To all of you good people who have really helped me over the last year-plus to resolve a variety of issues, I have decided to unveil my layout so you can see the payoff...and the progress to date.
I have posted over a hundred pics at the following site:
http://s584.photobucket.com/albums/ss284/BradKT/
The basic theme is an industrial park, with oil refinery complex (Conoco oil refinery, storage tanks, natural gas unloading facility and tanker truck loading facility), rail yard, fire station, engine house (with overhead crane, passenger car washing station and diesel locomotive refueling station), cement plant, gas station, warehouse, construction equipment rental company, bus terminal, taxi stand, passenger station and truck-rail facility.
The locale is either central or Southern California...in the eastern part of the state. The time frame is the early to mid-1970s. The flags that I run are Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Denver and Rio Grande Western and Santa Fe.
I made many of my own decals and got a substantial amount of billboard and advertising material from the 1970s era off the internet to re-create the era.
This is still a work in progress. I still have to do the following:
1: wire the street lights, traffic and working RR crossing signals;
2. install the RR crossing signals and actuators;
3. install the background around the 2 outer edges of the L-shaped layout;
4. assemble, paint and install the passenger station and figures; and
5. assemble, paint and install the truck-rail terminal, vehicles and figures.
Yampa Bob took the time to teach me how re-size the files and how to post these images and they are a manageable size so they won't slow down your computer trying to load them.
I hope you enjoy what you see. This has been a fun project and I couldn't have done anything near this quality had it not been for the contributions, cautionary notes and suggestions that so many of you have made.
Once again, thank you everyone. There is a part of all of you in this layout. Enjoy.
NICE!!!!!
What scale? N?
HO Scale.
Brad,
Only one word I can think of: Magnificent!!
Well I'ii see your magnificent and raise you a awesome.!! 8)
Ya. What those guys said.
Nice work.
Bruce
Unbelievable. I sense a future magazine article.
Next? Perhaps you could experiment with light weathering.....
Thanks for the tour.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
Brad,
Very inspiring, I see a great deal of time and obvious enjoyment in building to this stage.
I for one would like to hear more about your operating scheme.
Great job, keep it up.
Tom
That is great. I've been looking at layouts on youtube - as good and/or better than most I've seen.
Rick
Thank you all for your compliments. Heeding the good advice that I have been receiving from the group has definitely kept me on the right track. When I make some more progress, I'll post some more layout photos at that same site. I think that the layout will really be something once I have the background, passenger station, RR signals and crossings and truck-rail terminal installed.
Boomertom, I am not quite sure what you mean by my operating scheme. My layout is a DCC layout using the Bachmann E-Z Command system...or are you referring to the 4 railroads that I operate?
I usually run 2 or 3 trains at the same time. I can run all trains of any one railroad or any combination of the 4 railroads...both passenger and freight.
Brad, could you please give us some info about the layout like minimum radius and switch size on mainline and yards? How long is the main line? Track plan? etc. Thanks, Paul
Congratulations on a fine job! It seems like more than a year's work just to collect all of the parts to assemble your layout.
BradKT,
I was REALLY bored today... I have stuff to do, but I have 2 hours of free time. So I did this:
(http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp168/SantaFeBuff/BradsLayout.jpg)
I hope to see further updates, great job. ;)
Joshua
That is a great layout!
This is the copy of an E:mail that I sent to Yampa Bob that details the story of the building of this layout:
"I started to assemble my railroad layout in January, 2008 after I had fixed up the interior of the back house during the Winter. First, I got the Model Railroading book on benchwork, Then I got a couple of 4' x 8' x 1/2" pieces of plywood and the wood for the benchwork from Home Depot (that's why the color of the outside of the benchwork is Home Depot orange) and put it all together...including the elevated part of the outer track in the back. I have collected a lot of woodworking tools over the years and really got a good chance to finally put them to work. I also had a great workbench that I hadn't assembled for years after I had bought it and put it up in the back house.
I had a working track setup by March, 2008 (which I made 4 minor realignments on earlier this year to eliminate derailments) and added the access hatch. My threads on the Bachmann site began about then. That's when we first became acquainted. Ever since, whenever I encountered a problem, I started a thread on the Bachmann general discussion site.
