looking down at Toltec

[johnb]

In the past, I have climbed to the top of the local mountains to get a bird’s eye view of the Casa Grande Valley.  Today I cleaned up the layout area and pretend to do the same, looking down at the semi-freelanced town of Toltec, AZ. Toltec does actually exist, it is on the Sunset Route between Casa Grande and Eloy, however it is just a passing siding.



The layout operates well, is fun to switch, but it leaves a lot to the imagination when it comes to scenery.  I know that I want to add another warehouse and I might replace the grain elevator with a triangular, scratch built warehouse.

The fun part is placing roads and a little bit of greenery. I’m not sure where to place them. I started on the Pacific Coast Railway roundy round to help out with my scenery blues, however I am determined to have a finished layout. Until I just sit down and do it, I will just be having fun switching Toltec.

[PacRail]

Did you plan on the hint of an approaching dust storm or was that just luck?  Either way it looks great.

[johnb]

Did you plan on the hint of an approaching dust storm or was that just luck?  Either way it looks gr eat.

pure luck....I even toned it back.

[johnb]

After yesterday’s post looking down at Toltec, I decided to download a basic photo editing app to rough in parking lots, roads, a concrete loading ramp and another warehouse…..no where near as good as I can do on my computer with a real editor, but it is an idea. As always, feedback is welcome.

[MichaelWinicki]

If you can make the roads less parallel to the trackage the better... Yeah, you can have a little of that, but having the road enter/leave the scene at different angles (than the trackage) will make the scene pop even more IMO.

[johnb]

I totally get the parallel  thing, but is so common here....

[nkalanaga]

JohnB:  I'm with you.  In most Western "flatland" towns the roads are parallel to the tracks, because often the tracks came first, and the railroad laid out the town.

[johnb]

JohnB:  I'm with you.  In most Western "flatland" towns the roads are parallel to the tracks, because often the tracks came first, and the railroad laid out the town.

even when they built I-10, it follows the railroad. Heading freeway east from Casa Grande, the freeway parallels the railroad past Tucson into the hills near Benson, even if you can't see it, you are never more than a mile from it for over 150 miles

[johnb]

Blue painters tape makes good roads....



Now just mentally swap out the two wooden laser cut kits from Micro Trains with a big warehouse....