Any order to completing a layout?

[Anonymous]

Is there any order of finishing my layout that I should stick to. I have all the roadbed , Track and wiring laid down, everything runs perfect.
What should I do next? I have an idea of where the buildings and scenery will go. What order do I have to go in , if any, for Ballast , Turf, Small mountain, asphalt road, some trafic lights, crossing gates, and the placing of buildings? I could sure use any help or advice. Thanks, Mike

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: What order do I have to go in , if any, for Ballast , Turf, Small mountain, asphalt road, some trafic lights, crossing gates, and the placing of buildings?

Hi Mike
I highly recommend mounting or painting a backdrop (if you had planned for one) as a first step in scenery. Then work from back to front starting with the land forms (mountian or hills). Place your buildings before applying soil or turf so the buildings look well planted and don't look like they're floating on the ground. As for roads, they are usually higher than the ground next to them for drainage, so they go on top of the turf. A freshly ballasted right of way will cover turf but a old right of way will have weeds growing over it. So it's your call as ballast over turf or turf over ballast.
I also recommend this BOOK. You can find it for less at Yahoo Books.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your advice and help. ...Mike

[Anonymous]

Weather (paint) the rails and put down the "dirt" along the tracks before you balast. The balast should lay on top of (blend into) the dirt.

[Anonymous]

Track First! always track first!

That's to say, get yiour benchwork leveled and stable, then lay the track, building the grades as well. once you're satisified the track plan works (no spots that seem to cause derailments, grades are manageable by the loco's you run, ect.) then you can move onto detailing the landscape (the mountains and hills you've created with grades, tunnel portals, retaining walls, painting the ground the base colors for the area, roads, ect). Once the landscape is done, you can move on to ballasting the track, once that's done start detailing the landscape with plants, trees ect. after that it's all fun as you add buildings, people and other objects to bring the layout to life.

Usually once you have the track planm working, you can do the rest in sections, say 2x4 areas. this way you won't feel you're not accomplishing anything. over the years (yes this is a hobby and takes years to do things) you'll gradually go from a bare benchtop to a running track plan to 10% sceniced to 40% scenic, to 80 scemic and finally to 100% sceniced. at which point you've learned so much you start going back, tearing up sections and redoing them better or as some do, tear the entire thing down and start a new one. [:)]

Jay

[Anonymous]

Put in a Backdrop!!!! I did not, and now 2 years later I am reaching over my layout and painting the back wall sky blue and cutting out a paper backdrop of buildings and gluing it to the wall. Looks Great! Also add some instant buildings that you can cut out, glue to cardboard of foam board and place about a 1/2 inch from the backdrop. It gives it a 3D effect.
I only wish I did this long ago.
Have fun on the rest.

[orsonroy]

Step one: start a layout.
Step two" do what makes you feel good at the time.
Step three: enjoy!

OK, not quite. But this IS a hobby, so there are really no "must do's". What I have found makes life easier FOR ME include:

1) fini***he room FIRST. Drywall, lights, electrical. Don't add carpeting until most of the messy stuff is done, but make sure the floor is carpet-ready.
2) finish all the basic benchwork. You'll never get a mainline finished if you have to stop what you're doing to build another L girder. My current layout is a three-level with 2" foam benchwork, so it went up faster than most. Now that I'm done with the benchwork, I'm zipping along with my tracklaying.
3) rough in a backdrop before laying track! Add the supports and surface material, and paint it "sky color". You can come back to add hills, clouds, etc. later, but adding the backdrop and basic sky means you don't HAVE to do anything else at all to the backdrop.
4) lay track, add feeders, and test the snot out of the track before you solder joints, add ballast, or paint the track. Basically, lay some track and then play with it for awhile to make sure it works well and that you're happy with it. If you're running multi-cab DC, only wire enough for one cab. If you have to move lots of track and rip out finished block wiring, you'll really be PO'ed at yourself!
5) get some scenery done as soon as you can. It only has to be very BASIC scenery, but even a little will make you want to do more, and to get the entire layout sceniced and looking realistic.

And have fun with all of it!

[jfugate]

Some people like to do all the benchwork first, then all the trackage, then all the wiring, etc.

