all. Or even blobs. Those are giant sized lines of COKE!

And just for confirmation, we get something from him about "samples still cooking" in post #47!

[No, wait. Not a single exclamation point. It should be ! ! ! !
"Oh, the humanity" ! ! ! ! ]

===========

Yep, I was all set. I was going to make a joke about it.............................
.
.
.
.
..........................................................................................but then I decided not to.

 

[dgrafix]

I used to run a computer graphics company for a hobby (3d models and whatnot) then ended up being a professional programmer so D for Danny and Grafix a moniker of Graphics kind of stuck. Being a professional sitting on my butt all day i needed a new hobby
The spray foam is odd stuff for sure, probably would get pretty high if i had not done it outdoors!!, definitely useful stuff but not sure if it is my favorite way of doing things

 

[Snowman]

I have to tell you, that's the most interesting RR tunnel I ever saw. It reminds me in a weird way--a reversed sort of way I guess--of the "Hanging Bridge" on the D&RGW line through the Royal Gorge. Where the defile was too narrow for both the Arkansas River and the railroad to fit. So the railroad locators conjured up a stacked configuration...but with no room for abutments or piers, they had only the one other option.

BTW, I did figure it was actually "grafix," of course. After all, only Hunter Bi... uh...
...only that guy could possibly handle something like that blob.

And even he couldn't handle it in N-scale........................
.
.
.
. I think.

 

[dgrafix]

I have to tell you, that's the most interesting RR tunnel I ever saw. It reminds me in a weird way--a reversed sort of way I guess--of the "Hanging Bridge" on the D&RGW line through the Royal Gorge. Where the defile was too narrow for both the Arkansas River and the railroad to fit. So the railroad locators conjured up a stacked configuration...but with no room for abutments or piers, they had only the one other option.

BTW, I did figure it was actually "grafix," of course. After all, only Hunter Bi... uh...
...only that guy could possibly handle something like that blob.

And even he couldn't handle it in N-scale........................
.
.
.
. I think.

There are a few irl examples of tunnels at different heights, one I found was the Linslade tunnel, although the profile is less extreme.
My layout is mostly pure or "inspired" fantasy to be honest, but the tunnels are on scale, I used a template but added 9mm because of the Kato track bed (will be filled later with ballast)
It's is not really based on a particular portal prototype yet, so for now it's just a "spraycrete" rock hole

PS: Also if you mean the "natural rock arch" to the left there is actually a prototype for this in Switzerland which I got quite a bit of inspiration from.

 

[Snowman]

I should have known the Swiss were involved. They make good cheeses, but then they sometimes let mice burrow through them. Although it probably does result in other interesting tunnels too.

They do things like this too:

Swiss railroad double spiral - Google Search

And even THIS!:

Swiss railroad double spiral - Google Search

------------

Twisted people, the Swiss....


If you intend to try running either one of those with a TGV, please DO let me off first.

 

[dgrafix]

New west end design.. obviously scarm is making a mess of my vision, but you can see where the station will be with a cityscape painted on the wall. The station will be a solid block but made it a "bridge" to show what is happening underneath it. The conflicting part will probably be a section on pillars.
The level then crosses a trussbridge onto another solid block befor it viaducts down and round to the low part for the left side.
Also i have a storage yard plan branching off on a gentle incline down the straight and splitting into 4. Part of this will somehow run under the station (not decided on the detail-details of that yet, but the height maths fit)

The east end again for ref:

 

[dgrafix]

Been getting jiggy with the far west end.
Made my own viaduct struts as the Kato ones for 12 with postage was going to be 60 euros! Pfft. In the end I made some out of some passable nylon tubes stretched into an oval shape with a baton of wood. (which go all down to baseboard at predetemined height, leaving the landscape to be melted away around them)

Given up on the datelessness idea. I figured best way to make a layout dateless is to base it on now. Then I can run any train on it perfectly fine. (Especially after watching a stream train documentary with it running on modern main lines.. which they still do occasionally)

 

[dgrafix]

Ok it appears it's game over on this one..
I Need to move damnit..
But.. "put a candle in the window, cos I know I gotta move.. and I'll be back soon.. as long as I can see the light"
Keeping the bits so far and will re-imagine them later in a new thread.
But have learned loads in the process of being on here (thanks) and have had fun with my trains regardless, and they are going nowhere!!
To be continued.....