Takahachikawa

[railsquid]

Edge of the container yard has some slightly rusty crash barriers now.

 

container-yard-edge-2020-09-10_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[JR 500系]

12 hours ago, railsquid said:

Edge of the container yard has some slightly rusty crash barriers now.

 

container-yard-edge-2020-09-10_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I quite like that rusty effect! Pretty cool indeed! 

[railsquid]

48 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

 

I quite like that rusty effect! Pretty cool indeed! 

 

Just random dashes of Tomix rail rust pen. And some Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color to dirty up the bright white plastic.

[railsquid]

I got to the point where completing the container yard required more thought power than I had available, so have turned my attention to the rear of the layout where various gaps need filling in. Some of which have already been completed (there were some annoying noticeable gaps between some of the scenic sections), others still work-in-progress (the white-ish bits next to the line running through the centre of the photo).

 

rear-embankment-2020-10-25_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Edited October 25, 2020 by railsquid

[railsquid]

Apropos of nothing, I finally installed some lighting above one end of the layout (the left side in the picture above), makes it possible to photograph trains heading away from the well-lit centre of the layout without the ends of trains being visibly in shadow.

 

rear-embankment-2020-10-31_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Edited October 31, 2020 by railsquid

[railsquid]

In other news I attacked this single-track tunnel portal approach:

rear-left-tunnels-2020-10-31_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

which has been stuck in a half-finished state for about two years (though it's not really visible so hasn't been much of a priority).

 

The "after" photo (i.e. about three-quarters finished):

rear-left-tunnels-2020-10-31_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Various gaps more-or-less filled in (in the above pictures you can see 6 (six) separate scenic "blocks", all removable) and "ballast", though that's recycled from earlier layout attempts and the next step will be to add a layer of browner ballast which matches the track and the ballast situation behind the camera.

 

[railsquid]

Time for some InstaBallast™:

 

rear-left-incline-curve-segment_2020-11-01_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

And looks a bit better:

 

rear-left-tunnels-2020-11-01_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Finally making some progress again on this short viaduct-ish section:

 

rear-viaduct-section-2020-11-07_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

rear-viaduct-section-2020-11-07_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[gavino200]

Hey Squid, I've really enjoyed watching you build your wonderful layout. I'm just beginning the process of designing mine. I'm wondering if you could give a few pearls of wisdom? Did you have most of it planned in advance? Or have you sort of made it up as you went along? Track planning software? Or just tinkering with pieces of track? If you were to start over again what would you do differently? 

[cteno4]

It’s all about takeaway chopsticks...

 

jeff

[railsquid]

4 hours ago, gavino200 said:

Hey Squid, I've really enjoyed watching you build your wonderful layout. I'm just beginning the process of designing mine. I'm wondering if you could give a few pearls of wisdom? Did you have most of it planned in advance? Or have you sort of made it up as you went along? Track planning software? Or just tinkering with pieces of track?

 

Yes.

 

More precisely it has been (and still is) a long iterative process, mainly long periods of nothing and short bursts of inspiration. Not ever having done anything like this, it's taken a long time to get a feel for what "works", what is doable, how to use the space effectively, how to make scenery efficiently without going too crazy etc.

 

Keeping the scenery "modular" has worked quite well for me as it not only makes it easier to work on, but also makes it easier to rearrange things without too much "loss" of investment.

 

The current iteration started out with a SCARM plan which established the fundamentals (mainly of the main raised double-track loop), but has since evolved, particularly the lower level. Tomix/Kato track systems are excellent for that kind of thing.

 

I also should point out that the photos are very selective and fail to show the large swathes of the layout that look like a construction site 😄

 

Quote

If you were to start over again what would you do differently? 

 

Construct the baseboard with additional legs in the middle so it doesn't sag slightly in the middle. And avoid ballasting the points too much.

[railsquid]

Not much happening recently, but I have managed to finally add some fencing to the far side of the short viaduct-ish section mentioned above:

 

rear-station-approach-2020-12-22_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

and a slightly wonky signal which I will need to re-seat. It's probably the wrong kind of signal for that location, but it's not like it works anyway so drivers will have to continue on a wing and a prayer.

It is also very obvious that I haven't painted the inner rail sides, which are not visible from normal viewing angles.

Edited December 23, 2020 by railsquid

[railsquid]

Take Two, also this time I remembered where I buried the stash of Greenmax electrical gubbins lineside boxes...

 

rear-station-approach-2020-12-23_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[gavino200]

Squid, that looks amazing. I love the tiny bits of foliage. 

[railsquid]

On 12/24/2020 at 2:26 AM, gavino200 said:

Squid, that looks amazing. I love the tiny bits of foliage. 

 

Tiny bits of foliage are excellent at covering up stuff, such as unsightly gaps at the bottom of the fence ;). Luckily Japanese railways feature a lot of trackside foliage 😄

 

Section with de-wonked signal put back in place :

 

rear-station-approach-2020-12-28_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Had a flash of inspiration and realised the two tall-ish Tomytec buildings I have would fit just nicely in the remaining gap on the left, if I remove the stairwell units:

 

rear-station-approach-2020-12-28_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

[railsquid]

The scattershot "when I have a moment and feel in the mood" scenic development process continues, this time I have finally worked up the inspiration to deal with a missing section of road which has been bugging me since, well, sometime in the dim and distant past where face masks were optional:

 

left-side-hairpin-bends-2021-01-22_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

[railsquid]

And a couple of smidgens' worth of progress:

 

left-side-hairpin-bends-2021-01-23_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

left-side-hairpin-bends-2021-01-23_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[gavino200]

It looks great. What are you using as road material?

[railsquid]

3mm Tamiya foamboard, painted with a layer or two of  "Amsterdam" neutral grey acrylic paint. Dead easy and looks quite plausible.

 

road-construction by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Comes out like this:

 

street-scene-crossing by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by railsquid

[railsquid]

And a bit more progress:

 

left-side-hairpin-bends-2021-01-24_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Carefully hidden from the preceding pictures was this rather ugly hole of scenic incompleteness:

 

onsen-hotel-steps_2021-02-06_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

So with no further ado, out with the steps and other scenic bits:

 

onsen-hotel-steps_2021-02-06_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

onsen-hotel-steps_2021-02-08_04 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

onsen-hotel-steps_2021-02-08_05 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

onsen-hotel-steps_2021-02-11_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

onsen-hotel-steps_2021-02-11_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Edited February 13, 2021 by railsquid

[cteno4]

Nice squid, it screams for ivy covering a lot of it!

 

jeff

[Tom C]

That last photo has a great feel of depth looking up the road. I really like the composition of yor layout. Well done.

[railsquid]

On 2/13/2021 at 11:53 AM, cteno4 said:

Nice squid, it screams for ivy covering a lot of it!

 

Nah, I'm trying to avoid the "run-down former resort vibe"

 

On 2/13/2021 at 4:04 PM, Tom C said:

That last photo has a great feel of depth looking up the road.

 

I always find it amazing what vistas open up if you take photographs from what would be close to eye-level.

 

Meanwhile here's the depot area:

 

depot-area-2021-02-23_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

looking not too bad as I have carefully framed the shot to avoid the areas of incomplete chaos surround it (note: locos are old clunkers which live on the layout).

 

Starting with this this corner:

 

depot-area-2021-02-24_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Hopefully I can work up enough motivation to finish off the mini container yard, which is supposed to be on the left of this shot, but I only got half of it done.

[railsquid]

Nailed it!

 

depot-area-2021-02-24_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

(I've got a lot of use out of that 89 yen pack of Kato track pins over the years, for everything except actually pinning track down)