Others (and I'm in this camp) like variety so will do a little benchwork, lay some track, wire it , do some scenery, have fun running the trains for a while, then back to doing more benchwork, etc.

In all cases, room prep should come before anything else. For my Siskiyou Line, I spent about 6 months just getting the room ready to go. I added stud walls, taping, texturing, and painting. I had the electrician add a new subpanel just for the layout room, wired new outlets and switches for the lighting and layout. I added furnace ducts and vents to the room so it could be well heated/cooled.

It's far easier to prep the room when it's empty than when it's full of benchwork and layout. Plus having a nice finished, heated, well lit area for the layout makes it *very easy* to want to go work on the layout!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the advice, Just to let you know, the room is completely finished with overhead lighting, heating, etc...All trackwork is laid and DC wiring is complete, runs perfect. I also Airbrushed the rails and ties with railroad tie brown, this was one of the best things I did to my layout so far, what a difference it has made. I will be adding a backdrop next. Then moving on to sections , probably 2 x 2, as some of you have suggested, to combat the monotony. Using the techniques some of you have described.

By the way "Snake" what do you use for "dirt" around the tracks before I ballast? I really do appreciate all the help.

Mike

[Wdlgln005]

Since your trackwork is in and everything runs flawlessly, the next step is to place your online industries & structures. You can use a cardboard setup until you get the structures built. I'd start with an engine facility. some place to fuel/sand/water the loco's and get them ready for the next run. Maybe have a small beanery for the lunch crowd. Then do whatever industry you like to have. The trick is to have a place that takes in a variety of cars & ships it's product by rail. I've seen some modelers have a flexible approach and have 2 buildings that will swap with the same place. Another fun project is to check and see if the building is left or right handed relative to the track & street. You may need to swap a wall or two to make the building fit the space.

Have fun with your layout! The most difficult part is now completed

[Anonymous]

For dirt, I like real dirt or sand. I am using river silt collected in the summer when the water line has dropped. I take about a bucket home then sift this through a screen. Rather than painting the ground a ground cover, why not use ground; that way you never have to say "you're sorry." By this I mean, if some ground shows through, people are seeing real ground rather than paint after all the final scenicing is done.

I am now starting collections of different coloured dirt. I find you only need about a large ice cream bucket full of sifted stuff, it goes a long ways, kind of like ballast. My first haul was Fraser River Silt, circa 2003. Very small stones came from the kids school yard play area, circa 2002. I've been told but I haven't found any yet that the red dirt used on pitcher's mound in baseball can be very useful - I have my eyes open for this.

I am protolancing the Fraser/Thompson river on my layout so I decided the lazy thing to do was get some of that dirt, that will be late spring of 2004.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rsn48

For dirt, I like real dirt or sand.

Make sure you bake it to kill off anything live in it first.

Jay

[Anonymous]

Hi
The order I use is:-
plan it
bench work
back scenes
then get enough track down to run a train preferably with passing loop and a siding or two
get enough wiring in for the track that is layed
After that it is what ever I feel like at the time
I see it as important to get that train running for me personaly if it takes too long to get the first train running I tend to loose interest in the layout as it cannot be run in any sort of fashion.
regards john

[Anonymous]

I think John's point about getting some trains running is important. He's right, if you don't, you'll tire of the work. Also, I get some trains running so I can see how things look as much as how they work. I've changed my latest layout twice since I laid it the first time, and I'm considering another change, back to more or less the original idea. Another thing I learned with this particular layout is how important train length can be. It's N scale. I had visions of mile long freigt trains and rock trains. but once I got a train running, a 12 to 15 car train looks the best. I also changed some grades, and those changes help it look better too. So look at is as an ongoing, changing and evolving thing. I never look at a layout as being finished. There's always something you can add to make it look better. Finally, just my two cents editorial: Don't be afraid to make mistakes. I think that's a good way to learn, and we've all made plenty of them. It's that kind of hobby.

mike

[Anonymous]

First the track.
Make any adjustments to your design(i.e. scenery)
Make sure the track fits correctly.
Ballast track.
Put in buildings/scenery.
Run your trains.
Enjoy.