Stuart’s Tiny Layout

Great looking layout,  very clever idea with the divider. Look forward to seeing more progress on this.

I’m adding some topography to an area. I’m after a rolling terrain look. This will get covered with static grass mats in the future.

Before and after

The trees look great in front of the water tower flat. It really makes great use of forced perspective.

The trees look great in front of the water tank!

@Gustavflyer posted:

The trees look great in front of the water tower flat. It really makes great use of forced perspective.

Yes, I like the application of the forced perspective, that is what I want to do with the flats on my layout. It definitely adds great depth to the scene.

Ray

I’ve made a few changes on the layout and I like them better. I’ll be posting more pics soon. Ive been away for awhile but I’m now working on the layout more diligently. Here’s a few pics of some resin castings I painted this weekend.

Beautiful little layout! Good luck going forward with it. I made a Christmas/Area 51 layout out of foam, where I can just switch scenery. Based on a build by Jim Policastro in OGR.

Very creative, interchangeable for any season or reason.  Cool.  Both settings are superb, Area 51 or Christmas.  Did you make the Quonset Hut, and is that a 37 Chevy PU in the Christmas scene.  I need a 37 Chevy PU - it was my first vehicle, cost was $90, hauled some trash and paid it off in 3 days!  What is the footprint of the whole setting?  Thanks for sharing!

Chuck, the Quonset hut was issued by Lionel a few years back, and pops up on the web occasionally, or can be found at shows. The only thing to  add is the stovepipe! Sorry, it’s a 1935 Ford, (Road Champs), with a Lionel logo on the doors. The layout was built based on an article in the Oct.-Nov. issue of OGR  (Run 238). The base is 2” styrofoam on 1/4” plywood base for rigidity. Very lightweight, by just changing the styrofoam scenery, I can make into whatever setting I like.  I’ve taken it to shows, and bring it upstairs to my living room for Christmas, where it sits on a patio table. It’s about 52 x 40”, just a Fastrack oval.

Gustav,

Nice job using the ledger-lock drive screws to fasten the frame pieces together.  As strong as 3/8 inch steel bolts, and they look great too!

Mannyrock

Updated pics of the layout showing additional scenery dividers. These also support the long divider that divides the layout.

I love this! What a fantastic idea!

Very nice use of only a little material!!

Looks great.

Of course, with a railroad that small, it might be more appropriately named "Western or Atlantic Railroad" as I doubt it could reach both!

I really like what you are working on.  With the kind of space I have now, this is inspirational.  Building a small layout like this is a great way to work on my scenery techniques.  I could see a version where the center is a city scape and the outside loop of track is a traction layout.

Very fun!

I like that name Western or Atlantic!

@cubalz posted:

I love this! What a fantastic idea!

Thank you for your kind words!

@GG1 4877 posted:

I really like what you are working on.  With the kind of space I have now, this is inspirational.  Building a small layout like this is a great way to work on my scenery techniques.  I could see a version where the center is a city scape and the outside loop of track is a traction layout.

Very fun!

I hope this layout will inspire others, I don’t have much space but you can still build a fun yet tiny layout

A little video to enjoy!

Based on a period photograph of Atlanta’s rail yard, and I circled it too, you can see a crossing area between the rails using planks. I did the same thing too

Final sanding and better fit

Working on some tall furnace filter style evergreens. Note the bark texture.

Those trees look great!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Those trees look great!

Thank you Mark!

I added some dark green turf to the branches and this is how I will finish them from here on. I added a skewer to show how the trees start out.

Building a forest one tree at a time. This shows how the trees look before painting and adding the coarse turf.

They will make an excellent forest!

Fine turf makes an excellent bark texture on tree trunks.

That’s great

Stuart,

When your layout is totally done, and you think about getting a second train of cars for variety, you may want to consider getting the very short Marx tin type cars from the 50s and 60s, in VG+ shape.    (I think they are 6 inches and less.)  They look great, and your train would look "longer" with a string of these short cars.   (More cars than are currently in your train.)

Just a thought.   I am really enjoying watching you build this.

Mannyrock

Really nice thanks to the good use of a visual backdrop barrier!

I finished the first stand of trees and I added a few stumps.

The "reward" for thinking SMALL for a layout is ... a BIG difference in the availability of funds in your checking account. Meanwhile, the value of your time invested in detailing a small layout can be just as satisfying as what you might spend on a large layout; except the total timeframe would be shorter and oftentimes more manageable.

Many exquisitely detailed large layouts are often the result of collaboration of many hobbyists in a train club; otherwise such grand projects require "eternal life" for completion by a "lone wolf" owner/hobbyist.

Mike Mottler   LCCA 12394

Mike, what great words for Stewart!!

Cool!

You're having WAY too much fun with that little layout. This hobby is supposed to be about rivets and hand wringing, NOT about fun. Tsk, tsk. You really should have known.

BTW all:

There was indeed a Western & Atlantic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...nd_Atlantic_Railroad

Andre

Scenery’ has begun on the W&ARR. I’m putting down some Georgia colored coarse turf. I shifted the turf to break it down more but I wanted to keep the texture too.

I added a duck pond tonight. It will be detailed with lily pads and ducks of course.

I have refined the tree technique and now am satisfied with how they look. Trial and error when it comes to scenery