03-12-2011, 06:38 AM
I thought its about time I post my rambings about my current project and my first US layout, of course being a Miami based layout a lot of inspiration has come from people like L mindheim and the guys doing great work on here such a Kurt, Gary and Reinhard and many others. In the UK I model P4 which is UK railways version of P87 so I'm accustomed to creating things myself and not using what is available to buy in every case so that means a lot of scratchbuilding/bashing.
Although I've not been to Miami I have been to the Caribbean and there are sections of Miami that do resemble the Caribbean which is one of the reasons I chose what I have rather than model it because its popular at the moment.
The plan is to model a section along the downtown spur along NW 22nd St. For me this model will be small and to what you guys would probably call a micro layout. Its only 5' long by 20" deep. Its based on the concept of less is more and prototypical style operation with just a couple of spurs off the main. The time period is current, my UK modelling is set in the 1980s so I chose to model the current day with my US modelling as I was starting from nothing.
Anyway I'll leave you with the track plan for now and I'll post up a little more detail and information as I catalog the building of this layout. There will be quite a lot of updating as its due for an exhibition in June this year so I've got a lot to be getting on with.
Here is the plan all the building labels equate to real plots that can be found on google maps if you look hard enough, its not an exact copy of the area as some buildings are taken from different parts of the area and arranged to fit the layout.
There is due to be a fiddleyard/storage area at each end of the layout so that it can be a through layout for exhibition purposes, but it may well see its first show with just the yard off scene to the left. For those that couldn't tell and I should have mentioned it higher up but it is going to be a HO layout using ME code 70 trackwork, although I may have to build the turnouts myself as there is a shortage of ME turnouts in the UK, I've got them on order but thats been since early Jan. Its based around CSX movements in Miami, but then most of you probably know that anyway.
I should have some photos of the benchwork in the week or so when the weather is better for outside photos.
Thanks for looking
Dave
Although I've not been to Miami I have been to the Caribbean and there are sections of Miami that do resemble the Caribbean which is one of the reasons I chose what I have rather than model it because its popular at the moment.
The plan is to model a section along the downtown spur along NW 22nd St. For me this model will be small and to what you guys would probably call a micro layout. Its only 5' long by 20" deep. Its based on the concept of less is more and prototypical style operation with just a couple of spurs off the main. The time period is current, my UK modelling is set in the 1980s so I chose to model the current day with my US modelling as I was starting from nothing.
Anyway I'll leave you with the track plan for now and I'll post up a little more detail and information as I catalog the building of this layout. There will be quite a lot of updating as its due for an exhibition in June this year so I've got a lot to be getting on with.
Here is the plan all the building labels equate to real plots that can be found on google maps if you look hard enough, its not an exact copy of the area as some buildings are taken from different parts of the area and arranged to fit the layout.
There is due to be a fiddleyard/storage area at each end of the layout so that it can be a through layout for exhibition purposes, but it may well see its first show with just the yard off scene to the left. For those that couldn't tell and I should have mentioned it higher up but it is going to be a HO layout using ME code 70 trackwork, although I may have to build the turnouts myself as there is a shortage of ME turnouts in the UK, I've got them on order but thats been since early Jan. Its based around CSX movements in Miami, but then most of you probably know that anyway.
I should have some photos of the benchwork in the week or so when the weather is better for outside photos.
Thanks for looking
Dave
My Miami NW 22nd St layout and modelling blog http://dlmr.wordpress.com/ Please come by and leave a comment.