I'm curious who here has used a mirror/mirors on their layout to give the illusion of more space and/or scenery/buildings/streets etc?
It's something I've considered ever since seeing Gerry Leone do it in one of my books.
If anyone has pictures please share!
Andy
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Milwaukee native modeling the Milwaukee Road in 1950's Milwaukee.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196857529@N03/
I did it, will post picture later today. I hope.
I've used mirrors in two places on my layout. The mirror shown below is set behind half of a Walthers arched bridge to simulate where one major roadway crosses over another. The bridge structure is set into the backdrop with the mirror set against the the rear edge of the arch. The mirror does fool a lot of layout visitors until they try to look under the bridge and see themselves looking back.
I have another mirror in a corner and framed by a pedestrian bridge crossing over a roadway and parallel railroad track running into the backdrop (and mirror). This mirror works much better as viewers cannot get close enough to the mirror to see themselves and the road and rails really do look like they continue into another room. It's funny to see visitors rush to find the next room only to find that there isn't one. I'll have to take some more photos as most of the ones I had are being held for ransom by Photobucket!
I have another mirror in a corner and framed by a pedestrian bridge crossing over a roadway and parallel railroad track running into the backdrop (and mirror). This mirror works much better as viewers cannot get close enough to the mirror to see themselves and the road and rails really do look like they continue into another room. It's funny to see visitors rush to find the next room only to find that there isn't one.
I'll have to take some more photos as most of the ones I had are being held for ransom by Photobucket!
Hornblower
PC101 I did it, will post picture later today. I hope.
OK here it is, nothing great. The mirror is between the two buildings and under the employee walkway (out of sight in the photo) going between the two buildings.
Notice the red and blue Ford truck cabs and the Branch trailer.
The mirror's bottom edge can be seen between the Blue ford's box and the Branch's box. There is only one CF trailer docked on the left side of the photo but looks like two trailers docked there. Seeing the track in the background looks kind of stupid to me. So this scene no longer exist.
PC101Notice the red and blue ford trucks cabs and the Branch trailer.
Hi PC101,
Very clever! It took me a while to figure out how you had done the trucks. I hadn't looked at the other pictures yet.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
PC101Notice the red and blue Ford truck cabs
Very well done illusion. I had a similar thing using two busses glued so it had two fronts, but it was less convincing than your box trucks.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I did not change the steering wheel in the red cab to a right hand drive because I'd figure no one would see the steering wheel is on the wrong side in the mirror.
The Branch box has a Branch roll up door on the end and a white rollup door on the other end.
SeeYou190 PC101 Notice the red and blue Ford truck cabs Very well done illusion. I had a similar thing using two busses glued so it had two fronts, but it was less convincing than your box trucks. -Kevin
PC101 Notice the red and blue Ford truck cabs
This is an N-Scale Bus. I was at a Timonium Train Show maybe 5-10 years ago looking at an N-Scale module layout. I do not know who's group it was. I see this guy's normal Bus on a street facing into the mirror...looked liked a head on about to happen. So I go home and send two Buses to the ''chop shop''. Thinking next time I get to Timonium I will give my double rear end Bus to him. Well I do not know why that never happen.
Now you have me thinking, where is the bus with the two fronts?
Judging by the browning of the paper towel this Bus was wraped in, it may be 12 years ago.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Here is a mirror on my layout. Just looking at it, the building on the left is one building divided by the mirror. I think its a nice look.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
These are great examples! I love seeing how people are extending the illusion of space. I like the trucks and the track in PC101's pictures - very clever. I just wonder what the transition between the top of the mirror and the backdrop looks like for those who have put in larger pieces of glass?
My backdrop is painted in sky colors and goes to the ceiling; not sure I'd be able to install a mirror that is any taller than my tallest background building and make it somehow blend into my previously painted sky.. hmm.
PC101, That's really neat. fun seeing how mirrors can add some depth and enhance a scene.
Regards, Peter
Roger's is very reminiscent of Port Plastics and the yard on John Allen's layout.
Peter's reminds me of John Armstrong's scene except he has a fish market instead of the diner from the Nighthawks painting.
I'm thinking I will have quite a few mirrors similar to Peter's to make the city side of my layout look deeper than it is. (Or will be, as the case may be - haven't gotten that far yet) The trick will be to coordinate them all so that the 'cross street' that shows int he mirror looks like it could be one continuous street behind the block of foreground buildings.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Just out of curiousity, how hard is it to clean, or keep clean these mirrors?
PMR
HO-Velo
This totally reminds me of a scene from Goodfellas - or any other Scorsese film! Great vibe.
PM Railfanto clean, or keep clean these mirrors?
The 1/16" thick acrylic mirror was installed in 2018 and yet to be cleaned, something I find somewhat remarkable considering the layout's less than ideal location. Attached photo was taken today.
Btw, thanks Andy, but the missing Caddy kinda spoiled the "Scorseseness'.
PC101Now you have me thinking, where is the bus with the two fronts?
Please forgive the crude sketch.
This is how I used the mirror on SGRR layout #4. The roadway went down and toward the backdrop and beneath a railroad bridge. The mirror was under the railroad bridge. This sure looked a lot better than the road just crashing into the backdrop.
Here's a sketch of a portion of my N-Scale layout. There are two areas where mirrors are placed to expand vistas and (appear to) enlarge structures: the upper center and the upper right.
