I am working on designing a inter city scene. Having a thoughts in mind, but thought it would make an interesting topic. Especially for the beginners here. Mine is 2x5 foot. at the one end is a 4 inch step up. that will eventually tie into the rest of the layout. the 2x5 foot section will be elevated more like the High line in New York. At street level is a trolley line. not sure if I want a loop to be a continuous run or a point to point to run it through the streets. The city is roughly based on northeast cities. I thought before I settle on a design, lets turn it into a topic for discussion. Maybe better ideas will come of that. Besides how many times did you read a topic and realize an idea is better than what you did.
Shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Hi Shane:
NVSRRI am working on designing a inter city scene.
I suspect that you mean 'inner city' i.e. inside the city as opposed to "inter city" which would technically be the rural space between two cities. Sorry, not trying to nit pick.
Assuming that you want an 'inner city' scene, what scale and era are you modelling? I will also assume since you want to model an overhead transit system that you will want multi-storey buildings. Correct?
Give us a few more details and we can give you much more focused suggestions.
Regards,
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
LION is not an overly skilled modeler, but him likes to build NYCT.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I think one of the better inner-city/warehouse district model railroads I have seen is the Saverna Park club's. It was featured in a special issue of MR, How to Build Realistic Layouts 4.
https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/special-issue/mr4080401
The entire issue was devoted to modeling city and town scenes so you may want to consider contacting Kalmbach to buy it. Saverna Park modeled Baltimore's Fells Point area, which is the area near where the B&O needed to develop the famous "Dockside/Little Joe" 0-4-0T. The Pennsy also had to get create to handle the sharp curves in the warehouse district of Baltimore.
Another good city scene is that of the North American Prototype Modelers here in Milwaukee. Their city scene was featured in the March 2003 issue of Model Railroader. Here is a link to just two of the many photos on the club's extensive website
http://www.napmltd.org/images/layout/004.jpg
http://www.napmltd.org/images/layout/Dave%2001.jpg
There are lots of good ideas for the urban modeler in both of those issues.
Dave Nelson
Urban scenes present challenges, but they can be overcome. There aren't a lot of very tall building kits available, but you can do a lot with 2, 3 or 4 stories. In this scene, I used the narrowness of my space to my advantage. This road is only 2 1/2 inches wide. When combined with the tall buildings on either side, it accentuates the typical "urban canyon" feel of a city street.
I put simple interiors in most of my buildings. Most are just downloaded images, sized and printed on my computer. The vague images and figures inside are sufficient to give a sense of life to the interior of this sub shop. Again, the narrow street and sidewalk emphsizes the "urban" nature of the scene. Small details like the street lamp, figures and trash cans draw the visitor's eye into the scene.
Not sure what the lions are doing on Broadway, but they won't be seen in my town of Moose Bay.
I built my subway system first and built the "city" on top of it.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Imagine That (http://itlascalemodels.com/elevated-rail.html) makes sections of elevated railway suitable for urban transit systems.
One detail typically omitted from structure kits is fire escapes. Fortunately, Walters makes a couple of variations on them and several other companies do too.
While I think of it, urban building often have simple, flat roofs, but they don't have to be simple models.
My layout is low to accomodate a sloping roofline above the train room. So, the visitor sees a lot of roofs. I put special effort into them. This one is a Walters "Merchant's Row" kit. I used Rustoleum textured speckled black paint for each section. The inside edge of the parapet walls are not modeled in this kit, so I took some brick sheet and cut it into thin strips just a few bricks high, and cut those to shape. Then I painted and mortared those to give the rooftops a finished look. A few roof vents and chimneys complete the scene. Back at street level, you can see more details - a fire hydrant, a bike rack with bikes and a few parking meters.
Take a look at this page for some really nice urban inspiration:
http://railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18983&.
Thanks for sharing It's a great scene except that si would l would never have The Marlboro man or any cigarette ads on my layout as a matter of principle (but thats for a different forum).
The SIW has a city block in the middle of the layout that will eventually be low relief buildings Which I have several from my last layout and other taller buildings will be in the distance in the backdrop these will be photographs not kits as they are intended to be far off.
Joe Staten Island West
joe323Thanks for sharing It's a great scene except that si would l would never have The Marlboro man or any cigarette ads on my layout as a matter of principle (but thats for a different forum).
I've avoided tobacco ads too. I do have a cigarette vending machine, but the sign on it is for "Laramie" cigarettes from The Simpsons.