Not quite a complete redo: 4-6-17 update

How long did it take you to become satisfied with layout size and track plan? You are way ahead of me, but it sounds like you have passed through some of the things I am just starting to wrestle with. Congratulations on making good progress.

Thanks rtr12.  I have been dabbling since 1997!  I started out with a 5X9 table which was really a good size with lots of possibilities and it was a very casual hobby.  But it limited me to O-36.  When I decided I wanted to run larger scale steamers, I made the decision I would become more involved in model railroading locos and that's when I built a 12X18 layout.  It was OK but I had an inspirational visit to a local 2-rail O scale layout in a butler building!  That's when it got crazy.  (2000) expanded to 12X24; 2003 decided to make a big plunge and added a 40 foot extension that looped back to the 12X24.  It's not a perfect track plan, its just a good one for what I wanted to see.  But it is unrefined to say the least and the "How to do it right and easy" videos on the net and lots of inspiring folks on the forum caused me to try to make it a little nicer.  Here are some before and after photos from today's efforts of removing all my trains and dismantling the city/warehouse district on the 12X24 part of the layout.  As I said, the trackage stays the same with all its quirks but I am going to paint the homasote, let it dry, then spray paint the track and ties and reassemble the basic city scape I had with a few changes.

Then I will tackle the countryside and small loco yard area. 

Where are you in the process?  Cheers.

Ooops, no photos?

Thanks for the pictures. Looks really good to me. I like the track plan, at least what I can tell from the pictures, it looks pretty interesting, like it will provide some excitement while running trains. I would say your experiment is producing good results. It looks like you have gained a lot of knowledge and are doing well with your layout plans. Looking at all the layouts people do here is also inspiration and offers up plenty of ideas.

 

I am experimenting as well. Re-entered the hobby in 2011. Had a few temporary layouts until last year. I now have a more permanent 6'x16' layout, and like you have done, I am also planning to expand. Probably not as much as you have with the 40' extension part though. I got Mianne bench work so it could easily be changed and also because of easy assembly and easy access.

 

One more thing I like about your layout is the multiple elevations of track you have. Many others have that as well. I think that adds a lot of interest to the layout. I started out wanting all flat, but I think I am definitely going to have to add some elevation changes somewhere. I also like the way you have varied the directions the track is running so they are not all just perpendicular or parallel. I haven't done any of that and have not been happy with much of it. Everyone else's layouts always look so much nicer, others always seem to be so much more creative. Guess if I steal enough ideas, something workable will happen someday.

Hi Pennsyhut • The layout looks great. Thanks for sharing your story & photos. Looks like a very large train room Like the bench work & all the track work.

Congrats

Thanks guys.  Since I last posted I had time to really look at my city/warehouse area and think about things that bothered me about a few things.  One corner in particular is the transition to the country side.  When I removed the scenery I discovered a really neat opportunity for an open rather than closed off view of the transition.  So in that corner where I had rock walls separating levels of track, I am installing an Atlas O Pratt bridge.  I did the installation and fitting of the deck part 2 days ago and painted the truss parts flat black today.  I also painted the track and ties on the bridge Camo earth brown and might get the track in this section painted tomorrow.  One thing that has helped me visualize is painting the homasote and other sound deadening board after I removed all the buildings so I was not distracted by messy stuff.  

I took a break from the layout work to make some loco modifications to a PRR Atlantic.  Tedious work I must say.  Here a few more pics after I painted the surface.

 

Today, I painted the deck structure of the Pratt Truss, all the track in the city/warehouse area, and spent more time than expected cleaning paint that was not completely removed immediately after rattle can spraying the track.  Lots more to do, and enjoying it.

The last couple of days I have slightly modified 2 of my wall flat buildings, painted and cleaned a lot track, installed some permanent underlayment between the wall and track.  I will post photos later.  I have to do some prep demolition in the countryside area today and clean up some of the mess.  Don't get me wrong.  I like making a mess it's therapeutic but I lost a drill bit!  Cheers.  

Pennsynut,

This is the first I have seen your topic.  I like the plan to open things up with the bridge.  It is looking good!

The layout is off to a great start.

I am taking a little break to see my grandson so no more progress for a few days.  I did manage to get the 4th magnet to bond on my Atlantlc Loco for 4 chuffs.  What I found out in this redo is that I love making buildings that I have no room for.  Trying to cram too much resulted in distracting cluter.  Updates later.