All during this time, I was planning the scenery and settled on the idea of an industrial park in either the mid-eastern or southeastern part of California. I found a number of the buildings on EBay (particularly the Atlas HO scale Union 76 North Island Refinery, which is out of production, the gas station and several of the detail items) and got the rest through either Hobbylinc or Blue Ridge Hobbies. I was spending about 1-3 hours on this project 5-6 days per week. It was a good way to keep my mind occupied.
Next, I measured the layout, planned and painted the streets and sidewalks and the foundation area for all of the buildings (using the model measurements), I got all of the switches working right (thanks to some advice you gave me in a discussion on the Bachmann thread). Then I did the scenery and one of the sub-projects that I did was to search the internet for logos and ads and make my own decals. That's how I turned the Union 76 North Island Refinery into a Conoco Oil Refinery...plus I had already had a bunch of Conoco tank cars. That pretty much took me through the summer.
Between October and December, I assembled and painted buildings and put them on the layout. This is when a lot of things that I learned during my model shipbuilding years came into play. Next came the vehicles, street lights (I got them cheap on EBay from China) and figures (I painted most of them). I made the street signs by using my computer and a scanner. Most of the billboards were made the same way...I found ads for the early 1970s era and scaled them down to size, got some lighted Model Power billboards, printed my ads on photo paper (coated with clear acrylic paint) and put them on the billboards.
In January-February, I tackled putting the DCC decoders in my Athearn engines (remember those threads?).
Now, as I have previously told you, this project is still incomplete. After I complete my re-wiring project to properly power the track (another recent Bachmann thread), I am going to wire the street lights that have already been installed. Then comes the truck rail terminal and passenger station, the crossing signals, the railroad and the background, which will run along the outer two sides of the "L". I expect that part of the work to run though the summer."
The layout itself is an a "L" shape (9' x 5' on the left side and 14' x 6' on the other, with an access hatch). There are 3 tracks. The outer and middle tracks go around the shape of the "L" and in the rear of the layout the outer track is elevated. The outer track curves are 28" and the middle track curves are 22." The inner track is a large oval about 11 feet in length with 18" curves. All three tracks are connected by switches (#6 turnouts), which allow trains to be switched back and forth between tracks (there are two turnouts at each location so the trains can be switched off of one track and onto the other...each set of two turnouts is wired into and controlled by a single Atlas switch). All of the turnouts are powered by a separate DC transformer (also Atlas). There is a siding and small rail yard in the middle rear of the inner oval track. The 24" square access hatch is located inside of and on the left end of the inner oval track. Two more lines come off the siding to the small rail yard and engine house (these are #5 turnouts). At the front of the layout (where the controls are located), there is another siding coming off the outer track (#5 turnout), which is to allow cars to be placed on and taken off of the track.
I'm sorry that I don't have a diagram of the layout to put on the site, but I am going to take a couple of pics that will be aerial shots that will better illustrate the entire layout in a day or two.
Impressive!
Are you going to do more with the track in the rail yard?
I would build up the ground around the track in the yard so the track looks more level with the ground.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,8820.msg72863.html#msg72863 (http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,8820.msg72863.html#msg72863)
beautiful layout.
if i could make one suggestion, many people do not use enough light over the layout. with the new energy efficient bulbs you can light up the train room like the outdoors. then you can take your photos using the room light, without the flash. you will get some incredibly life like photos and i think you'll be pleased with the added light....
Quote from: jward on April 27, 2009, 09:05:59 PM
beautiful layout.
if i could make one suggestion, many people do not use enough light over the layout. with the new energy efficient bulbs you can light up the train room like the outdoors. then you can take your photos using the room light, without the flash. you will get some incredibly life like photos and i think you'll be pleased with the added light....
I agree with the lighting, the room I have my layout in has light fixture that needs to be replaced (I currently rent and I don't want to replace a ceiling fan/light on my own dollar if I'm probably going to move in the next year or two) and the only time I get get decent pictures is in the morning when sun is coming in the window... unfortunately this is often when I am at work.
Re: the lighting issue...I am still experimenting with that. I have 3 100 watt ceiling lights in the room, plus a 3-light lamp (each bulb is 60 watts). I did post several pics that were taken without using the camera flash and it did make a difference when I shot the photos during the daytime or at night.
Brad,
A few technical questions if I may.
What are you using to power your turnouts - are they Atlas all-in-one or do you have Tortoise driven turnouts / switches? Are they DCC controlled at the time?
Did you use any Flex-Track?
Did you use Code 100 or 83 track? (I have too much of each not to plan on using both and will use 100 to 83 conversion sections and separate 100 loops.)
