What did you do on your layout today? (N scale)

[Rod.H]

The stairs on the short platform side are required to both hold the platform in place & cover a hole in the roof. Spinning everything 180 and dropping a staircase will reduce the footprint. switching to an island format would reduce it more but would then introduce other  issues. 

[kvp]

I wasn't talking about the stairs down to the platform, but the one on the left going down to street level. The platform, main building, another platform and the rightmost street exit fits within the normal ttrak depth. You could even leave the horizonal crossing piece for the leftmost street stairs in place over the tracks with the end open so people could see inside the station and also suggest that there are some not modelled parts off module.

[cteno4]

Well another club member has a new layout base. Finished Renato's modules and leg bases today. He has an 8'x3' (two 3x4 modules) and and 8'x4' (two 3x4 and one 2x4 module) that is connected by a 2'x3' module to make a big U layout at 8'x10'. The two long sections sit on top of 8'x2.5' frames with 6 IKEA legs attached to each. Little u blocks lock the modules together. Simple and easy for him to reconfigure into other shapes if he decides later plus fit in a car for transport home and if it ever moves. All built from Baltic birch for the module frames, lauan tops and birch ply for the support frame. Then put cherry edge banding veneer around all the module edges to make em pretty.

 

Jeff

Edited May 13, 2017 by cteno4

[kvp]

I wonder what keeps the U blocks in place?

[cteno4]

Two screws, one into each module along its bottom edge to such them flush. you can see the holes for them in the center ones, we had not drilled them all when I snapped the picture.

 

Jeff

[serotta1972]

Well another club member has a new layout base. Finished Renato's modules and leg bases today. He has an 8'x3' (two 3x4 modules) and and 8'x4' (two 3x4 and one 2x4 module) that is connected by a 2'x3' module to make a big U layout at 8'x10'. The two long sections sit on top of 8'x2.5' frames with 6 IKEA legs attached to each. Little u blocks lock the modules together. Simple and easy for him to reconfigure into other shapes if he decides later plus fit in a car for transport home and if it ever moves. All built from Baltic birch for the module frames, lauan tops and birch ply for the support frame. Then put cherry edge banding veneer around all the module edges to make em pretty.

 

Jeff

Where do we put in our order for modules Jeff? :)

[cteno4]

lol I just said to Renato last night I should start a layout business when I retire! It's not cheap when time is added in (like 14-16 hrs on this project), but if the shop was better set up and I was dong more stuff it would go much faster. It is hard to do this sort of stuff w.o a table saw, that makes it much easier! New table saw is really really nice to work with I keep kicking myself that I didn't replace it years ago when the old one was getting cranky!

 

Renato just sent a pict of the tables in place! We added the cherry edge banding and the nice IKEA legs to make the other half happy it looked nice! IKEA legs are about the cost of doing wood legs out of clear 2x2 and they have sturdy hardware and 1"+ levelers at the bottom to boot, cab beat it for $4/leg. Plus joinig the legs to the frame is always a pain to do really sturdily and really needs costly hardware to do them right or make a much deeper frame and that adds cost and looks.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Nice job Jeff,good effort

[railsquid]

A teensy bit of actual scenery, namely the lower part of the incline connecting upper and lower levels.

embankment by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[JR 500系]

I like the water effects, really nice with those ripples!

[railsquid]

Hah, that's just a sheet of green cellophane placed on the baseboard to hide the bare plywood ;)

[Pauljag900]

Well It did the trick squid,had me fooled,looks really good

[the_weird_one]

Started design work on the engine shed / maintenance depot for my layout while the first cork layer dries

[cteno4]

Weird,

 

3D print or extruded stryene?

 

Jeff

[the_weird_one]

Probably going to go 3D printed for the frame as it's working out cheaper than using extruded styrene using HP JetFusion and about the same cost using the Strong and Flexible plastics when polished

 

But for the cladding and roofing I'll be using extruded styrene as flat material is cheaper than printing it

[Eurostar25]

Continued building the 2 smaller sized straight modules with greenery and the first ballast layer added.

The modules used to be double the width but the recent house move proved what a hassle moving them was so I've opted for a narrower base which I'm ok with.

Pretty dull scenes depicting a countryside scene, Shinkansen on top and Tokkaido mainline running at the lower level. With postage of the viaduct sections pretty steep at the moment I thought I may as well use what I had leftover so have just built embankments and will use the S248 pieces to the same effect.

 

 

[Rmsinsd]

I've started wiring my Unitram cityscape for lights. The 3'x3' layout is mounted on a 10mm foam base which I see glued on a utility table of the same size. I trench the foam to lay the wires. Gonna be doing a lot of soldering!

[Rmsinsd]

Here's a photo of the base and the wire trenching. Each section of the Unitram board is separate so that I can lift and remove it for maintenance. It's like sausage; it's not pretty to make, but the end product is yummy!

[Rmsinsd]

Now that the sun has gone down, here's a photo of the lights. Only about half of the lights are operational so far - waiting on some more commercial buildings!

(The photo kept coming out upside down. Hope it's ok now.)

Edited May 17, 2017 by Rmsinsd

[cteno4]

No layout work, but hours of cleaning up the shop to do more work on the club layout. Sometimes it just ain't glamorous!

 

Jeff

[bill937ca]

Track and mainline  four-track station are in place on my 762 x 1524 layout.  There are three mainline ovals R243, R280 and R317 and a R140 oval in the center for smaller trains and interurbans.  A Tsugawa freight house will act as the "station" on the liner loop.

 

This plan accommodates five car trains in the stations. If I took it closer to the edges by adding another 140mm straight I could accommodate six car trains in the station. All of which is possible by using curved R317/R280 turnouts

 

Edited May 17, 2017 by bill937ca

[Pauljag900]

Looking good over there buddy

[Pauljag900]

Now that the sun has gone down, here's a photo of the lights. Only about half of the lights are operational so far - waiting on some more commercial buildings!

IMG_1291.JPG

(The photo kept coming out upside down. Hope it's ok now.)

Looks great mate,does nt everything look so much better at night with the lights? The whole layout takes on a completely diferent perspective, I love the layouts at night

[Rmsinsd]

Track and mainline  four-track station are in place on my 762 x 1524 layout.  There are three mainline ovals R243, R280 and R317 and a R140 oval in the center for smaller trains and interurbans. A Tsugawa freight house will act as the "station" on the liner loop.

 

IMG_5052 1024 x 768.jpgIMG_5048 1024 x 768.jpg

Very nice! I wish Kato would make curved turnouts. They're so versatile for limited space layouts!

[Eurostar25]

More ballast, more greenery, more ballast more greenery, and some testing!

Plenty more tidying up to do still and detailing, catenary, car parks etc