New Superstreets: It's not San Fran but its not flat, either

Nice job Lee.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. 

It's fun to do something new.  On reflection I realized that while I've had hills and varying terrain in every layout except my very first (slid under my bed as a kid), I'd never built a street with buildings up and down a slope.  A lot of the real world is like that.  It will be interesting to see how I have to do the foundations of each building, etc., as the slope of the street varies slightly.

Hi Lee:

Reminds me of Pittsburgh where we both used to live!

 

Regards,

 

Bill

Hi Lee,

I built my entire town of "Ash Fork" on a slope as it mimics the real town north of me.  It is a combination of kitbashed Plasticville buildings (see the bank building), kits and scratch built (see the Safeway).  Actually, the scratch built ones were the easiest as I could measure the rise of each wall when cutting them out while the kits and Plasticville each have custom "foundation" added to create the slope.  Even stairs had to be sanded to create the slope.  But, when done, it certainly has a unique flavor of its own.  

 

So, I am looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.

 

 

Lee and PeterA, nice work, I realize how hard it must be to do the buildings on a slope, I have a hard time working with flat's. So realistic looking and you are correct this is the real world, my home town also is full of streets on slopes and hills. Thanks for sharing.

Having lived in New England, where hills are a fact of life, I've noticed the buildings are actually level. It's the bottom of the foundations they sit on that follows the slope.

 

I was wondering about grades with Superstreets - that'd be very interesting to have vehicles actually ascending and descending. I imagine some track sections will have a slight bend in them where the grade transitions from tangent to slope?

Hi Lee, I have a similar situation I'll be undertaking at some point.  Right now I am working on another section of the railroad, but it won't be long and I will be trying to work my buildings in along a street with a pretty good incline.  I think PeterA above tells us what we are going to have to do.  I think the extra work to put buildings on a slop will be worth it.  Please keep us posted on your progress.  Nice work PeterA!  Bo

 

 

 

You can visit my website Bo's Trains at http://www.bostrains.com

Can't wait to see how it turns out!

lee, i would come to see your layout just to see the superstreets. wish they had been available when i was building my layout.

 

I bought a whole bunch of the stuff last year and this year in fears of it going away.  I wish they would have developed a 90 degree like they had shown on the website.  they just never made them. it was like a switch like thing. 

 

I have them running around my layout with 2 vans and I run the PCC trolleys that MTH has.  I have 2 of those and they run the tight turns of the superstreets ok. 

 

my arguement with these is the middle of the track does not taper to the turn pieces and my vehicles hang up and jump the track if I run them fast.  They have transition pieces that are 3" long that transition the 5" or 10" straight to the curve

 

Chris

Thanks for all the comments and the great pictures!!!!!

 

Some comments:

 

As Len2 said, the buildings are level, its the bottom of the foundations that are sloped.  I plan to build each building on its wood foundation (painted to look like concrete)foundation and adjust the slope as needed.

 

Yes, there will be places where the road has to curve upward or downward as it enters or leaves a slope for level road.  These changes in vertical angle of the road are very hard to make well - there is not a lot of travel in those tiny little center pickups and if the change in road angle is too much, the center pickup will either not stay in contact on entering an up slope or it can push the wheels partly away from of the rails when entering a down slope. 

 

As to the 2.5 inch straight-to-curve transition pieces on 'streets, I always use these or when I can't for some reason, I fit the narrow straight directly to the wide-groove curve and then custom trim (razor saw, file) a smooth transition back up on the straight for about 1.5 inches.  

Nice work, Lee!  The SuperStreets on a grade look great.  That should add a lot of interest to the line.