Do you have a MRR club around you close?
You've done a beautiful job - keep us posted on how you're doing.
Rick
The switches are not DCC controlled. They are manually controlled. The switch controls are Atlas and are powered by a separate Atlas DC transformer (I had a couple of Atlas transformers that I hadn't used, so I dedicated one of them to power the switches). When I install the 2 Tomar RR crossing signals (2 crossings), I will probably power them with the same transformer.
The street lights will be a different matter. I am going to have to talk to Jim Banner again about that one. I was advised by the manufacturer that I need a 50 watt power source to power 50 of their street lights and am thinking of using a 50 watt Lionel transformer to do so.
I used Bachman EZ-track (nickel silver). The roadbed is augmented with a little Woodland Scenics plaster cloth (cut into thin strips) and modeling plaster. I used the Woodland Scenics earth colors to try to match the color of the EZ track roadbed.
I did not use any flex track...or Atlas track...nothing but Bachmann EZ track.
I live on the West Side of Los Angeles. I don't know of any MRR clubs near me, but there probably are some.
I plan to take a few pics that show the entire overall layout tomorrow morning and will post them to you can see the whole layout.
re: lighting.
i did notice the photos taken under natural light. they looked great.
one thing that can be done to increase lighting using standard fixtures is to up the wattage of the bulbs. whtih the new twist type energy saving bulbs, the equivalent of a 150 watt bulb consumes about 40 watts. these will work in even a lamp rated for 60 watt bulbs. as an added bonus, they put out very little heat as well.
another trick for better pix is to change the setting on your camera. many digitals have provisions for taking photos under tungsten or fluorescent lighting. using those settings will eliminate alot of the yellowish tone in photos taken under indoor lighting.
snowman, i had a layout similar to your situation, i lit it with clip lights mounted on the backdrop. home depot has them at modest cost. just be aware you should use the energy saving bulbs in them, a 100 watt standard bulb puts out enough heat to damage the fixture.
I posted 16 new pics today which are layout overview shots. These pics show the entire layout, especially the track layout...as well as where everything is located.
I hope that this answers some more of the questions that some of you have had.
These pics were taken without using the camera flash.
Bradkt,
Thanks for the new pictures. This layout was well planned. I like the way it flows from scene to scene.
i think you have every right to be proud of what you've accomplished here. now i have to get started on my new one so i can show it off too.....lol
that is, if i can keep the real ones from distracting me as they run by the apartment.....
Very nice! Definitely something to be proud of.
Brad,
The overview shots are very nice. It's amazing how the perspective changes with distance from the layout. In the earlier close ups the refinery looked enormous, yet very realistic. Amazing detail.
Well done.
I think this is a great layout. I am a novice just beginning and only hope my turns out at least half as nice as yours.
BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!
Very Nice . WoW .....Everything i want and then some . As well I'm new also .And hope mine looks , That good someday . We plan to move . And when we do . The Layout will grow . Great Layout !!!!!!!
I'm learning so much from just searching and reading post ....
regards Mark F
Thank you everyone. Now I have to get back to work on it. I just added about 5 more billboards behind the middle track on the back of the layout and will add the work crew for the cement plant tomorrow...along with several nonoperational RR signals.
I am also in the process of looking for some drapes, which will help to muffle the noise. When I have 3 trains running at the same time, those metal wheels on EZ track mounted on plywood can get kind of loud and the sound is just bouncing off the bare walls and wood floor right now. As there are 5 windows in that room, drapes will help to muffle that a little.
Once I get the drapes, then I can do the background...and then the wall pics. I have a number of 8 1/2" x 11" railroad pics in plastic box frames (plus the metal logo signs for each RR that I run...Santa Fe (and BNSF), Denver and Rio Grande Western, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific). They are not all train pics...I found a great website that had the classic advertisements and marketing slogans for some of the great trains like the Southern Pacific Daylight, the D&RG California Zephyr, the Santa Fe Super Chief and El Capitan, the Union Pacific City of Los Angeles, etc. They will make the room look great when they are up on the walls and will be concentrated into 4 groups (divided by the windows, with the logos in the middle of each group). They will be located behind and on the sides of the layout above the top of the background. A big Union Pacific clock will be in the middle.
Somewhere in all of this, I still have to wire the street lights and install the RR crossing signals.
The passenger station and the truck-rail facility will be saved for last as they are at the front of the layout and will be the easiest to do.