Nantahala layout

[Papa Bear]

train97It's deja vu all over again! Since I was getting close to finishing my Bear Point Railroad , I needed a new project. I decided to build another pizza layout. This one will be set in the mountains of western North Carolina around the Nantahala Gorge. I picked that location to commemorate a recent whitewater rafting trip.

The layout will be 32" x 32" to allow for a 13 3/4" radius.

More pictures to come.

 

[eightyeightfan1]

An old member that was here a couple of years ago, and from North Carolina,(Tyson Rayles)did his N scale railroad with the same name.
If you search his name you can see some of his work.

 

[Papa Bear]

An old member that was here a couple of years ago, and from North Carolina,(Tyson Rayles)did his N scale railroad with the same name.
If you search his name you can see some of his work.

Thanks, Ed. I've always liked Tyson's work, especially the micro layout he did a couple of years ago. That was one that got me thinking about building small layouts.

Here are a couple of progress photos. It takes a while to build up a mountain when you only go 1/2" at a time!

 

[TrainNut]

As a new member to the "Pizza layout" club, I look forward to your pictorial progress! Looks great so far.

 

[shaygetz]

Hey, John, good to see you back in action The Nantahala was one of the finest raft rides I'd ever been on, too many scenes I wanted to model though...

 

[Papa Bear]

Thanks, Bob and TrainNut. Bob, I know what you mean about there being too many scenes to model. Going with the pizza plan does help to keep things simple.

Meanwhile, I made some progress over the weekend with a little help from my daughter, Panda Bear. We wrapped up the mountains with Woodland Scenics plaster cloth. This went on easily and did a neat job - a lot quicker and with less mess than smearing on the joint compound like I did with the Bear Point RR.

When the plaster dried, we could proceed with the painting and "planting."

The most satisfying part of this project so far was hearing my daughter say, "This is more fun than watching TV!" That right there made the whole project worthwhile.:thumb:

 

[LoudMusic]

The most satisfying part of this project so far was hearing my daughter say, "This is more fun than watching TV!" That right there made the whole project worthwhile.:thumb:

Real life more fun than television?!? How can it BE!?! Congratulations on that

 

[Austinio]

Whenever I see a nice N-scale like that it makes me tempted to do it. I just feel I would have trouble with the kits though.

 

[Papa Bear]

Whenever I see a nice N-scale like that it makes me tempted to do it. I just feel I would have trouble with the kits though.

There are a lot of pre-built structures available now in N, so you could just about build a layout without having to build any kits. Still, it is usually cheaper to buy and assemble the kits than to use the pre-built ones. My suggestion would be to try an easy, inexpensive kit to see how you like it. If you mess it up, it can always go in the background.

 

[sumpter250]

An old member that was here a couple of years ago, and from North Carolina,(Tyson Rayles)did his N scale railroad with the same name.

Ed,
Tyson's railroad is the Nantahala Midland, and it looked great in person! I had the fortune to be able to run a local wayfreight on the NM ! Great layout, and Mike is "good people".

 

[Papa Bear]

An update on the layout.

 

[Papa Bear]

A tunnel takes shape.

A tunnel is shaping up at the end of the gorge. This would be in the lower right of the previous picture.

 

[Papa Bear]

A couple more photos.

Construction progresses on the tunnel.

A test train rumbles through the gorge. One advantage of Unitrack is that you can test run a train while still working on the scenery. I had to do some tree trimming after this run.ops:

 

[n2trains]

I have to say, with such a small space, you do a heck of a job making it look bigger. The scenery in itself could nearly be considered a layout! without the trians, it wouldn't be complete, though, now would it? Doesn't matter, I'm very impressed with what I see from you! Awesome job! I'd like to see some more close up pics though.

 

[Papa Bear]

Thanks, Brandon. I plan to post some more close up pictures as the project progresses.

 

[Chessie6459]

Looking Good John.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Papa Bear]

Thanks, Matthew.

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Papa Bear that's progressing very nicely!

 

[Clerk]

Looking good Papa Bear. What Happened to Tyson. I must have missed something.

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Dick why do you think something happened to me?