Time for working on the layout has been rare in the past couple of weeks, but I have been using whatever stolen moments I can find to work on ballasting the new track extensions.
The
grade that leads up to the '
Hack Bridge' overpass is starting to take shape. Shown with my
BR64 is the Atlas flex track moving up the Woodland Scenics 3% grade risers. As you can still, much scenic work is left to be done.
The lower area just to the left of this grade is the new work on converting my 'freight yard' to Minitrix track (was previously Kato).
Another area that has been taking a lot of time to get ballasted correctly is the 'main line'
extension that passes underneath the viaduct and runs around the entire new section where my new passenger terminal will be.
This little area is using Kato turnouts and Atlas flex track. The little house you see in the photo will eventually be replaced by a quaint 'older style' depot. I am thinking something like
this would look really nice.
As for the aforementioned freight yard, I'm trying to maximize storage space in this yard and have chosen to use curved turnouts. The original material was going to be the Minitrix curved turnouts, but having read on the
Japanese Rail Modellers forum than the Minitrix curved turnouts may not be compatible with many Japanese produced trains, I am having serious doubts about this. Curved turnouts seems risky enough! I ordered a Tomix curved turnout to see if that can be used as an alternative. I still need to figure this out.
That's it for now! Happy Modeling!
I really like the way this is turning out. Especially in the second picture, once the scenery is added it'll look just like a busy yard and overpass. I'm glad you made the decision to do such a drastic renovation, I'm sure it'll pay off in the end, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the results!
ReplyDeletehello Jerry ,
ReplyDeletethe picture with the viaduc is very impressive !! a very beautifull job you did .
About the little house ,your choice is very good .It's a french one !!!
pascal
I wonder how the Tomix turnouts will work out for you: Interested to see, that's for sure. They were designed to work with two pieces of 280mm radius 45º curves to take a single track 280mm radius curve into a double track 280mm/317mm radius curve in 90º: A useful space-saver for your typical floor-style roundy-rounder, but the geometry just isn't right for use in more prototypical settings, to my eye. Not to discourage you: I'm very interested to see what you make of them!
ReplyDeleteThanks All for the encouragement!
ReplyDeletePASCAL: Well, I already have a Japanese and German style station, so I need French one too as its one of my favorite lines now.
DON: I'm not too sure how it will turn out either....I know that I'm really comprimising appearances to jam as much storage track space as possible with these curved switcheds....I've gone back and forth on it quite a bit! Not sure what I'll end up with as this will be interesting to me too!