Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu SNE. Sýna allar færslur
Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu SNE. Sýna allar færslur
miðvikudagur, 8. júlí 2015
fimmtudagur, 27. febrúar 2014
Does dividing the peninsula make a layout seem larger?
I follow the USA & Canadian Railway RMWeb forum since I think getting a British perspective on American railroads and modeling is kind of interesting. (I first found RMWeb looking for information on Irish narrow gauge railways since I have a long-standing interest in those lines). One of the regular posters on the USA & Canadian forums is an N scaler "Barry Ten" who is building a very nice layout (see this thread) reflecting the railroads of the Southeastern US.
The footprint of the layout is similar to many we have on this side of the pond (as the Brits would say) - around the walls with a peninsula jutting into the center of the room. Or at least it will have a peninsula jutting into the center of the room once he finishes building it.
The other day he posted the following regarding whether or not to include a "backscene" - what we'd call a "backdrop." Hey, I might not be able to translate a lick of Russian anymore, but I can handle translating English!
Here's Barry's post:
"I considered a backscene, but reckoned it would make the room feel a bit too cramped as it would effectively block my view of one half of the room from the other. My plan is to have a high ridge down the middle of the peninsula instead, but not as high as a backscene would have done..."
When I read this over my morning coffee this morning I immediately remembered having the same concerns with my layout in Colorado. On that layout I'd originally built the peninsula without a center divider, (even though we'd used them pretty consistently on several MR project layouts as then managing editor Jim Kelly was a big fan of them!) I planned to rely instead on a ridge to divide one side of the peninsula from the other as I'd done on the N scale Carolina Central. Here's what the layout looked like - sorry if these images aren't up to snuff, they're fairly small pics and I no longer have the original larger files:
I toyed with the idea of adding a peninsula, but, like Berry, was unsure if it would make the room seem even smaller than it was. In an effort to see what it might look like I used my completely mediocre Photoshop skills to add a "sky" backdrop, as well as some of the planned buildings to the scene. The result is shown below.
Read More..
The footprint of the layout is similar to many we have on this side of the pond (as the Brits would say) - around the walls with a peninsula jutting into the center of the room. Or at least it will have a peninsula jutting into the center of the room once he finishes building it.
The other day he posted the following regarding whether or not to include a "backscene" - what we'd call a "backdrop." Hey, I might not be able to translate a lick of Russian anymore, but I can handle translating English!
Here's Barry's post:
"I considered a backscene, but reckoned it would make the room feel a bit too cramped as it would effectively block my view of one half of the room from the other. My plan is to have a high ridge down the middle of the peninsula instead, but not as high as a backscene would have done..."
I'll leave it to the reader to decide if this makes the room larger. I will say I added the backdrop to the layout and was happy I did.
miðvikudagur, 24. apríl 2013
mánudagur, 2. janúar 2012
3-d Planning
Over the last couple of weeks I've managed to find a fair amount of time to work on the layout. Although I did get a fair start at kitbashing the Cooley-Wright foundry for Waterbury, I haven't actually completed any projects in the last two weeks - and nothing is even remotely close to be being ready for photography.
Yesterday Dave Emery came by and we did some "3-D" planning and arranging of the mill stream scene. This scene, which is essentially the back half of the Waterbury peninsula, is intended to showcase several water-powered (or originally water-powered) New England mills. With Dave' help I was able to identify the key elements and get a good idea of how the scene will look. Some of the "mockups"we used were more than a bit unorthodox, including structure kit components, boxes, folded up pieces of paper, and even locomotive boxes! But even these unusual mockups served their purpose - letting us visual how the scene and each element would look. I'll try to get the new version of Illustrator loaded into the computer later and see if I can sketch up a version of the resulting plan.
Over the last couple of weeks I've studied the planned White River Junction scene. Without going into a lot of detail, while WRJ may "fit" in the space, it will never look "right" to me. I've been stressing over that scene for months - which includes full sized mockups of the key buildings. Anytime you get that stuck on a layout project it's a sure sign something just isn't right.
The solution?
