Gavino200's Layout phase II - Modeling

[gavino200]

This is my layout. It'll be a year old this Christmas. It's taken quite a while to get the bugs out, learn how to wire it properly, and get everything running smoothly. I'm ready to move on and add some modeling. I did a little bit of modeling with a small OO gauge layout when I was a kid, but basically I'm an absolute beginner.  The train side of this hobby is quite technical, but modeling is an artform. I realize that many things I thing will look great, will end up not looking right. So I'd like to run my ideas by you guys for feedback and input. Hopefully, I can avoid some rookie mistakes that way.

 

The basics: the  table was designed to fit comfortably into our basement, without completely taking it over. I use it as a hangout and exercise room, and it doubles as a guest room. Maybe someday I'll take it over and double the layout, but not now. So the table was built before I had even a track layout in mind. The only consideration I made was to turning radius at the ends. I came very close to making it too narrow at the near end. 

 

The track layout was chosen to maximize train running fun. I wanted to have a big yard and at least two trains running. More would  have been better, but it's difficult with a table this narrow. The track layout is a variation of a Kato plan, suggested to me by JR 500 here. I don't plan on changing the tracks much. I'd love to have a simple tram line, but I don't really have the space. Also, I'm not committed to the second small yard. It's too small to park full trains. So I'd change that if I come up with a good idea. 

 

Here's a picture of the table and a composite photo of the layout that Kiha66 was kind enough to make for me. I'll post potential changes, and ideas in posts below.

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2017 by gavino200

[gavino200]

Idea #1 - Tunnel and raised town area.

 

Our town area is/will be on the far left of the layout. The looped track cuts down the space available for streets and buildings. I was thinking of having the trains make this turn within a tunnel. The city would then raised up and I could use the entire end of the layout for streets and buildings. 

 

I like this idea but I'm not sure whether it would just look odd having the buildings all raised like that. Also, I was thinking of having a gently sloping road coming down from the city to the train station.

 

Red dashes are tunnel portals.

Blue dashes are the underground tracks

 

Edited December 1, 2017 by gavino200

[railsquid]

6 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

Idea #1 - Tunnel and raised town area.

 

Our town area is/will be on the far left of the layout. The looped track cuts down the space available for streets and buildings. I was thinking of having the trains make this turn within a tunnel. The city would then raised up and I could use the entire end of the layout for streets and buildings. 

 

I like this idea but I'm not sure whether it would just look odd having the buildings all raised like that. Also, I was thinking of having a gently sloping road coming down from the city to the train station.

 

 

It would look just fine, Japan is full of sudden changes in height.

 

Rather than having a flat raised section, personally I'd go for a gentle V-shape, with the road from the station running along the lower part of the V, but sloping upwards towards the left (if you see what I mean), that way you wouldn't have such a steep road down to the station and more height variation in the scenery.

[gavino200]

5 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

It would look just fine, Japan is full of sudden changes in height.

 

Rather than having a flat raised section, personally I'd go for a gentle V-shape, with the road from the station running along the lower part of the V, but sloping upwards towards the left (if you see what I mean), that way you wouldn't have such a steep road down to the station and more height variation in the scenery.

 

Sort of like a hairpin turn on a mountain ascent?

[JR 500系]

Interesting, and big layout! Seems like a great layout diorama coming up! The idea of having a raised town isn't too prototypically wrong, since in Japan there are a number of raised towns... The only thing is how shinkansens would look entering a tunnel below a city... but then again, it's truly up to your imagination how things can work out!

 

I like the idea of this layout... what's on the other side; i.e. the right side? I do see some freight trains parked there, maybe something like a container yard or cargo area?

Just another suggestion, it would be great if you could also add in a tram line or a bus line that transverse between the cargo yard area on the right to the city centre on the left... would be great for the commuters and lovely to look at!

[gavino200]

This is a basic sketch of how I could add some roads. City streets are not included. 

 

Orange are level crossings.

Black are roads.

Grey are parking lots or bus/taxi ranks.

 

[gavino200]

23 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

I like the idea of this layout... what's on the other side; i.e. the right side? I do see some freight trains parked there, maybe something like a container yard or cargo area?

Just another suggestion, it would be great if you could also add in a tram line or a bus line that transverse between the cargo yard area on the right to the city centre on the left... would be great for the commuters and lovely to look at!