 

Me too!  I've thinking of making a big deep (12" - 14" set of shelves where I can keep all the buildings I build that are not on the layout, and then sometimes switch out a few from shelves to layout and vice versa.  I really enjoy maing buildings but I don't like the overly-crowded look. 

I did a little rethinking about where to place the buildings against the wall.  Minor changes only for the factory/warehouse buildings.  For the town foot print is tiny so I think minor changes there as well.  The rural area is a head scratcher so far.  I still have to prep one more rural area section before I complete the track painting part of this project.

Tonight I painted some areas of homasote.  Then I cut some left over bead board for areas between tracks in the engine yard.  I need to weather the engine house and work on some roads.  Here are a few pics.

 

Last night I installed my first piece of foam using low temp hot glue.  LOWES Pactiv Extruded Polystyrene Foam Board Insulation (Common: 0.25-in x 4-ft x 50-ft; Actual: 0.22-in x 47.75-ft x 50-ft)

The first piece was a little too large and I had to do it over because the glue set quickly.  Since I am going to cover it with plaster soaked paper towels and then paint and scenic, I cut smaller pieces and gluing went a lot easier. I got a fair amount done.  The areas where the tracks are relatively close with curves are more time consuming for me.

Today I plan to continue with this part for a while and later spray the remaining track.  At first I thought this might be one of the less gratifying tasks but I really like this part. Updates and photos later. (My son finally convinced me to bury the flip phone and get a galaxy phone to Skype with my grandson.  I learned the photo feature quickly and now posting photos is a breeze.  Old dogs can learn new tricks, eventually.)

Reached a milestone today. All the track and ties are painted and the rail tops are clean. Now I can run trains and work on scenery redo projects. Next task is to design retaining walls and maybe arched stone bridge work on north end. Here are some pics.

 

Today I got around to weathering my loco shop building that I kitbashed from 2 Lionel loco shop buildings to make one double stall building that is longer.  I modified a little bench work for a card board mockup of a retaining wall for the north end of the city area.  The tracks on the north end of the loop in the city area are quite close to the roadbed and tracks on the elevated grade section.  A rock wall was there but it was too close and straight up and down.  A retaining wall will measure 80 inches and will hopefully add a different scenic element.  Here are pics of the north end of the loop and the loco yard on the west side.

 

   

pennsynut

Very nice, love the bridges. Looks like this will be a lot of fun to operate. You have a good thread going hope you continue to post progress pictures

Thanks Steve.  Today I tackled the nw corner of the town part of the layout.  I temporarily removed 2 bridges so I could reach areas underneath and behind and redo landscape prep.  I got the cardboard strips glued in with the exception of the rock feature between the 2 tracks.  After I get the rock feature strips done, I will cover the work with newspaper in prep for the plaster party.

I am considering a white/gray stone pictured below for the retaining wall in the same area.  It shows up fairly white so I will tone it down with gray/black chalks and add vines and small bushes.  I will probably shorten the intervals between columns to 7 inches as opposed to the 8 inches in the mockup.  here are some pics.

 

Today I glued paper over the cardboard skeleton work I did yesterday.  Then I worked my way around to the countryside to lay 1/4 inch insulation foam between tracks.  I have been putting some things back on the layout gradually to get ideas for final location.

Here are some pics.

 

Nice layout development.

I like open areas, obviously because is under construction.

Andre.

More foam laying today and Masonite installed for the retaining wall.  Not quite sure whether I will do paper stone or small tiles used for back splashes I have seen posted on the forum. 

I am recycling one of my first attempts at making mountains with foam.

 

Your making some great progress.

pennsynut, really enjoying your progress; the photos are great!  Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

Thanks guys.  I just got back from Home Depot with more "stuff".  I enjoy the work but it sometimes seems to be a little too much to do.  But I guess we always have more to do.  When we run out of "to dos" then we redo the layout.  I would like to run a train once in a while. I may have to complete some of the critical phases so I can run my trains and pause the detail work for later.  I will post a photo later of a mountain I had next to the small city scene and ask for advice about eliminating that and substituting more city/business buildings.  The mountain was maybe a little out of place where I had it.  Until later, cheers.

Before I go back to the train cave I invite opinions on whether I should eliminate a big mountain right next to my tiny town area or keep the mountain but modify it substantially because it is quite imposing, needs better trees of course, needs a more gradual profile on a couple of sides and casts a pretty big shadow on the town. Here are pics with it in place and some w/o. 