The layout needs a freight yard and some sort of engine facility to execute the planned operating scheme - I also want to include a single large industry that takes a variety of freight cars. Both of these items can be found in Palmer, Mass. So, the yard will be based on the CV yard in Palmer - a small yard that is ideally suited for a model railroad. It was even used as a base for several local freights during my era - the exact same purpose I need a yard to serve on my layout. The single large industry is covered by the Spencer Wickwire Plant.
I've started mocking up the scene this morning and have found it fits much, much better than WRJ did. With WRJ I was constantly fighting the space - that's not been the case with Palmer.
For a track plan, I didn't have to look any further than my the article I co-authored with Iain Rice in own Model Railroad Planning 2000. The first Southern New England layout, featured in that issue, included a version of Palmer yard. The dimensions are almost the same!
So in a way I've come full circle!
Read More..
Yesterday Dave Emery came by and we did some "3-D" planning and arranging of the mill stream scene. This scene, which is essentially the back half of the Waterbury peninsula, is intended to showcase several water-powered (or originally water-powered) New England mills. With Dave' help I was able to identify the key elements and get a good idea of how the scene will look. Some of the "mockups"we used were more than a bit unorthodox, including structure kit components, boxes, folded up pieces of paper, and even locomotive boxes! But even these unusual mockups served their purpose - letting us visual how the scene and each element would look. I'll try to get the new version of Illustrator loaded into the computer later and see if I can sketch up a version of the resulting plan.
Over the last couple of weeks I've studied the planned White River Junction scene. Without going into a lot of detail, while WRJ may "fit" in the space, it will never look "right" to me. I've been stressing over that scene for months - which includes full sized mockups of the key buildings. Anytime you get that stuck on a layout project it's a sure sign something just isn't right.
The solution?
The layout needs a freight yard and some sort of engine facility to execute the planned operating scheme - I also want to include a single large industry that takes a variety of freight cars. Both of these items can be found in Palmer, Mass. So, the yard will be based on the CV yard in Palmer - a small yard that is ideally suited for a model railroad. It was even used as a base for several local freights during my era - the exact same purpose I need a yard to serve on my layout. The single large industry is covered by the Spencer Wickwire Plant.
I've started mocking up the scene this morning and have found it fits much, much better than WRJ did. With WRJ I was constantly fighting the space - that's not been the case with Palmer.
For a track plan, I didn't have to look any further than my the article I co-authored with Iain Rice in own Model Railroad Planning 2000. The first Southern New England layout, featured in that issue, included a version of Palmer yard. The dimensions are almost the same!
So in a way I've come full circle!
sunnudagur, 2. janúar 2011
Original SNE track plan
I never drew a complete track plan for the original layout, and frankly don't want to spend time doing one now. But the following will show how the layout fit the space. Please note that the around-the-walls area, including Thames Street and Montville were "single deck" - the
peninsula was actually a double-deck section.
I got as far as getting all the benchwork, most of the track (a few sidings remained to be added) and even some initial scenery in place before work came to a screeching halt summer. I knew something was bugging me about the layout, but could never figure out what it was.
At this point I'm busy rearranging the benchwork. I initially thought some of the track could be kept in place, but that was rapidly becoming an issue - so I ended up scrapping the entire layout down to the rough benchwork.
Once the layout room is presentable enough for pictures, I'll post some photos of the new, hopefully improved layout!
fimmtudagur, 23. desember 2010
Track plan
After some real frustration with my under construction Southern New England Railway layout, I decided to make some significant changes to not only the theme of the layout and the layout itself. For a little more detail on some of those changes see my Southern New England Railway blog post, here.
Currently, the basement looks like a bomb hit it - demo and/or reconstruction of model railroads is never pretty to look at, but I'm hopeful that like a Phoenix the new railroad will arise from the ashes "new and improved."
Seems appropriate to kick off this new blog with a look at the design for the revised layout. The footprint is similar in some ways to the existing layout, although there's no helix, and the peninsula connects to the around the wall portion of the layout at the opposite end of the room, relative to the former arrangement.
Here's a track plan showing the planned new layout arrangement. Note: This plan doesn't show all the details of every structure, siding, etc . . . and, I've deliberately left some "Towns" undetermined since I need to do some more research to narrow down the field.
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