 

Thanks. I love the idea of a tram line. Even if it were just a simple reversing line. I can't think of a good place to put it though. Unless maybe it goes from the "City" partially elevated over the station to the right side of the board. 

 

Same for buses. I'd love to have a Tomytec bus line, but I don't think I have space for one. Again unless maybe elevation.

 

Yes, the right side is sort of a container depot. Honestly, its not very well conceived. The problem is, it's very small. You can't fit a whole train there. I've thought of putting a factory there. Maybe a Pocky factory or something. 

 

Here's a closer view.

 

 

 

There's a little farm here too. And the empty space will be a canal sometime in the future.

 

Edited December 1, 2017 by gavino200

[gavino200]

I've thought of maybe having a highway on piers cross the layout. Not sure if this is too cliché though.

 

[gavino200]

Possible single reversing tram-line. The pink section would have to be elevated.

 

[railsquid]

37 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

Sort of like a hairpin turn on a mountain ascent?

 

That could work. Main thing (in my most humble of opinions) would be to add more height variation than a purely flat 2nd level, though that does involve more effort.

[gavino200]

4 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

That could work. Main thing (in my most humble of opinions) would be to add more height variation than a purely flat 2nd level, though that does involve more effort.

 

Yes, I'd like to do that. I'm not sure how yet. For now I'm going to focus on that area. I'll post ideas and plans as I think of them.

[gavino200]

This is the rest of the train room btw. 

 

There's room for future expansion. But for now we're keeping it as a functional room. 

 

 

Train posters waiting for frames.

 

 

Bookshelves - hopefully, one day, they'll be full of Kato bookshelf cases.

 

 

 

[cteno4]

A full train room is "functional"!

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

Wow the luxury of space! Man your room is HUGE!

 

2 hours ago, gavino200 said:

I've thought of maybe having a highway on piers cross the layout. Not sure if this is too cliché though.

 

 

 

I love this idea... I'm wanting to have a highway across my layout too... it just spells... Japan with its metropolis city skyscape, highways just fit anywhere... It is also a great place to 'park' and display trucks, cars and buses!

 

 

2 hours ago, gavino200 said:

Possible single reversing tram-line. The pink section would have to be elevated.

 

 

 

Good idea, but i'm not so sure of an elevating Tram line though... haven't seen them much around...

 

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

Bookshelves - hopefully, one day, they'll be full of Kato bookshelf cases.

 

 

They will be, very soon, often sooner than you think!   :)

 

But why only Kato? No Tomix, MA and GreenMax?  Haha

 

 

[Pauljag900]

For what it’s worth IMHO,in the five years I ve been doing this hobby I ve had a go at most aspects of doing scenic stuff,some turned out ok and some were a disaster,but that s how we learn I guess,the one piece of advice I would offer is not to over think things,have a rough idea of what you want on the layout and where you want it is fine but sometimes it s best to make a start on an area and you ll find that you can just make it up as you go along.Once you make a start you ll end up with little areas you may not have realised you had and you ll work out what to put In that space,if that makes sense.The highway is a great idea,like jr500said,what a great place to show off your vehicles and once my tram layout is complete I ll almost certainly be having one across it and I m going to  use the kato double viaduct track with the track removed as the base with roadway glued into it.

Hope this helps buddy.

 

[Pauljag900]

 https://www.custommodelrailroads.com/images/gallery/Tokyo/tok0091000.jpg

gavino,check out this link.

if I remember correctly I think this layout belongs to a friend of jeffs,it shows the highway idea perfectly.

[cteno4]

Yep that's curt's one of our pas jrm members and also use to be on the forum.

 

his freeway really does work well and feels just like the tall elevated expressways in japan. You font see a lot of the expressway vehicles like this unless up in a building to get that perspective, but it's just like the perspective we look at layouts the most!

 

its nice as it let him have a large roadway stuffed with vehicles but did not take away any real estate at ground level. Bug boulevards like this at ground level reall eat up a lot of space and take stright runs that most don't have much of on layouts! Great way to showcase the tomytec vehicles!

 

jeff

[Pauljag900]

hi jeff,

I thought I d remembered correctly and I d saved the photo for future reference.Anything I see on google,youtube or here that I like or think I may like to put on my layout I screenshot and save for future reference.

