Some pictures from the layout

Great job, and terrific planning. Your scenes look great. 

 

Rick

Looks good. The weathering of the track is great. 

I can never get enough of your stuff.

Wow, some great photos!

 

Nice work.

CTA,

 

 Beautiful work, incredible detail. Would love to see more

 

Alex

You have very attractive work there.  I'm thinking of going modular on the next layout, and have been wondering: How did you handle electrical feeds from one module to the next?

CTA...always love your work.  There is only one wrong thing....you don't post enough!!  MORE...MORE...MORE!!!

 

Alan

Looking good

Looking real good. 

Nice work CTA Fan.  Is your el modular?  If it is can you give me an insight as to how you made it so.  I am wrestling with some ideas on how to achieve this with my elevated system under construction.  None of which appeal to me yet.

CTA Fan Great work!!!

Very nice!

Some great realism here, well done, don't leave it so long to post again.

CTA Fan,

 

Where did you get this building?  BTW Great Layout.

 

 

Absolutely Awesome!!  The store under the EL is a detail everyone leaves out. I was up in the air about weathering or not, I've made that dessision, thank you. Truly awesome work.  I seen this post on my iPhone, then I turned on the computer to have a look on the 70" screen. WoW. It's like being there.

 

BTW, my basement ceiling is open like yours, which I intend to keep open. I'm going to spray the whole thing flat black like some restaurant chains do. You still have access but it looks presentable.

Your the best, cta fan!  I feel like I am on the Brown line and it was yesterday in the 1960's.  Oh for a Chicago dog, now. Look for more, soon, a product of the real village, Bruce

Great layout, great photography

Thanks all for the comments.

 

There are more pictures and links to some videos on my blog,

http://ctalayout.blogspot.com/

 

For TrainsRMe - on the wiring, its pretty basic. Although right now I am just using a convential transformer, I am wiring the layout in the star method for maybe eventually moving to DCS. So, to make that corner section removable, I just ran the wires and cut them at the benchwork joint and used crimp on bullet connectors, the kind you would get at any big box or auto parts store. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible. I also drilled a large enough hole in the benchwork plywood top so if I need to remove the track, the bullet connector will fit through the hole. Since I don't plan on removing the section very often, the crimp ons seemed a good compromise.

 

Joe P - BTW, love your work with ABS. I need to still build an elevated yard and short stretch of over street trackage like 63rd St. on Chicago's south side. I may borrow your methods. The structure is divided into roughly 3 foot sections. I drill a hole in the end/cross bent and use a small bolt and nut to secure each section together. Go to my blog and a couple of posts in the past I have a short time lapse video of how it took it down to work on some scenery. This link to an old entry, http://ctalayout.blogspot.com/...cture-part-four.html gives a little more detail.

 

TMack - the building you pointed out is a paper mock up of the back of an apartment building. I made the design using Evan's Software Building Maker. Its just printed out on an ink jet printer and stuck to an MDF shell. I use paper mock ups as quick background fillers until I get around to building the actual buildings. I'm going to have to scratchbuild most of my buildings as there isn't anything commercially available.

 

MCD4x4 - Great idea on painting the ceiling black. I unfortunately didn't do that and probably can't as I've got too much crud (internet cables, cable TV) wired ever so poorly by me up there now. I wish I would've done that.

 

Thanks again for taking a look.

 

CTA Fan

Looks good great work!!!

beautiful layout

Awesome layout. Thanks for posting.

 

Bob

Haven't been on in a while, so to see the progress is truly impressive. Excellent job!!

WOW.I HOPE MINE WILL LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THAT SOMEDAY.

Terrific layout...so very "Chicago"! The lotto store under the El structure is great. The address is 3400...what street...N. Southport? Just curious.

Great layout!  I love the liquor store that's selling lotto tickets!  Matt

Jay Jay ...

 

The station modeled is the Southport station on the Brown/Ravenswood branch ... or at least my "take" on it. It definitely is NOT a 1:1 representation in any way. I'm all about the compromise ... just trying to capture the "look / atmosphere" of the L and Chicago's North Side.

 

So, the real station is 3400 North Southport, so I figured the L Stop Liquor and Food would also be 3400 N as it is located directly under the tracks. The CTA would often lease the space under the track to make a few bucks. I figured I would do the same.

 

Thanks

 

CTA Fan

Thanks, CTA Fan! It wasn't even much of a guess on my part, as you've modeled it so well. I've been past the prototype numerous times on my way to Wrigley Field and other venues in the neighborhood. You've really captured the feel of the place.

 

Please keep the updates coming! 

Gorgeous!

 

Peter