Modeling cities sucks

[Ed Kapuscinski]

One of the many fronts I'm trying to make progress on is my York City section of the layout.

I forgot how annoying cities ARE to make, and how much I should've listened to myself after the last layout: "don't do that again".

My big struggle at the moment is managing "ground level".

When you follow best practices and put your mains on cork, everything else is going to be too low by about 3-4 scale feet. That's ok in more natural environments, but in cities? It's tough to deal with.

I'm planning on laying down sheet craft foam to raise things up a bit, but I'm not sure that's going to entirely solve the issue.

What do you guys do to solve these problems successfully?

This photo illustrates the issue pretty well. That's supposed to be street trackage.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Here's another instance.



The siding needs to be lower than the mains, but everything needs to also come up to track level for the crossings.

[Philip H]

So I'm going to throw the radical bomb here and say so what?  You are happiest modeling certain places at certain time periods, and raising the street surface is one way to accomplish that. Maybe use foamcore for the raising and craft foam for the street surface. Or just put the track on the foam.  Yes it's "noisier" but not like a sound decoder coming from the factory at volume 100 noisy.

There's no real way to address this that isn't a compromise. There's no "better" way to do subroadbed to address this. 

[Pomperaugrr]

I used Foam Core that I glued to the foam insulation in New Milford.  I was sure to weight the sheets down until the glue had completely cured.  I then used 1/8" thick, adhesive backed craft foam sheets for the streets and sidewalks.  That gave me the elevation I was looking for.  Note that additional ballast was later added along the New Milford station platform to hide the gain the third picture.


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[Peavine]

I went the easy route and separated the tracks from the street by a little strip of scenery. Sorry its upside down. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[wazzou]

For true street trackage, I always routed out a channel in the foam, the width and depth of the ties and used lightweight spackle to the rail height.
I used brass structural angle shapes glued on the insides of the rail heads to keep the spackle uniformly between the rails.
That is a little cumbersome because I did file notches where the spikes are.
Working with spackle for roads isn't as hard as hard as some seem to think. 
I try my best to trowel it pretty flat but once it's dry, I use a damp sponge to "sand and shape" until satisfied.
This road on this diorama has a crown, all done with a damp sponge and maybe some light sanding with fine grit sand paper here and there.

[bbussey]

Foam core, styrene, cork sheet, balsa wood … there are plenty of options to get the terrain up to track level. Much more daunting is the amount of detail needed for urban scenes. If I had through things through more thoroughly, I may not have chosen to model the mainline between Bridgeport and New Haven. New London isn’t as bad, but Bridgeport is a details-oriented nightmare.

[davefoxx]

Ed,

I just jack up the road’s subroadbed and building foundations with cork roadbed, which is not expensive- well, at least it didn’t used to be.  I use styrene (in a thickness just under the rail height to make track cleaning less tedious and damaging) to build the road.  In my case, I used 0.060” thick black styrene to abut Code 83 rails.  You should probably use 0.040” thick styrene for Code 55 rails.  In short, jack it up with cork (or something similar), so you can still have gutters, ditches, and depressions in your scenery.  You can do it; I understand you’re good at jacking.



If I were to do street trackage, I would use the cork, then a layer of styrene that matches the thickness of the ties, and then the 0.060” thick styrene (0.040” for you) to cover the track with a flat pavement.

Hope this helps,
DFF

[davefoxx]

Foam core, styrene, cork sheet, balsa wood … there are plenty of options to get the terrain up to track level. Much more daunting is the amount of detail needed for urban scenes. If I had through things through more thoroughly, I may not have chosen to model the mainline between Bridgeport and New Haven. New London isn’t as bad, but Bridgeport is a details-oriented nightmare.

Agreed.  I’m only modeling a small town, and it’s a lot of work to do it right.  I’d much rather build a tree every night. 

DFF

[Dave V]

Foam core, styrene, cork sheet, balsa wood … there are plenty of options to get the terrain up to track level. Much more daunting is the amount of detail needed for urban scenes. If I had through things through more thoroughly, I may not have chosen to model the mainline between Bridgeport and New Haven. New London isn’t as bad, but Bridgeport is a details-oriented nightmare.

Hell, the amount of detail even a caricature of a town can absorb...

[spr1955]

Cork roadbed is 3mm, so I am going to use 3mm EVA foam to get the surrounding areas up to tie level and the 1mm EVA foam for between the ties if street running or road crossings along with a bit of lumber or just guardrails. There is also sheet cork from midwest which is also 3 mm.  I have not done this yet but that is my plan based on past experience and what is available today.

Sorry no pics.

[peteski]

Its been a while since I looked, but automotive parts stores used to carry sheets of cork gasket material for making custom gaskets.  Not sure how the price compares to the Midwest cork sheets.

[mmagliaro]

I combined two things.  First, I didn't put the track on full height cork roadbed, because I think it just looks too jacked up in the air.  I used thinner craft foam that I cut myself (either from a craft store, or it may have been that Woodland Scenics foam roadbed stuff, I can't remember now).  The street-level is on pieces of thick sheet styrene.  Again, I cannot remember the thickness I used.  You can see the edge of it in the foreground of this photo.  It was probably .080" or .060".  This all worked out well and wasn't too hard to do.

As I recall, I used a big flat file to file off the underside of the styrene roadway where it abuts the track, so it would fit neatly over the ties and go up close to the rails.

[thomasjmdavis]

My solution for downtown areas is to use a layer of sheet cork that is 1/8 thick (the material is also available in thicker dimensions, up to a half inch, if you want more "grab" for track nails)- the stuff they make bulletin boards and such out of. I just cover the entire surface of the downtown area.  I have the option to cut away the cork (and as much foam under it as needed) where I want the ground lower,  and can build up on top of it for grade crossings and such. Once out of the 'downtown' area, I just go to the usual cork roadbed right of way.

The cork sheet has the additional advantage that any minor damage to the surface shows up as brown "earth" instead of bright blue or pink.

My best results, a couple layouts ago, came from 3 or 4 foot wide rolls that were 8' long. No seams. If you use it, I recommend unrolling it and letting it rest a day or two until gravity takes some of the curl out of it.

[Scottl]

Its been a while since I looked, but automotive parts stores used to carry sheets of cork gasket material for making custom gaskets.  Not sure how the price compares to the Midwest cork sheets.

You can buy self-stick 3 and 6 mm cork sheet on Amazon.  I used it for my new yard and it works great.  The adhesive was good right to plywood and extruded foam.  I even tried self-stick hexagon cork "coasters" and they worked well too.