Hi All,
I started this post yesterday, then lost all my work.
Here it is a second time!
My railroad is based on the Santa Fe in my hometown of San Diego, CA. I have always loved the Santa Fe and have wanted to build a layout for a long time. About a year and a half ago I designed a layout to fit in the living room of my uncle's house (who is also a train geek like me). We laid out a space roughly 2' by 18' with some "bumpouts" at each end to allow for turnback curves. I am interested in operations but I also know I would want to just relax and let the trains roll by on occasion. N scale proved to be the best option for my needs, and I began planning. The trackwork is nearly 100% complete today, and major scenery has progressed in certain areas. The era is the 1980s in sunny springtime San Diego, which allows for a few more green grasses and trees and keeps the hills from all being too brown. Power is 4 and 6 axle Santa Fe diesels, with assorted freight cars, no unit trains as of right now. San Diego (though one of the largest cities in the U.S.) is a sleepy spur line south of the real action in Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Plans for Amtrak F40PH and Amtubes may be in the future as well, though I don't have a passenger station anywhere on the layout so it may just be a run through.
Well, pictures explain it better than words, and I have a lot of pictures! Feel free to comment or question anything, I'm eager to soak up knowledge.
The last trackplan which is close to how the layout was built. All of the straight lines became much more flowing as you'll see:
This is where the left side of the layout was inspired from:
Future site of a model railroad:
The ladder frame (I could probably sit on this, it's slightly over-engineered):
Single layer of foam as a base. We ended up digging some of this first layer out to form valleys below which you'll see later:
Laying out the major road and industries in Miramar (a suburb of San Diego). We used WS foam risers which I love, and WS foam roadbed which is not so great.
Looking the other direction, pay no attention to the ugly copper curtains.
Track lighting installed. Also installed later was blue rope light, for nighttime train effects. VERY COOL
Laying out the yard ladder. I still wish it was straight and not curved, but that was my uncle's decision!
We'll jump ahead in time somewhat, here all the track is in place leading up to the Miramar industries:
The other side of the layout, home to the cement plant spur which is the other major industry on the layout, and can hold up to 7-8 cars. The prototype is located far south of Miramar, which is why it's located off the main yard which is south as well.
Valleys sunk, mountains rise, and the boards show where a major freeway will be built soon. This helps disguise (from normal viewing angles) somewhat the fact that the trains turn back on themselves:
Valleys and a view of the yard. The plywood "dam" has since been removed:
Helicopter view of the valley. This will be nearly full of trees when complete:
Mountains get an early coat of stain. The rockwork on the left was eventually torn down and replaced with more realistic horizontal strata:
This very sharp prototype curve in reality today:
And beginning to be modelled:
Jumping ahead in time again, grass was planted, though still lacking trees:
It took me a while to repaint the wall with blue after overspraying with the stain. It was surprising how this little effort made a big difference:
The cement plant spur tracks are buried in ballast and dirt. You can also see the bridge and drainage ditch detail here.
When appropriately cropped, it actually looks good! (to me):
I'll try to continue catching up in a later post. More work has been done!
James
