Here's some progress shots of my Pacific Wilderness Railway project and a solicitation for advice (first N-Scale layout). I'm using Honesty.com for the photos instead of PhotoPoint and we'll see if it works. PWR is a small shelf point to point layout only 7ft long (see previous PWR post for background). I've glued the foam risers on the spruce base: The left end of the layout has a 2% incline: Here's the yard area: This shot shows the problem: The yard is too flat. At first glance, the prototype yard looks pretty flat, but this shot shows a gradual increase in elevation towards the back: Too flat a layout looks too unrealistic for me so I propose to shim the yard sidings with cardboard and smooth out with Foam Paste. Plaster cloth will then go over top. I don't see any reason why that shouldn't work and give me some surface undulations. Does anyone see any problems with this approach or have a better idea? [ 09 April 2001: Message edited by: Gerry M ]
Wow It looks like posting photos on Honesty.com works OK, but they are GIGANTIC! My apologies to all. I'll see if I can reduce the size next time around... OK, I've reduced the size of the photos. Whew! That's better... [ 09 April 2001: Message edited by: Gerry M ]
Hi Gerry, The yard does indeed look flat and for the roundhouse/turntable/carshop area,as well as the 4 track (you are modeling 3 tracks) ex coach yard (now car storage yard), it is indeed very level, however the adjoining siding which used to be part of the larger main yard prior to the rails being lifted in 1986, is in fact depressed (the entire yard was in a small bowl type depression) and I can remember the switcher assigned to Victoria uncoupling cars from a standing stop and watching the cars pick up speed as they rolled into the yard with a brakeman riding the ladder and controlling the car's speed with the brakewheel. Looks Like a great concept, so go for it. Ask if you need any help. Cheers! Terry
Gerry You're right - dead level flat is boring. I've used plaster cloth to provide some uneven texture to the areas around/between tracks. Shimming turnouts slightly may help as well. The one thing you want to avoid is a vertical "curve" or "kink" at your track joints. As cars pass over a track joint, if there is uneven-ness in the track, the knuckle for coupler can be moving down while the adjacent knuckleon the mating coupler can be moving up. If the mismatch in the adjacent knuckles rs is great enough, unwanted uncoupling can occur. Given the small vertical (height) dimension of the N coupler knuckle, and the tendency of the coupler to sag a bit over time, it does not take much difference to cause separation. Keep the height difference gradual, since free-rolling cars like MicroTrains can start or keep rolling if the grade is too much. Good luck on your new PWR layout. DB
