New Desktop Layout

[jesso]

Yea, they were on the flat area, Mooreway is making a template of the flat area so that we can put different scenes there for a change of scenery.

It is Pioneer Day tomorrow here in Utah, it is a big holiday here. We are up in Holden for the holiday, (I love small towns for holidays, they have a two-liter bottle rocket competition that we spent all day preparing for) The reason I am telling you this is because we are an hour away from Orem now and my wife has said we need to go to visit relatives up there, so I will be able to get the stuff I need!:thumb: Glad when things work out.

 

[ls1gto]

Hey Jesso,
I saw your comment about Kevin hitting smoke. Sonoma? Ya, I wasn't
real happy either. Big smoke fan here also. Anyway, I didn't see the over
all layout dimensions listed, could you tell me what they are? I'm sure I missed them. Looks great! Thanks for sharing!

 

[jesso]

ls1gto, It is approximately 5 feet long and at it's widest 27" but with its weird shape there is always a little wiggle room in that.

Well, Mooreway and Trainnut did a great thing for me. They decided I needed stuff so they went out and bought the ground cover that I needed to complete my layout. Thanks guys that was a very special gift. I really appreciate it.:thumb:

 

[TrainNut]

:thumb:

 

[jesso]

First Ballast

Well, in the history of Ballasting, it's not the best, but hey, it's not the worst either. What do ya think?

 

[TrainNut]

Looks good to me! Ain't it fun ballasting inside tunnels? I'm working on a little diorama for my 3 year old and I just got through cutting the whole top level of the module back off because I could not get my ballast spreader inside the tunnel. I should have done that first but I got ahead of my self. Live and learn.

 

[fsm1000]

Looks good to me. I have a mini video on ballasting on my website if you wanna go look at it. Not that I think you need it, just thta maybe I might give a hint or two that might help you better.

That's what we do here. Hints and ideas to help each other out

Good job though.

 

[mooreway]

:thumb: I think your ballast looks good. Keep up the good work...

 

[seanm]

I think the ballast looks great. I hope I can get mine that even!! Color is really good!!

One touch you might want to consider if you are in the mood is to get some paint very close to the ballast color and disguise the along the longwise ties at the joints of sectional track.

 

[Packers#1]

looks great, jesso.

 

[jesso]

Thanks to some shopping by TrainNut, I am able to green up my layout, I finally have the ground cover everywhere I want. More thanks to him, I will be able to put some shrubbery on, but that will be later. I will be gone for the next week so this will be the last picture for a while. Thanks for all the nice compliments.

 

[Packers#1]

It's coming along great Jesso.

 

[jesso]

Well, that was going to be my last picture for a while, but I went back out to look at my nicely sodded layout and all of a sudden it is covered in weeds!?

 

[Packers#1]

Time to break out the herbicide, lol.

 

[TrainNut]

Must'a been the rainfall from that recent storm you had up there!

 

[jesso]

I finished the ballast! It wasn't too bad, I would hate to have to do a larger layout, but eventually I will. Learned a valuable lesson, ballast tunnels before you build them!

Now onto weeds, shrubs and trees! I am hoping to take this to work soon maybe in a week or so. My desk looks so empty without a layout on it!

 

[steamhead]

That looks great..!!! :thumb:
Wish I had space on my desk for something like that....but I barely fit, as it is....:cry: (I work with architectural drawings so they take up every square inch...).
Good point about the tunnel ballasting, although I would only ballast the tunnel entrances where track would still be visible....

 

[woodone]

Nice funiture

WOW!!!
Scott, that is a very nice piece of furniture! Plus it has operating N scale trains, you can't beat that! Very nice job.:thumb:
That is going to be a nice addition to you work space.
On the ballast---- I don't ballast the inside of my tunnels. I just put the ballast inside the tunnel portal far enough to make it look like the ballast is on the inside. I have found that the ballast make more noise when trains run over it, so I like the tunnels to be real quiet.

 

[jesso]

Thanks guys! I did actually only ballast a little into the tunnels, I just wish I could get a little farther in as some of the empty track shows. Our camera broke on our recent trip so I am taking these with a webcam, so sorry about the quality.

Well, I got some scenery done today. Thanks TrainNut for the Course Grass, I would have never thought to get some of that, but it worked really well and it made for some great groundcover. Here is the full layout shot:

Here is the left front of the layout:

This is what the trains will look like going through the back:

Here is the front of the right hand side, I still haven't finished the template for the flat area, so that is still just brown paint:

Lastly, this is a close-up of the camping scene, my favorite area on the layout:

 

[Cannonball]

You should be selling these. :thumb: