I happened back across this posting I made to another forum a few years ago. Thought I might repeat it in its own subject thread as it is still very much a guiding theme with my new layout plan.
 
I just like Model Trains,...of all sorts....the scale miniaturization.

I'm particularly fond of steam engines, and particularly the large ones. I'm a fan of C&O, B&O, NW, etc, etc.
And as a kid of course I had the ubiquitous Santa Fe diesel engine,...those famous worldwide recognizable colors.

I had recently returned from Asia and was living in the Wash-Balt area when a company in Balt called Life Like made the bold move to really upgrade plastic trains to nice scale models. They introduced their Proto 2000 line. They introduced a whole line of detailed diesel locos, then they introduced that superb 2-8-8-2 steam engine.....WOW. They set a standard in plastic scale model trains that the others quickly followed. Bachmann, Athearn, etc all jumped on the band wagon to introduce their premium lines as well. Plastic detailing became an art that eventually was a rival to brass locos.

I was collecting a little of everything. I would buy some stuff that eventually got superseded by even better stuff, so I would attend the Great Scale Train Show in Balt and sell off older stuff and try to upgrade to the better stuff coming out. I would visit John Glabb's Peach Creek brass shop in Laural, Md, and droll over the brass locos which I considered beyond my reach, but then look what was coming out in plastic a few months later.

By this time I had collected quite a few steam engines of various lines, and principle a number of diesels from Santa Fe.
So when it came to planning my new layout, how could I choose just one time frame, or location, .....if I wanted to collect and run all of those type trains? I wanted to run steam and diesel, and I wanted to run east coast and west coast lines.....on one layout??

I've decided my trains are going to run from the east coast to the west coast,...Balt to Calif. I'll call it the Continental Connector. Balt will be on the lower deck and Calif will be on the upper deck.

Since I am not a stickler on time frames I'll be able to run both modern and older style freight and passenger cars on my layout, and of course steam and diesels. I'm going to have lots of staging that will present any number of variations,...including a few European trains I've collected. Yes it won't be prototypical, but it will be fun. And I hope to get a considerable amount of industry in this space as well.

Here's a screen grab I took earlier today.


   

The video can be found here.  It's somewhat shaky as I was about a quarter mile away using a 300mm lens zoomed all the way.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~fiatfan/test.mp4

Tom

permanent display!  

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A few years ago, someone gave me an old train set quality RS11 (I think was a Model Power). Then later, I was left with an unused Atlas/Kato RS11 drive, thus came the idea to build yet another RS18, this time a very specific locomotive that ran in my hometown in the early 2000s. It was an ex-CP RS18u that was chopped-nosed in the 1980s then acquired by NBEC. For years, we thought it would be cool to have this engine on the layout, now it was possible!

While the shell was cheap, I decided to go all the way with detailing and rebuilt the handrail completely by reusing the Atlas stanchions but using piano wire and brass for the handrail following a discussion with Doctorwayne. It was my first time bashing handrails and I was quite afraid... finally, I foudn out the process wasn't that intimidating and made for extremely sturdy handrails.

As it stands today, the model is a real Frankeinstein. Hoods are a mix of Model Power and Atlas RS18 parts mashed together, the cab is a heavily kitbashed Atlas one, the side sill is also Atlas while various detail parts are brass, 3D print or homemade resin parts.

Now, I only need to add window glazing, headlight lenses and touch up some details.

And now for the photo report:






























Enjoy!

Matt

I know of the Woodland Scenics foam risers, but I have never actual had occasion to use them.
https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics....NCLDECLSET

When I looked them up I found they were only available in set grades of 2, 3, or 4 % grades. For some reason I had thought from their appearance that they could be stretched out something like an accordion to obtain a grade %  in between those set grades offered,....but apparently not so.

Does anyone else make such a variable grade riser set?

I have several locations on my new layout plan were I could make use of such an item

Some of you might remember that I used to write a column called, Out Arizona Way for a newspaper in Ohio. The idea was that I got the paper every week giving me an idea of how folks lived in that area, and I would write an article for that same paper so those folks would see how life was around my area. It’s been a good ten years since the owner passed away and they stopped publishing the paper. I also used to write a monthly article, Along the Lines,  about trains for a publication in Tahachapi, CA. Yup, that town near the Tahachapi Loop. That too went belly-up with the downturn in the economy around the same time. I do have a blog here where I posted about a dozen of those articles. I do miss writing both articles, and although this sub-forum has been tagged for blogs about railroads, it’s been dormant for a few years, and so, we have decided to widen its scope. Rather than use the Hobo Camp thread to post short stories, as I’ve been doing occasionally, I’ll just post some old and some new ramblings of an old man here. Feel free to comment. I guess I could post things in one or more social sites in hopes of getting a few thousand or million, “likes” or “followings”, but that’s just not my bag. I see where there are people becoming millionaires by posting stuff on social media such as, youtube, but it’s too late in life for me to think about all the complexities of being a millionaire, so I choose Big Blue members as my target, forgoing the chance for fame and fortune.

Again, feel free to comment or even open your own blog and add your own stories. We still have the Hobo Camp forum for daily chit-chat and personal updates, blogs are more for story-telling. My stories are about what it’s like living in a place that once was a vast desert, I would hope others would start a blog on what it’s like living in their part of the world.

Please step forward all of you fellows that are knowledgeable about scenery.

I'm trying to place a Walthers 'New River Coal Mining' structure into the upper deck, back left corner of my layout. A portion of it would sit over the double crossover fixture I made, while the loading tracks themselves would be out on a 'flat' like I show in these photos,...the foam flat

 

 
Two of the most immediate questions that come to mind:

1. Is it possible the 'camouflage' that opening in the rear wall that is bringing a single line track into the room from the outdoor helix? Is it possible to make that NOT look like a tunnel entrance??
   
2. In that same sort of vein, is it possible to create a 'fake background scene' on a small portion of that rear wall would appear to be a track (or several of them) coming in to the loading tracks for the coal cars?...(at the wall end of those straight pieces of track I laid down there)
   
    
   

I'm going to begin this subject thread by making some copies of some of my previous postings as it will probable best convey the steps I have taken so far.

I need HELP!
Quite awhile back I set aside some spaces on my new double-deck layout plan to have some logging scenes.
I labeled them Logging Tracks & Logging Interchange
 
Even though both of these 'scenes' are interconnected, they both require individual design attention:
a) to the logging trains that gather up the downed trees and deliver them to the lumber mill,
b) the mill itself,
c) and finally placement of finished product on mainline cars for retail distribution.

 

 
On this upper level I am proposing to put some logging tracks and trains running out the peninsula to its tip. There might be a very tight loop at the free end of the peninsula for the short logging locos to run. Or it might be just a back and forth operation for them. They will bring logs back to the saw mill scene at the trunk end of the peninsula (logging interchange). I have the whole Walthers saw mill kit(s) and would like to make this scene some sort of transfer of logs to cut/finished product that would be loaded onto mainline log cars and center-beam loaded cars, and a number of other wood carrying cars
 
At that point I let myself get stalled out thinking of details about this logging scene, and I went onto more pressing matters to getting some lower plywood decks cut out, and tracks laid in my helix, etc, etc. Now I am at a point where I want to finish up cutting out the deck plates for the upper level,...BUT I need to define what I intend to do about this whole logging area. I need some ideas, hopefully from folks interested in logging subjects.

I'm going to begin this subject thread by making some copies of some of my previous postings as it will probable best convey the steps I have taken so far.

I need HELP!
Quite awhile back I set aside some spaces on my new double-deck layout plan to have some logging scenes.
I labeled them Logging Tracks & Logging Interchange
 
Even though both of these 'scenes' are interconnected, they both require individual design attention:
a) to the logging trains that gather up the downed trees and deliver them to the lumber mill,
b) the mill itself,
c) and finally placement of finished product on mainline cars for retail distribution.

 

 
On this upper level I am proposing to put some logging tracks and trains running out the peninsula to its tip. There might be a very tight loop at the free end of the peninsula for the short logging locos to run. Or it might be just a back and forth operation for them. They will bring logs back to the saw mill scene at the trunk end of the peninsula (logging interchange). I have the whole Walthers saw mill kit(s) and would like to make this scene some sort of transfer of logs to cut/finished product that would be loaded onto mainline log cars and center-beam loaded cars, and a number of other wood carrying cars
 
At that point I let myself get stalled out thinking of details about this logging scene, and I went onto more pressing matters to getting some lower plywood decks cut out, and tracks laid in my helix, etc, etc. Now I am at a point where I want to finish up cutting out the deck plates for the upper level,...BUT I need to define what I intend to do about this whole logging area. I need some ideas, hopefully from folks interested in logging subjects.

Thanks for the invite. I had previously registered on this site when I first encountered your wonderful images over on that 'other forum'.

I am about to resign (or be banned) from that MYOPIC forum for posting links to good subject matter from 'other forums', so I welcome the chance to solicit help planning my new layout on other forums.

Let me know if I cross-the-line with inappropriate postings, as sometimes my older brain can make mistakes.