Tonight I am gluing rosin paper down on the homasote in flat areas where I will not be placing thin foam before I put plaster cloth down.  I did paint the homasote but I have some other sound deadening board in some places and I am not confident that there was a great seal of that product.  It might be overkill but out of an abundance of caution I decided to try it.  I ordered some plaster cloth on Amazon and it should be here Monday.  Another question for you experts.  In those flat areas, I think I can just put one layer down, let it dry and set, then paint and add ground cover while the paint is still wet. I don't think I would need to add structolite on the plaster cloth.  Your thoughts?

I decided to keep the mountain.  Yesterday I cut and placed Masonite for part of the city scape base.  I aligned the buildings and drew out the areas for asphalt streets and parking and sidewalks. The color came out well IMO. 

Today I plastered the corner area, and two rock hills.  I repainted an Ameritowne fire station and will do the windows tomorrow.  This taking more time than I contemplated and it seems like I am slowing down.  But it is fun to recreate.  Some more pics.  

 

Looks like it is coming along nicely!!

That is shaping up to be one fine layout pennsynut.  Glad I came across this thread.  I will be looking forward to the continuing updates.

Worked on fire station, and post office building but more details to do.  Installed Masonite for west retaining wall.  Cut and painted Masonite for grade crossings and sidewalks in town.  Modified bench work for better scenic opportunity down the road. Hoping to put down more plaster cloth tomorrow.  I said it before, scenic work is enjoyable but at times a bit tedious.  I am thinking about eventually making a 23 inch girder bridge to replace a wood bridge. Here are more pics.

 

Now I see how the fire station is going together.  Looks like one in our town that someone made into a home.  Excellent.  The scenery is coming along nicely!  Great job!  

Today I installed a couple of grade crossing transitions but need to make between the rail pieces.  I cut and painted some leftover 1/8 inch Masonite for parking areas in the warehouse area and another place across the tracks. Did some plaster cloth this afternoon and then masked of a ton of track to prepare for a day of plaster cloth.  The prep work is necessary, but tedious and not much fun.  I wonder if I will ever run the trains.  Pics of the parking area and masking.

 

Nicely done!

Peter

Today I made more progress on the plaster cloth phase, but it is rather slow progress.  I ran out of the cloth and the next shipment is due Wed.  But I have lots of other things to do on the layout.  I have to decide on the retaining wall strategy and it will take more thought.  In the meantime, thanks for all the encouraging posts.

Added some plywood to make for more usable space.  Don't have a plan for the space but it was one of my experiments that did not pan out.  Might add some very small buildings there.

 

Still pondering retaining wall options.  I have 2 areas.  One is about 60 inches in an area where it will be somewhat hidden.  The other is 80 inches and is quite visible although from a little distance so exquisite detail would be unnecessary. My retaining wall challenge is to not spend too much $ on either span.  Some of the ready made stone/brick/block would be a considerable cost for a retaining wall this long.  The price for using the small tiles shown on other threads is more than $10 per square foot.  So I am experimenting in the area that is rather hidden with a couple of pieces of gray stone pattern vinyl tile.  (70 cents per piece)  I scraped horizontal grout lines on the tile, drew vertical lines to have 3/8 inch by 1 inch blocks.  Then I rubbed black chalk to darken it.  I am not in love with it but it is in an area that will be viewed from a distance and covered somewhat with vegetation.  I would appreciate honest opinions.  I only have $1.40 in this experiment.  So I got what I paid for.  Here are some pics.

 

Edit:  I could experiment with a different color perhaps with a little more earth tone.

 

I like the addition you made.  It should probivee some room for something.  To my eye, something low would look best, buildings if not too high, or maybe a small shallow pond/march area.  Seems a shame to hide too much of the track and all behind it with tall stuff - they look pretty interesting.

Pennsynut,

 

Your layout is looking very good! I look forward to seeing the end result! Enjoy!

 

Thanks Lee and Henry.  Today I evened some bench work.  Then I worked on my retaining wall experiment.  I used a wood burning tool to score grout lines.  Then over sprayed lightly with dark brown camo.  What do you think?

 

  

Is the bridge in photo 4 going to be installed?

You mean the silver colored bridge?  Yes.  It will someday after I get some more scenic work completed. I just placed it there for now to see how the retaining wall would look.  I am curious about your question. Thanks.