This is the access hatch at one end of my layout. Most of the scenery on the top of the hatch is a tannery.
The hatch itself is a piece of 2-inch foam. Here it is in place.
Note in particular the white building on the right. Here is what the liftoff looks like as it's being slid down into place.
To create this, I lined the outside edge with Saran Wrap and then layed plaster cloth across the gap. In the third picture, you can see the overhang attached to the liftoff section and the bare strip around the base.
I further disguise the edges with turf, ground foam and static grass. There's an edge somewhere in this picture.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Our club had a portable layout with joints every four feet. The gaps were hidden with lichen at every show, and it worked well. If the scenery was planned so that the joints were in a gulley, this should work well.
Dave
The way I do mine is to make the entire mountain a door. Eerything to the top and right of the upper track here is part of a liftout mountain that is about 6' long overall.
I start with a base of 2" pink foam, then layer up and shape it, covering it with a thin layer of Sculptamold -- it's not all that heavy, party because I tend to limit the amount of plaster rock casings I apply. Here it is in pink.
And before I finished the base popped open enough so that you can see how it comes out.
As you can see, it sits on the crossmembers. Watch your overhead clearance, as it has to have enough to you can lift it out with the highest point on it hitting the ceiling.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
The two best I have seen were done with brush and trees around the part that lifts out. The hill was good as the brush covered the seam, but it had a dirt road along part of the edge of the seam and it looked like the brush was growing out over the road. The other was a pond for cattle to water at. The pond lifted out and it had brush stuck around the edge of the water. It was really well done.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I haven't built one but every example that I've ever seen, the opening was framed out and scenery built up to the edges of the frame. The removable piece was made, and set into place, with somethign non-stick like wax paper in the joint, and then matching scenery was built on top of the removable piece. I did see one where the scenery on the removeable hatch actually extend out past he edges, which would give a fairly well concealed joint, but also mean the edges of the hatch could be easily damaged.
So far in my plan, the only thing I see where there might be an access issue is the helix, but given that it is a greater than 30" radius, that means there will be about a 5 foot square space in the middle I can duck under and come up inside if needed. Just need to add some lights. I'm trying to design it so that a good protion of the first loop at the bottom is visible - as much as 3/4 of it - to reduce the hidden run.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Good afternoon,
I have a rather large mountain I'm building on my layout with card board strips, that will be covered with plaster cloth and sculptamolding. It also covers my initial transistion to my under layout staging. I know there will be times when I need to reach in there to get a derailed car/loco. My question is: How do I create a access door on my mountain that you can't tell is there. Should I give the mountain it's shell then cut it out? I'd like it hinged, but is it better to have a removable piece? I can add a pic later.
Thanks, ARR