flat landscape

[foxtrackin]

I am building the nickle plate road in ho scale in central indiana in the 50"s. The proto type is in flat farm country. I am building my lay out on top of 4x8 sheets of plywood where the yards is at and 2x8 sheets around the walls where the main line is at. The layout is large about 14x52. I want to landscape by giving it some rolling country sides, like small hills not mountains and some farm fields. I am thinking about using hydrocal over newspaper. Any suggestions on how to do that or any better ways to do it? Thanks

[Jetrock]

You might try using thin sheets of foam instead--they can be shaped into more gentle sloping curves, and can take a knock better than Hydrocal over newspaper. But Hydrocal would certainly work just fine. If you've already laid down the track then Hydrocal/newspaper might be the way to go--foam works well when laid underneath the track, so you can make features that go below the level of the track, like small fills, streams & rivers, drainage ditches, etc. (using things you'd find in flat farm country as examples) with a level above grade for those rolling hills.

[Anonymous]

I am a proponent of the use of expanding foam sealant as a landscape base. This stuff comes in cans at the hardware store, with a spray nozzle and long straw-like tube for getting into the cracks around doors and windows. Basically, you get to sculpt hills with a spray-paint can! For a gentle landscape, it works rather optimally, as you just provide a table surface below the level of your intended scenery, spray on a small amount of the stuff, watch it bloom up into randomized landforms, then after it cures you can carve away any mistakes. The carvings can be reused as well, just nestle them into the next application. On top of this, you can place any finishing plaster or papier-mache that you choose. You'll end up with a highly varied topography (unless you choose to carve it all flat) which, because of the solid foam under the plaster, readily holds trees and other "planted" materials. The advantage over foam boards is that the bumpy surface happens naturally; it can take a lot of carving to make a formed board not look so flat. Of course, for certain areas you might prefer a smooth slope, and for these you ought to use pieces of foam board.

[orsonroy]

Hi Fox, and welcome to the forum, from another NKP modeler!

I'm in a similar situation as you. I'm modeling the NKP's mainline from Bloomington to Peoria, circa 1950. While I do have some terrain around Peoria and the Illinois River basin, the bulk of my layout is central Illinois' wide open spaces. While the rest of the country calls this area the Flatlands, it's full of what the military calls "microterrain": small folds and undulations in the ground that are less than 20 meters high (65 feet or so). The midwest also features a LOT of small drainage creeks that railroads need to cross, as well as a fw pretty substantial rivers. This means whatever scenic technique you decide on, it needs to be flexible enough to accurately capture the "feel" of the Midwest.

Personally, I absolutely love using extruded foam insulation to create this sort of scenery. Laying your mainline on a base of 2" extruded foam insulation (pink or blue, it doesn't matter) will allow you to easily sculpt terrain below the track grade, and simply cut in creeks and the occasional river.

I've got a 225' mainline on a 12x25 three level layout, which I'm using to represent 45 miles of track. While this seems like a lot of space to play with (and it is, compared to what most modelers have), it's still not enough to squeeze in everything I think is a "signature" to the line. My planning for the mainline is pretty much done once the basics such as the mainline and passing sidings are in, so I can actually see what sort of space I have left to work with. Some cuts and stream crossings have been eliminated completely, and most of the rest have been significantly shrunk to fit available space. Using foam as a base means that I have the option of NOT planning too far in advance, while still having a solid layout base.

Have you driven the mainline you're modeling, and taken photographs? Knowing how the terrain of your prototype looks will really help you "see" what your end result for the layout looks like. And not everything in central Indiana looks the same. Each of the NKP's mainlines in Indiana looks different. The Peoria Division is either arrow straight, or struggling to get in and out of three river valleys. The Clover Leaf West of Frankfort is in a similar situation, but East of Frankfort is basically a curvy, narrow-gauge nightmare. The IMC picks it's way north to Indianapolis, while the NKP main to Chicago is a high-speed superhighway. Each has it's own individuality, which will affect how you attack scenery. Keep in mind that while you should have relatively little grade on your main (unless you're modeling Lafayette), the ground around the mainline will rise and fall pretty substantially, and quite frequently.

It sounds like your basic benchwork and subroadbed is already in, which means you won't be using foam as a layout base. But don't ignore it for construction of your scenery. Extruded foam insulation is very good to work with. It's a "dry mess" instead of a "wet mess" as working with plasters, meaning you don't need to work on it as fast as with plaster, and you don't need as much time for prep and cleanup. I regularly work on sculpting my scenery as little as 1/2 hour a day as I have the time. I'd need almost 2 hours to do the same thing with plaster. Foam is also stronger than plaster and screen wire. If someone leans on foam, you just end up with a new undulation. If they do the same thing on plaster, you now have to fix a hole. And I've done the numbers: with buying all the materials needed from scratch to build scenery, extruded foam is 2/3 as expensive as building scenery the "old fashioned" way.

Do you have the entire subroadbed down? If not, I'd suggest only laying plywood where the track actually is, and using foam glued both below and above that level. That way, you'll be able to carve the undulating terrain out of foam both below and above track level. That's about the only realistic way to get away from the dead-flat tabletop effect, while still having scenery that looks like central Indiana.

And have fun keeping the NKP alive!

[cwclark]

a hint..if you use the spray foam ...use gloves when you handle it..it has cynoacrylate glue in it and once it's on your hands..it won't come off...I got some on my hands and it took a week to get it off by scraping it off little by litte with a pocket knife..not to mention a few chunks of skin were also taken off...I also think all the ideas will work...try a bit of them all and see which one you prefer the best..i use the foam insulation because it is redily available to me..(I work in a plant and the "pink" insulation is everywhere)...but i still like to use the paper towel /newspaper and plaster method for gentle rolling hills in other parts of my layout....brother!..you have a room! 14 X 52 is going to make a really nice layout...

[foxtrackin]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Yes most of my track work is complete. The yards at Frankfort is the main focus of the layout with the clover leaf main going as far as Linden, In. and the LE&W main going east to around Kempton, In. The LE&W main heading west to Lafayette heads down a helix to a staging yard and the clover leaf main east heads around and under the layout to a double track staging. The east LE&W main and the west clover leaf main meet behind a backdrop to form a continous loop or the layout can be ran as a point to point. There is 4 different crossing with other railroads. The Pennsylania and Monon in Frankfort, the New York Cental in Clarks Hill and the Monon again at Linden. Now I am gettin ready to try the landscaping.

[DSchmitt]

orsonroy makes some good points about "flat" country. Many flat country layouts model it the way we think it looks while we are siting at home in our easy chair, not the way it really looks.

[orsonroy]

Hey Fox,

Sounds like an impressive layout you've got there. I wish I had the space to model all the way from Peoria to Frankfort (or even Cheneyville or Lafayette!), but I had to settle on Bloomington as an eastern terminus. Keep us posted on your layout progress! And if you ever want to talk to a bunch of us crazy NKP'ers who like to play with trains, check out the NKP Yahoogroup!

[Anonymous]

Yes the midwest can be considered suttle rolling hills, as opposed to flat lands. Try looking at satalite geographical maps and you'll see the glacial paths through the midwest , as well as the waterways and all sorts of fun and interesting geographical terrain features that would look great on a layout.

Jay

[Anonymous]

If you go with the expanding foam sealant idea, keep your ventilation up to par. The stuff I use gives off some pretty potent fumes.