I have embarked on yet another major layout project, this time to expand my village area outside the city. This inward expansion should give me some more opportunities for scratchbuilding this fall and winter. Since building my small passenger and freight station, I've wanted to build some more small wooden structures since those two little projects were a lot of fun. I started two nights ago getting the new benchwork in place and took a break today after roughing in the streets. The overviews show the general layout of the expansion and the street level shots give you an idea of the views that will be afforded to my camera when this thing takes shape.









When it is all said and done, a new siding will poke in parallel to the track on the graded wall. This will serve a large-ish wooden factory of some sort. I also hope to put in a few small shops along the streets and a couple old wooden houses along where the road rises. All the buildings will be custom as I have developed a real liking to odd-shaped structures. The weird shapes and angles ought to help keep one's eye busy enough to not see some of the layout edges.

A lot of work ahead!

Norm:
Thanks for the photo update. You've given me some much needed inspiration to get back working on the benchwork for my 5 1/2 x 17-foot 3-rail empire.

Bill

Norm - what are you using for the streets?

Very nice layout you have there Norm!

daaaaammmmmmmmmmmnnnnnn Looking good Norm. Cant wait to see some buildings in there. Keep at it.

Bill, nice benchwork. Nice to see all of us moving along on our layouts. Should give us some great threads with photos down the road.

Hunter:

That's only the basic benchwork. More legs will be added and the cross joists are moveable. I've designed the benchwork so that I will be able to roll the entire layout away from the wall. Each leg will have a 10" gate wheel on it for easy rolling. This way I'll be able to get behind the layout easily.

One side wall will be completely mirrored to give the layout a perspective of depth.

If you notice the center leg, it's back 16" from the front.

Bill

Frank, streets are 1/8" masonite, sidewalks are 1/4". The next step, after making a few more sidewalks and tweaking the hill and curve, is to spackle, sand, and paint/weather.

Norm:

The area with the board painted black was previously open space?

I was thingking for my streets of using spackle and mixing in some ground up something or another - cat litter? - to give it that 40's concrete street look.

Frank, this bridge section occupies what was formerly a 3' aisle down the center of the layout. I contemplated an 18" shelf along the inside edge of the front section and then thought of just doing a 48" long bridge section across the center. What I ended up with is sort of a combination of the two ideas. The angled parts will allow me to transition in some scenery features and they also help maintain my two duckunders. Even with all this stuff in place, I still have access to all the switches along the back section of the layout.

A minor progress shot. The streets are pretty much laid out the way I want them including the curved hill section. The foam sections will help make up the small hill the houses will sit on and the one to the left will be the base for some more carved rocks. A building will butt right against the flat side.



Any suggestions on covering the foam? I've never really worked with it before. I'm thinking of painting it with diluted carpenter's glue, then laying plaster-soaked shop towels over it. Hmmmm.

Norm,

From what I have done in the past in N scale, just use latex paint and ground foam over it. Looks good so far though.

What I thought was a pretty novel idea on the San Diego 3-Railer's layout (San Diego Model Train Museum) is their lighting technique... that alternates, about every 15-20 minutes, from day to night... and night to day.

Watching those trains run in semi-darkness is a totally different experience!

Something to consider... for your own layout!

Norm, what did you use to do your streets?

craig obviously is buoyed by teh magnitude of his massive layout:



sorry craig - I couldn't resist.

Norm,

I also use brown latex paint and various ground cover materials right on the foam. You don't need no stinkin' plaster!

Dennis