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Modern Era Kits Yeah, I've had trouble finding modern stuff as well. Not just building but cars and trucks as well. Not everyone wants to model the fifties!!! But buildings stick around for a long time. Many buildings right outside my window were built long before the fifties. You might have to...

Thank you everyone for all you kind words. Some people where wondering what ballasting technique I used. I pretty much did the standard process whith a couple of key differences. I used woodland scenics fine grey ballast. I spread the area between the ties first. I use a one inch wide flat...

I am working on more photos of a wider angle showing more of the layout. But until then, here is a quick sketch of some of my ideas for one side of the layout along with a wider shot. Not much is done yet with the scenery. Mostly dirt and ballast and a little texture so far. This layout was...

It's been a year since I posted photos of my slowly progressing 3X6 foot railroad. I've been in school and just too busy. But I finally got the track ballasted and a first layer of ground cover going. I just did a couple of feet of track a week. I really took my time since I have to live with it...

Yeah. I raised my second level so the riser at the bridge location was two inches. This of course increased the grades throughout so I ended up lengthening the grades which changed some of the geometry and spacing of things but it worked out. I also added another spur on the upper level and...

Dave, we can always stand another scenic & relaxed plan! Actually. I've not seen it done very many times really. I was surfing for posts and stumbled on your and saw you were building the same railroad I was. I am currently working on the same plan. I posted some photos of it last spring...

I would start by checking out some of Kalmbach Publishing Company's many railroad books for information about yards and engine facilities. They publish Model Railroader but have recently introduced a whole series of books about prototype aspects of trains as they relate to modeling. They...

Headblocks Yeah, I've cut my Atlas switches off on one side also. Real railroad switches only have headblocks on one side anyway.

Well, my grandfather does RC airplanes and I may try something like their control system for actuating the aelerons and rudder, etc on the plane. You can get the little cable inside of a plastic sheath thingie in various lengths. Now that I think of it I seem to remember an article in Model...

Zachary - All of the curves are either 9 3/4 or 11 inch radius except for the flowing curves along the one side. I use flextrack throughout so there are places where I eased into a curve. I laid it all out very precisely on the plywood before cutting anything. The Atlas Dash 8-40B has no...

That kind of information is public knowledge so you can find it, you'll just have to dig. You can try the US Geological Survey, which has detailed maps of everywhere. You can find it online I think. The public libraries of large cities have large map sections usually. Tell them you're looking...

Using an N scale ruler is an easy solution but if you are working from drawings alot simply use a caculator. Take the real full size dimension and divide it by 160 to get the N scale size. I do it in decimals. So if I am building a railing or something that is three feet high full size, three...

I've thought of trying some fast track turnouts myself. But I've never liked the looks of handlaid track in any scale because of the lack of tie plate and spike detail. I'm sure that if you properly built a fast tracks turnout, it would perform better than the Atlas code 55. I wish that...

throwing switches Well, I'm not sure yet how to throw the switches. I don't want to use caboose industries ground throws because they're huge don't look real. I'm trying to keep everything scale. Under the table machines like the tortoise are a little pricey for me right now. I may go for some...

Bridge & Track Thanks for the compliments. I was also looking at the Gulf Summit Lines. It should make for a really cool railroad. I'll look forward to seeing it. Anyway, The bridge is a Kato bridge that goes with their Unitrack system. It comes preassembled in one peice. Because it is meant...

Lighting Yeah. These photos were taken outside. One nice thing about a layout this small. You can move it around easily.

More Images The Rest...

Hello All. I've finally finished laying all the Atlass Code 55 track. Working slow has really paid off. The track is silky smooth with no track related derailments so far. Since I'm starting new in N scale I didn't even have an engine until the other day. So now a new Norfolk Southern DASH 840-B...

Switch dimensions Dane, I was wondering the same thing a few months ago. I was drawing a track plan in Adobe Illustrator. I was going to use Atlas code 55 switches and I needed drawings. I ended up making my own. Since they are pretty thin, I simply scanned in each turnout in photoshop and...

CAS, yeah, building it larger will definitely give you more room. The biggest thing to do with all that extra space is to broaden the curves and ease the gradients. I thought about changing the size but I really wanted something really small to experiment with as I haven't built a model railroad...