And so it begins...

[railsquid]

Some topsoil has been delivered:

 

slope-scenery-construction-3 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-scenery-construction-3-bus-stop by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Dig into the ground in many parts of Japan and you'll find polystyrene.

 

slope-scenery-construction-3-overview by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

The problem with this block of scenery is that it's complex in three dimensions and multiple rail and road alignments on multiple levels need to be considered, while trying to create some reasonably plausible slopes and a general scenic transition from the upper to the lower level. Anyway getting there, although fans of geologically realistic tunnels should not look too closely

 

slope-scenery-progress by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Meanwhile down in the main town, an unlikely meeting of a Choshi Dentetsu train and an Enoshima tram

 

bridge-tunnel-tram by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

During a toddler-free interval this morning managed to start work on the rear mainline tunnel portals. Just simple foamboard cutouts to be painted concrete grey. I also hit on the idea of glueing little strips of wood to keep the track exactly where it should be.

 

mainline-tunnel-portals by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[JR 500系]

Wow squid! That looks really good now! Those slopes look really interesting, and I bet the bus drivers would find it quite a challenge!  :)

[velotrain]

Those slopes look really interesting, and I bet the bus drivers would find it quite a challenge!  :)

 

Yes - we can only hope this isn't representing Hokkaido!

[railsquid]

Bus drivers on model railway layouts are woefully under-challenged, IMHO. Asphalting teams have been requested.

 

Meanwhile, some tunnel portal progress.

 

mainline-tunnel-portals-2 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

A bit rough still, but the bus stop slowly gains some scenic context.

 

bus-stop-scenery-2 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

bus-stop-scenery-1 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[katoftw]

Wow.  The people in the yellow house live right across the road from an onsen house.  Lucky them.

 

I wonder if the yellow house is on Airbnb?

[railsquid]

Now there's a thought... Airbnb for N scale people...

[railsquid]

Spot the difference(s)...

 

bus-stop-scenery-3 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

From another angle:

main-road-local-line by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[katoftw]

Road signs and guard rails?  And a little red box thingy by the bus stop.

Edited August 14, 2016 by katoftw

[JR 500系]

That 'No entry' sign caught my eye... Which manufacture was it from?  :)

[railsquid]

The sign is from the standard Kato Diotown set 23-419.

 

The red thingy came with the bus stop and is meant to represent the kind of semi-official ashtray one sees quite often (if I had my way smoking would be banned completely on the layout but some of the scale people remain unconvinced).

[JR 500系]

I thought the red box is a postal box!  :P

 

Nice, me need to get a Diotown Set 23-419 soon for those signs...

[railsquid]

A slighly broader view. Unfortunately my normal camera broke, taken with mobile phone.

 

overview-onsen-area by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

A teensy bit more progress, from bottom to top:

 

slope-scenery-2016-08-16e by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-scenery-2016-08-16d by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-scenery-2016-08-16c by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-scenery-2016-08-16b by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-scenery-2016-08-16a by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[cteno4]

Landscapers are working overtime!

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

These layouts don't build themselves you know ;)

 

Now back to the building site, planning out the next section with the help of bits of wood, polystyrene and miscellaneous bits. Methinks I'll use the classic Tomix local station building, which I was in the process of painting up, hence the lack of windows etcetera, and as I remembered I have a surplus 140mm radius point we can have a nice little tram stop in front of it.

 

local-station-area-1 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

local-station-area-2 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[JR 500系]

Wow Squid has been busy lately! The apartment goes in the spot there?   :)

[railsquid]

Wow Squid has been busy lately! The apartment goes in the spot there?   :)

 

Bingo, more precisely the Tomix 4026 grotty 2-storey apartments (which is what アパート implies). Need some low-rent accomodation on the layout somewhere ;)

[railsquid]

And tonight's brief messing about with the next section positioning buildings (or a box vaguely resembling the building that will go there) roughly where they should go.

 

slope-scenery-2016-08-17a by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-scenery-2016-08-17b by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-scenery-2016-08-17c by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I will need to spend a bit more time tweaking ground levels etcetera.

[marknewton]

The slope looks good now. It'll look great when it's finished. It's so good to see a model landscape that isn't flat. :)

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[railsquid]

 It's so good to see a model landscape that isn't flat. :)

 

 

Welcome to Japan. Very short on flat.

[railsquid]

Construction work has commenced on the next plot down the slope, occupied by a shop with a kura at the rear.

 

slope-upper-shop-1 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-upper-shop-2 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-upper-shop-3 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

slope-upper-shop-4 by Rail Squid, on Flickr