Panoramic Shots of Layouts

Wow what great pictures, I really loved the folks who put in various stages or years to show progress or change.  So I thought I might do that as well.

Here is the first permanent layout I had, Dad and I built it in the basement of our first house in 1954.

Here is my layout today...I call it the "Leonardtown and Savannah" for Maryland and Georgia two places we lived, but mostly to get the initials to be "L&S" or "long and skinny" ...its about 36" X 17 ' long to  fit between the display shelves.

Here is the "industrial" end, with the principal industy "General Door and Sash" Its lunch time and the food truck is moving into the parking lot to sell lunch.

Here is one of the junctions between the inner freight loop and the out passenger loop.  The American Flyer tower guards the intersection and the Marx yard towel and crossing warning keep those areas safe.

Here is the busy shopping center of "Small Town", with the McDonalds where everyone can get fed, including the Racoons on the garbage cans!

Here is the suburban station and its commuter platform over the small stream from the "peddler's rest" motel.

Here is the bustling view of Small Town with the town square flag a Lionel flag pole from 1957 (its a "48 star" flag)

Thanks for starting this Arnold, it was great to look at and fun to participate

Don

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@Don McErlean posted:

Wow what great pictures, I really loved the folks who put in various stages or years to show progress or change.  So I thought I might do that as well.

Here is the first permanent layout I had, Dad and I built it in the basement of our first house in 1954.

Here is my layout today...I call it the "Leonardtown and Savannah" for Maryland and Georgia two places we lived, but mostly to get the initials to be "L&S" or "long and skinny" ...its about 36" X 17 ' long to  fit between the display shelves.

Here is the "industrial" end, with the principal industy "General Door and Sash" Its lunch time and the food truck is moving into the parking lot to sell lunch.

Here is one of the junctions between the inner freight loop and the out passenger loop.  The American Flyer tower guards the intersection and the Marx yard towel and crossing warning keep those areas safe.

Here is the busy shopping center of "Small Town", with the McDonalds where everyone can get fed, including the Racoons on the garbage cans!

Here is the suburban station and its commuter platform over the small stream from the "peddler's rest" motel.

Here is the bustling view of Small Town with the town square flag a Lionel flag pole from 1957 (its a "48 star" flag)

Thanks for starting this Arnold, it was great to look at and fun to participate

Don

Love Long & Skinny - my layout is also like that; love the raccoons on the garbage cans; and love your entire layout, Don, which is full of many fun things.

@taycotrains posted:

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Bob, your panoramic shot of your layout, shelves and train room is also outstanding.

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Bob, your panoramic shot of your layout, shelves and train room is also outstanding.

Thank you Arnold !!!

Thank you Arnold, I also like your layout.  I watched last year (?) as you built the outstanding baseball field section.

Don

Shot from a few years ago.

Hey Everyone, Fantastic layouts, it's photos like these that get the adrenaline flowing .... however I apologize because I'm nowhere in the category of all of you with finished fantastic layouts, but I can give y'all a shot of my layout at this point. - MARSHELANGELO

Just my shot at it.

That's ok Greg! Looks like you have a good start. I really like the engine house and your engine service area.

Dave

You all have some awesome looking layouts!  There's many talented folks showing their wonderful skills in this thread

Because of the shape of my train room and the fact that the layout takes up most of the space in the room, it's impossible for me to get a panoramic shot of the entire thing.  Believe me, I've certainly tried!   So in liu of an overall panoramic shot,  I've taken shots of the various sections ... so here they are.

View of the east side of the layout.  

The west side view.

Looking south east showing the 3 track levels.

West side of layout which I call the Westend Neighborhood, sits on a 1 x 4 ft. shelf which extends the layout another foot. The area immediately below Westend is Brewtown because a brewery, keg warehouse, and wholesale beer distributor occupy this space.  

A panoramic view shows the central part of the layout which I call Midtown.

Looking southwest in natural afternoon light.

Middle of layout looking southeast as a kid may view it.

Looking southeast shows 3 track levels and the lake.

Another view looking southeast ... through a young kid's eyes ... shows how the mountain dwarfs the layout.

View of Westend looking upward from control panel.

Panoramic view looking southeast captures Midtown and the enormity of the mountain which almost reaches the ceiling of my train room.  

Southeast view ( as a young kid may view this angle )  shows how the mountain dwarfs the layout.  

I see we have two different versions of a "panorama" here. The traditional photo that takes in the whole scene, often a birds eye view (see below), and the iphone panorama photo, which is a photo stitched together from multiple images as the camera is "panned" or turned from left to right.

Of course when you have a small enough layout, the old fixed wide-angle view will show it all, although I will have to try an iphone panorama on this little layout this Christmas.

I’m reluctant to post this photo because it reminds me of just how much work I really need to do!!!

This is about as much of a panoramic view of my former layout as I could get. I wish I had taken many more photos.

@trumpettrain posted:

You all have some awesome looking layouts!  There's many talented folks showing their wonderful skills in this thread

Because of the shape of my train room and the fact that the layout takes up most of the space in the room, it's impossible for me to get a panoramic shot of the entire thing.  Believe me, I've certainly tried!   So in liu of an overall panoramic shot,  I've taken shots of the various sections ... so here they are.

