My Milwaukee road layout


The backdrop is a Walthers product called Instant Horizons. They are made to be put together and have different scenes, from plains to desert and mountains. I believe that they are 36" x 24".
Here's a link to modelTrainstuff. - http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Scenic-Backgrounds-s/1346.htm - They sell them for $13.49 apiece. I'm not an artist so I took the easy way out.

Take a look at my caboose ride video and you'll see how the scenes work together.
 
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That's a much better price than the ones I've found previously. I can paint so I was thinking of going that route but for $14 the instant ones may be the way to go. Thanks for the info
 
I don't have much to report for now. But I am starting to remove my yard and get ready to put a little addition onto the layout. Hopefully next week I can start getting the bench work made and ready for track to be laid. And I got a few mock up buildings made from paper to help me get an idea for where to place everything.
 
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I got some bench work done today and hopefully can take another picture once it's completed tomorrow. The yard will be torn up and moved to a new location. There will be a couple of industries, an engine house and crew office plus a few buildings to create a town type of feel. I may draw it all out and try to get a picture of that too so you guys get an idea of what I'm doing.
 
Looking like you're moving ahead. When you draw up what you want to do, use it for a guide. I have helped people work with railcad drawings and tracks still had to be tweaked. I did use drawings as a guide and didn't put the tracks down permanently until I had building started to give an idea of what space was actually needed without having things too crowded. When all of the buildings and other yard facilities were built, I then laid the track.
 
Montanan, that's a great point! I've got some track and switches so I'm planning on laying those down loosely and drawing a center line where the tracks will go. I also made some rather crappy paper mock ups of the buildings I plan on using so I can have an idea of how things will look. The town will basically be the Walthers state line farm supply kit, Bettie's diner, and a store of some type. They will be on a road that crosses the tracks. Just to give the impression of a decent size town that the railroad runs through. And just outside of town will be a grocery supplier which will take boxcars or reefers. I'm really trying for the less is more effect with the layout.
 
I will second what Montanan said about sorting out your scenery, in terms of building placement, before you hard lay the track work. When I did my "plan" I thought I had X amount of room between the tracks for buildings. Once I loose laid the track, I found I had more space in some parts and less in others.
 
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here's just a quick picture of the layout. The yard is torn out now and I will be cleaning up the old track and switches which will be reused. You can probably see some track and paper buildings in the photo. I need more switches and track but can lay some of the mainline and new yard with what I've currently got. The plan is to lay the track using push pins which will allow me to move it if I'm not pleased with the overall look.
 
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this is a rough idea of where the Main Street will be and location of buildings. The one on the left is state line farm supply, the top right one is going to be a store of some kind, and the bottom right one is Bettie's diner. Bettie's will have a nice size parking lot because they host car shows when the weather is nice. At least that's my plan for right now.
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this is the location of the new yard, run around track and mainline. The grocery supplier will be at the top right corner of the layout.
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this is the other end of the run around track and it's cross overs. If the switch on the right hand side is lined normal it will allow engines to continue down the tracks to the lead switch for the engine house. The yard office and 2 stall engine house are roughly placed where they may go. There will be a road that comes off the Main Street in town and will follow the yard to the engine house and yard office.
 
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montanan said:
Looking good. It looks like there may be more room in that basement space. Make it bigger. ;):rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Haha thanks! My wife almost crapped a brick when she heard the words "addition on the layout" lol. As it stands now, 1/3 of the basement is occupied by my layout, and the other 2/3 are occupied mostly by other crap that's mine. And this is big enough though to keep me busy.
 
Nice to have room to expand though (I've been trying to "tidy up" my shed of car bits (old Honda CRX's mostly) to get some room for other things that need doing (e.g. a new kitchen). Tell ya, sometimes I wish I wasn't a practical person.
 
You certainly have the makin's for a fine railroad there A2T. With that kind of space there's no telling what you can build. Lookin' good already.
 
Thanks guys. I got a little more track laid last night and test ran a few engines and cars on it. So far it runs good but I haven't had time to really mess with it. The one problem I have found though, is that one building won't fit so I may replace it with a different one that's smaller.
 
I know what it is like when you plan on a certain building and it won't fit. I had bought a Walthers cannery kit years ago when they first came out with a plan on putting it into my last town. It sat on a shelf for years. When I finally got my yard and engine facility tracks down, and the streets for the town planned, it ended up that it wouldn fir the way it was originally configured with the loading docks on the back of the building.

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I then tried to use another shed I had left over
From a grain elevator and it was too small. Potatoes
are a big industry here and should have a larger building.
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This one way too small. Back to the cannery kit. Instead of having the loading docks on the far side of the building, I went and cut out a panel on the end of the building and put the loading dock inside the building. In this area both table stock potatoes, which would be either boxed or bagged, and seed potatoes would be shipped. It ended up fitting fine with the car loading inside the building, and then I took the boiler house from the cannery kit an used it for a boiler house for the roundhouse seen at the rear of the last picture. I also had a bit of difficulty finding the right buildings for the town that would fit into the available space.

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Montanan, the cannery looks sharp and fits the space well. Originally I was planning on using a Walthers kit for the space but saw the woodland scenics country store and decided to try that instead. So it looks as if I'll be going with the Walthers kit as originally planned. The other option is to use the country store but cut part off to fit the space since it will go against the back drop.
Between now and New Years, I'm hoping to have all the track laid and figure out how do a back drop for the layout plus get some more lighting. I've got some ideas but have to look into them more. If anything, the back drop may wait longer than that so I can get buildings on the layout.
 
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finally got most of the track laid in here for the run around track, mainline and engine house lead.
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My small yard, holds about 12 cars and the spur for the state line farm supply company plus the run around track are all in! Nothing is actually spiked in place yet. So far the trains run well over this new track so I'll probably spike it later this month if I figure out what to do with the grocery distributor area (top right corner of the photo).
 
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