Had a bit of trouble finding it again and  copying the link but got there in the end haha

[TimWay4]

I love that freeway, it looks amazing

[Pauljag900]

yeah,really clever idea,and what a great place to show off some nice vehicles!!

not to mention Godzilla ha ha

Edited December 1, 2017 by Pauljag900

[railsquid]

7 hours ago, cteno4 said:

its nice as it let him have a large roadway stuffed with vehicles but did not take away any real estate at ground level. Bug boulevards like this at ground level reall eat up a lot of space and take stright runs that most don't have much of on layouts!

 

I reckon you could put an ant farm on one side of the layout then lay a trail of sugar for a nice busy bug boulevard, not sure how you'd handle level crossings though.

[gavino200]

18 hours ago, Pauljag900 said:

For what it’s worth IMHO,in the five years I ve been doing this hobby I ve had a go at most aspects of doing scenic stuff,some turned out ok and some were a disaster,but that s how we learn I guess,the one piece of advice I would offer is not to over think things,have a rough idea of what you want on the layout and where you want it is fine but sometimes it s best to make a start on an area and you ll find that you can just make it up as you go along.Once you make a start you ll end up with little areas you may not have realised you had and you ll work out what to put In that space,if that makes sense.The highway is a great idea,like jr500said,what a great place to show off your vehicles and once my tram layout is complete I ll almost certainly be having one across it and I m going to  use the kato double viaduct track with the track removed as the base with roadway glued into it.

Hope this helps buddy.

 

 

Thanks. That's great advice! I'll try to reel it in.  I'm going to start with the tunnel and city. I know, just that much will take me forever. I'm going to just make buildings while I'm learning how to do the tunnel and raised city.

 

I do want to sort of have a general idea, so I know what items, and techniques to pay attention at train shows and in videos. Also, some things like level crossings I want to do sooner rather than later as the boy really wants them. I'm want to put them roughly were it'll make sense for them to be later.

Edited December 2, 2017 by gavino200

[gavino200]

12 hours ago, Pauljag900 said:

 https://www.custommodelrailroads.com/images/gallery/Tokyo/tok0091000.jpg

gavino,check out this link.

if I remember correctly I think this layout belongs to a friend of jeffs,it shows the highway idea perfectly.

 

Thanks Paul. That's an awesome layout. Great site too.

[gavino200]

20 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

 

Good idea, but i'm not so sure of an elevating Tram line though... haven't seen them much around...

 

 

They will be, very soon, often sooner than you think!   :)

 

But why only Kato? No Tomix, MA and GreenMax?  Haha

 

 

 

I did a search and found a few elevated trams. Many, but not all, are airport trams. But I don''t know of any in Japan.

 

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/T_Nottingham3.html

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=elevated+tram+line&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibsYutjurXAhVQ1mMKHR_4AtsQ_AUICigB&biw=1105&bih=554#imgrc=zIi1ae4lr2s5rM:

 

What I'd really like is a hanging monorail. But I can't find anyone who makes an N-scale model. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=elevated+tram+line&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibsYutjurXAhVQ1mMKHR_4AtsQ_AUICigB&biw=1105&bih=554#imgrc=H1kmYGSlr5bzCM:

 

I've seen lots of cool Tomix, MA, and GM trains. I've always, avoided them as I've heard they're very difficult to DCC convert. But I'm tempted get a Tomix Shinkansen with all wheel pickup. So I may branch out soon. 

 

Edited December 2, 2017 by gavino200

[Pauljag900]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

 

I did a search and found a few elevated trams. Many, but not all, are airport trams. But I don''t know of any in Japan.

 

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/T_Nottingham3.html

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=elevated+tram+line&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibsYutjurXAhVQ1mMKHR_4AtsQ_AUICigB&biw=1105&bih=554#imgrc=zIi1ae4lr2s5rM:

 

What I'd really like is a hanging monorail. But I can't find anyone who makes an N-scale model. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=elevated+tram+line&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibsYutjurXAhVQ1mMKHR_4AtsQ_AUICigB&biw=1105&bih=554#imgrc=H1kmYGSlr5bzCM:

 

I've seen lots of cool Tomix, MA, and GM trains. I've always, avoided them as I've heard they're very difficult to DCC convert. But I'm tempted get a Tomix Shinkansen with all wheel pickup. So I may branch out soon. 

 

I think greenmax do a hanging monorail but it s not motorised and not sure you can motorise it.

i ll see if I can find it again.