View of the east side of the layout.  

The west side view.

Looking south east showing the 3 track levels.

West side of layout which I call the Westend Neighborhood, sits on a 1 x 4 ft. shelf which extends the layout another foot. The area immediately below Westend is Brewtown because a brewery, keg warehouse, and wholesale beer distributor occupy this space.  

A panoramic view shows the central part of the layout which I call Midtown.

Looking southwest in natural afternoon light.

Middle of layout looking southeast as a kid may view it.

Looking southeast shows 3 track levels and the lake.

Another view looking southeast ... through a young kid's eyes ... shows how the mountain dwarfs the layout.

View of Westend looking upward from control panel.

Panoramic view looking southeast captures Midtown and the enormity of the mountain which almost reaches the ceiling of my train room.  

Southeast view ( as a young kid may view this angle )  shows how the mountain dwarfs the layout.  

Patrick, metaphorically you have made beautiful music creating and photographing your gorgeous layout. Arnold

The finished layouts shown above are all wonderful, but so are the unfinished ones which are masterpieces in the works. Those can be revisited on this thread by posting future panoramic shots (of all kinds) when they enter future stages of completion.

I think it was Patrick who recently posted that a layout is never totally completed. I agree. It can be largely, but not totally, completed.

Mine is an example of that. It can be said that it was mostly completed 25 years ago, but I have done a million important things to improve it since then, especially with the scenery, and I have at least a million more things to do to improve the scenery in the future. LOL.

Another example of a recent improvement happened last year when I installed  DCS - that was huge.

@Apples55 posted:

I’m reluctant to post this photo because it reminds me of just how much work I really need to do!!!

Paul,

  Nothing to be ashamed of there! You have a beautiful layout.

Tom

@Apples55 posted:

I’m reluctant to post this photo because it reminds me of just how much work I really need to do!!!

Glass half full or half empty???

It could also remind you of all the work you have done thus far.

Looking Good.  👍

Ron

Here's a panoramic view/video of my small upper level postwar layout

I forgot I had these three in the basement as well! The first is a portable layout, which becomes my Christmas layout, and the other two are HO, one being a shelf layout.

I have a new, "upstairs" layout in what used to be my dining room, which I call my "Retro" layout as it is designed to run only conventional.  So, I get to run all postwar trains.  With this topic, I decided to try a "pano" shot on my camera.  So here is one side and the other of the layout.  You can see the "bowing" you get when doing a real panoramic shot as closer areas to you seem to bow forward.  Anyway, here it is.

And so you can see areas in "non pan" format, there are a couple from each side as well as my "retro" power supplies.

OK...finally found some pictures I took a few years ago where I stood either on the layout or on a ladder.  I'll add a few posts this evening...here is the first one:

Here's a recent one of my layout.  Lew

@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

OK...finally found some pictures I took a few years ago where I stood either on the layout or on a ladder.  I'll add a few posts this evening...here is the first one:

Allan, the word that came to my mind when seeing your panoramic shots was: Empire!

Taken from a hot new product I just got from my LHS, an O Scale remote control (runs on both DCS and Legacy) Goodyear Blimp with camera. I am willing to sell it for $20K.

Here are a couple more taken way back in 2014:

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Taken from a hot new product I just got from my LHS, an O Scale remote control (runs on both DCS and Legacy) Goodyear Blimp with camera. I am willing to sell it for $20K.

Great shot of your ball park. This is one of my favorite sceans on the forum and this topic is great.  I always enjoy seeing it as I love baseball and trains.

The last layout.

@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

Here are a couple more taken way back in 2014:

Alan,

IMO, you are a true Empire builder, not only with your layout, but with this Forum.

Arnold

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Alan,

IMO, you are a true Empire builder, not only with your layout, but with this Forum.

Arnold

Thanks Arnold!

Here is a panoramic shot of my layout, if you click on the image, it should enlarge.



Bryce

My layout built in 1989 and completely rebuilt on the same table in 2006, was once featured in a magazine article entitled “World In a Living Room.”

After seeing some of the layouts on this thread I've decided to set fire to mine and collect the insurance.

Don-don’t short change yourself- your layout looks great! JohnA

My layout, panoramic view...

Don, your layout is a lot better than you think!

It’s great to see these layout pictures! Here are some wide - pano pictures of my postwar layout.

Here are a few images of a panoramic backdrop I created, from photos supplied by Norm Charbonneau, of a section on his amazing O scale layout. The master is over 20 feet wide by 4 feet high. I created the backdrop for Gunrunnerjohn’s 12 foot wide yard area, The second & 3rd images show a section from the master, adjusted & mounted to fit John’s space. The final image shows an early proposal, wrapping around the wall, continuing the illusion of depth into another section of his layout. The image is for sale, either in it’s complete configuration, or in sections, to custom fit virtually any space.

Great topic and summary of OGR members layouts. Keep them coming.  Thanks to everyone for posting.

About as wide angle as I can get my camera.  Five trains running, 31 switches,  homemade turntable, wye, 027 Toy train switching and operating layout, 44 years old.  Layout details below link

https://ogrforum.com/...ra-027-layout?page=1

Charlie

Some from the floor above of the modular layouts from 2016......

.....the Christmas layout......

Peter