Slowly adding to the main street. My grocery store, hotel and barber shop. I added lites to the sidewalks, the rear of the buildings, and a few inside lites. will keep adding more landscape details a bit at a time.

Detailed the concrete a bit more. added some dirt and weeds between the buildings, and along the sides. adding a little at a time in stages.

waiting for back orders, so i started to add people and vehicles to the layout. As well i added fire hydrants. I am also working on my main street, adding weeds and dirt between the buildings. i also took a knife and made cuts all over the concrete and to make 6 foot squares. Will fill them with a black wash to give details. or a powder then a lite wash may be better.

PM sent I don't want to hijack this thread.

Hey Ralph. The main thing to remember is this hobby is supposed to be fun, stress free and from your imagination. I started out slow, I didn't use a layout panner like a lot of people , I just wanted to create my version of what small town Saskatchewan looked like to me. Saskatchewan is the Canadian province I live in.

My dad was a station agent in a small town of 100 people, we lived in the train station as well. So I got a small town blueprint engraved in my brain. As an adult, I spent 10 years driving around this province going to every small town imaginable. I was a certified Fire Alarm Systems tech. So I would work in all the nursing homes and schools hospitals etc.

After work I would take 20 min or more cruising around the towns looking for old muscle cars etc, at the same time I would enjoy the heritage each town had to offer. Old buildings, grain elevators, seed mills warehouses gas stations. on and on.

So everything I can remember from those old towns, I try to incorporate into my layout. The rule of thumb for me is less is more, it is easier to add to the layout than to take away. I can't tell you how many times over the last 8 years, I have built buildings, and moved them around the layout. I learned never make anything permanent until it is.

My layout is 12 feet x 8 feet x 4 feet, and to be honest, it is still too small. lol

I knew I would have an industrial refinery area, a farmers area, grain elevators seed plant etc. a Main Street, a residential area, and a couple of farms. Just the common everyday things in a small town. I at least had that idea in my brain. Then one day I saw a large graveyard outside a small town, and had to add one of those. Some stuff is planned, and others are a happy accident.

My friend Sid who used to be a member of this site, was my model railroad mentor, he passed away years back. Before he died, he told me that whatever you add to your layout has to make sense, I am modelling between 1955 and 1975 somewhere in that era. I am trying to stay true to that era, at the same time it can be a bit difficult.

Bottom line what you decide to put on your layout is up to you, just make sure it makes sense.

Regards Sheldon.

Got a Shipment of stuff from Hobbylink. I detailed the barrels, and one old car. Made a lite for my gas pumps too

Made one small change to the lites. I added a 764 ohm resistor to the pipe rack section, lowered the lite intensity to a decent level.

Well its been a tone of work, i got the lites working this afternoon. I am very happy.

This is a total of debris i have made over the last while. Plus added some to the layout. Had to stop and clean up yesterday, entire train room was out of shape.

Got a little more done on the power plant. Placed it on the layout to get an over view.

Well I was up at 3 am and on the road at 4 am for work. Got a bit more debris made when I got home, and some more out of the grey wash. Will wait till I am rested before I start to add it to the layout.  This stuff may not end up at the refinery, but it will go somewhere.

I added some debris to the layout.