What Is the Focal Point On your Layout?

That's great!  But I don't think Ivor will have a shed for long with that Dalek outside...

On my O gauge layout the focal point is the trains, but on my HO it's the carnvial with operating scrambler and air swings scratchbuilt by my grandfather.

The focal point of my layout is its transfer table-based engine yard. Its construction resulted from a conversation with Jim Barrett where we discussed scratch-building a transfer table yard based on a Lionel transfer table.

The project later became an article that I wrote for OGR Magazine, Run 236 June/July 2009.

We were talking about you and your layout this morning Forrest on the way to a client. In terms of this thread, we thought that this would be your focal point. When we came back, I was not surprised that you posted this photo.

I have 3, the track goes through all 3 towns.

Baseball field on one board

Engine yard

and "Main street"

I wanted something dramatic as you would enter the train room.  I made my big mountain with trestle and pond below to catch the eye.

"We were talking about you and your layout this morning Forrest on the way to a client. In terms of this thread, we thought that this would be your focal point. When we came back, I was not surprised that you posted this photo."

yep, the clear choice.

There you hit on something essential for a lot of us, Choo Cho Charlie, "high building fun and satisfaction." It isn't just the trains that keep many of us interested in this hobby. There is the art of making something with our own hands and imagination that adds greatly to our enjoyment and commitment, IMO.

FrankM.

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On a 4.5x9 "looper",  I'd have to say the, bent, offset, oval-ish type thing that is my elevated line. It has top tier "layer cake effect"

 That's changing as I build "up".

   I have changed lately to suit my view from the control seat at the rear side.

     New on the horizon from my view...

 In the far right corner, it is a hillside mine, level with the elevated line.

The far left corner now has a 175 gantry/pad, also elevated. 

  The viewers gaze should vary by position.

A  flag man shack, 175 pad/gantry, and a crossing grade is first through the door

Heads up to look down into the "spaghetti bowls" made by the elevation. Its alternative is getting low, tricking them into a ground level inspection of the "town" area.

• Short sides.

Right-A street scene, diner, liquid/gas tanks, & culvert industry, gaze lifting to a mini switch tower up high.

Left- "Hill top to valley" view of the watering tower area below.

• Broadside front-

 The elevation runs from the near corners towards and along the backside, opening a  "valley" between the elevation's end loops.

  The foreground centered has a little covered platform depot, the tracks, a clearing with a work yard for an AF talking station(city) bashed into a factory.

  Made by simply ditching the ornate door section, and adding smoke stacks. (It already has green "chicken wire glass" like a factory does)

I know, I know... its lattice

But I like chicken better than salad 

 On the 30" circle layout, a globe is the center piece when the rocket runs. It used to hold the 175 pad/gantry as an alternate, Oh, and a tree for the holidays 

The ceiling?

   1st you see the luggage station in the corner with a grade behind it, leveling out just to the left of the station. That leads you into turning left, away from the door hinged on your right, and looking naturally to the window on the left, then up again to a minor industrial wall and a bridge to the left corner and around its curve.

 Up the incline, noting the lower level loop, yard lights, and 2cnd line below, all stretching to the next corner were the ground level drops quickly 2 inches to the final wall. And on the elevation, it levels out, crosses a bridge and turns to the last wall.

 On that last wall, against the wall is a series of bridges for the elevation.

Centered at ground level. Deep red, brick makes up a 20"-ish long tunnel/engine house/shop on a pass trough track, located directly under the elevated line.

   "Built in". It is part hillside, part structure.

It resembles a "Green Building" with a landscaped roof.

  The only elevated earth that the upper level track touches, is that hilltop.

 It has a little park, with short, stone walls. A break in the short wall a guardrail, with some trees & bushes framing a viewing bench, above another storage siding and the lower main.

It is also one abutment base for a girder/ trestle/ girder bridge to the left, just before the final descending corner.

  .

 Sharing this final focal view with the daytime dominant "brick hill", with the bridge lights on, it becomes dominant at night. The red loses its color pop to the shadows.

 In the dark, lights still lead your eyes counterclockwise from the station.

Overgrowth, moss, and greenery in general, is only seen here on the hill.

Doug,

Simply extraordinaire!

Alex

Some excellent scenes all!  I agree that a focal point is important for visitors at least as it draws them into the layout - as well as demonstrates your "talents".  I am one of those a year into a total redo of my layout.  Originally, the layout was a rural, Arizona highlands theme and when you want into the basement you were drawn to the Hell Canyon scene, modeled after a real bridge and canyon on the BNSF a bit north of us here.

Now I am going with an urban theme and the highlight in the same location is a section of downtown Chicago with a major terminal, subway and trolley lines.  The second photo shows what you see walking into the room now and that there is still a lot of real estate to develop while the third shows the passenger platforms and train shed.

My Engine Service Yard, once it is completed and scenicked...

dewey, getting Image Not Found???

I really admire some of the spectacular focal points you guys have built. Passenger terminals, roundhouses, bridges and trestles, and towns all have impressive examples in this thread. 

Those of us with smaller layouts must have more modest aspirations. My layout is a 13-foot square that was designed to include both 0 and Standard Gauge, wide curves, and postwar-style accessories. The major point of interest is the yard area on the inner loop, including Lionel coal accessories, a barrel loader, a milk platform (not yet installed for this picture), and an engine servicing area. The control panel, which is made of varnished birch plywood with a Philippine mahogany fascia, was just installed a couple of days ago. I'm still working on wiring and installing the accessories, and after that I'll put in parking areas, shrubbery, etc. 

That beautiful control panel is focal point enough!  However, all your work there looks great

Thanks for the kind words. The control panel was, in fact, a lot of work. The hardest part was dealing with the complex angles. The slope of the panel and the angles of the corners made it necessary to figure the cuts with extreme care so that everything joined up properly without gaps. The panel itself is cut at an angle so it will fit into the fascia without any gaps, and there is a decorate molding around the edge that you can see if you look carefully. Another time-consuming job was designing a configuration that would be visually pleasing with an intuitive arrangement that most anyone familiar with 0 gauge trains could figure out without labels. Then, of course, every control had to be mounted in perfect relationship to the others - all the switch controllers in a straight line and evenly spaced, etc. The controls are a straight progression left to right in the same order as the accessories and switches on the layout. The only non-intuitive items are the three rocker switches on the far right. The two next to the uncoupler controllers control power to the sidings, and the one at upper right is for lights.

I sometimes build furniture and I wanted my control panel to look like a piece of fine furniture. I humbly think I've succeeded. I could not have built it without a fully equipped wood shop. Thin furniture-grade plywood is hard to work with - it's hard to avoid some tearout, which is one reason why the molding was necessary (I think it looks good anyway). The molding was hand sanded from rectangular hardwood stock - there's no commercially available molding in that size. 

Here's a shot of the underframe before is was attached to the benchwork. You can see the complexity of the angle cuts needed to get clean joints. Made me glad I stayed awake in high school trig. 

Here are some of mine.

Paul, you asked the question, now what's your focal point, Ben's will be hard to beat.

Jack