The center mirror is used to allow the 4-lane highway to continue toward the horizon and beyond a gentle curve that appears to be about 20 feet from the viewer. At the intersection is a ubiquitous prompt service restaurant across the street from an equally ubiquitous gas station. From the aisles, the signs and whatnot read normally and identify a Dairy Queen and a Texaco. On the rear of the structures, the signs are printed in reverse and read Burger King and Amoco. One intersection, two eateries and two places to get gas.
The upper right area in the corner of the layout has two mirrors placed at right angles to each other and was inspired by an exhibit in the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. The exhibit shows the Saturn V engines, but it is composed of only one full bell and one quarter-bell. Mirrors on the floor and wall allow the viewer to see the entire five-engine array. Very clever layout. Here're two photos showing the exhibit:
For my layout, the corner mirrors allow an expanded view of the coal-fired power plant.
For both the center layout design element and the corner element, the viewer standing in the aisle cannot see his own reflection in the mirrors, unless he stretches his neck and hangs over the benchwork.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
I am impressed with how everyone has used mirrors to add depth to their scenes. My layout is free standing so I had assumed that mirrors wouldn't be of any use, but I'm going to give it more thought.
I used a mirror at the end of a tunnel to try to show the track as going off in the distance even though the tunnel ended in a wall.
Joe Staten Island West
The Milwaukee Road Warrior I'm curious who here has used a mirror/mirors on their layout to give the illusion of more space and/or scenery/buildings/streets etc? It's something I've considered ever since seeing Gerry Leone do it in one of my books. If anyone has pictures please share!
I used two large mirrors. The first was at the back of my large urban area that rougly doubled the apparent size. The tracks leading to the staging yard disappear into a tunnel about a block from the mirror. I created one tall low relief building against the mirror and against the aisle. The purpose is to keep my big head from showing up in the mirror and spoiling the illusion.
The other is at the end of my branchline which is a lakeside village. A lake is on the backdrop and butts up against the mirror. There is also an 18" wide cove against the mirror which is doubled in size by the mirror. There is an arched bridge near the back drop to hide the intersection from the 3D cove and the backdrop lake. There is a short causeway leading to the arched bridge and the length of the bridge/causeway is also doubled by the mirror. This is the bridge I used:
Walthers - Arched Road Bridge - Street System - Kit - 7-3/4 x 10-3/8 x 3-7/8" 19.7 x 26.4 x 9.8cm; Opening: 4-5/8" 11.8cm - 933-3196
I didn't use the wings on the side that butts against the mirror. The structures near the backdrop are reflected in the distance in the mirror. I place tall trees between the foreground structures and the cove/mirror as a view block so it isn't so obvious that there is a duplicate town in the mirror. Those foreground structures are partially visible in the gaps in the trees but it isn't so obvious they are the same structure.
Sorry, I don't have any pictures.
PS. If you don't use a front silvered mirror, there will be a gap between the scenery and the reflected image. It isn't real obvious, but it is there. A front silvered mirror eliminates that gap but the ones I looked at were prohibitively expensive. The mirrors I used I got for about $18 apiece at Lowe's about ten years ago. I also looked into the process for making your own front silvered mirror but it was more than I wanted to tackle.
Here is an example from John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid RR. The station and overhead concourse are butted against the mirror. You can't see it in this slide but a close up would show the gap at on the roof of the concourse.
Gorre and Daphetid Railroad - The Slides - s1_038_dividevening_feb72 (gdlines.org)
There are a number of mirrors in this slideshow that were strategically placed to make it hard to see where they were.
John-NYBWA front silvered mirror eliminates that gap but the ones I looked at were prohibitively expensive.
I purchased a package of four (12" by 12") regular mirrors for just a few bucks a Home Depot. I used paint stripper to carefully remove the paint on the back of the mirrors to expose the silver layer. DO NOT SCRUB off the paint when removing it as you will scrub off the extremely thin layer of silver, too. It will take several coats of stripper and rinsing with water to get all the paint off. Now use glass cleaner and a very soft cloth to GENTLY polish the silver layer. You can hide any thin spots in the silver surface by spraying the "former" front surface with silver spray paint. You now have a "Cheap" front surface mirror!
hornblower John-NYBW A front silvered mirror eliminates that gap but the ones I looked at were prohibitively expensive. I purchased a package of four (12" by 12") regular mirrors for just a few bucks a Home Depot. I used paint stripper to carefully remove the paint on the back of the mirrors to expose the silver layer. DO NOT SCRUB off the paint when removing it as you will scrub off the extremely thin layer of silver, too. It will take several coats of stripper and rinsing with water to get all the paint off. Now use glass cleaner and a very soft cloth to GENTLY polish the silver layer. You can hide any thin spots in the silver surface by spraying the "former" front surface with silver spray paint. You now have a "Cheap" front surface mirror!
John-NYBW A front silvered mirror eliminates that gap but the ones I looked at were prohibitively expensive.
I looked into what it would take to create a front silvered mirror and decided it was way beyond my pay grade to do that. It involved applying chemicals and looked like there were lots of ways to screw it up so I decided I could live with the gap between the mirror and the 3D scenery. I never thought of doing what you did but I would probably have screwed that up too. Usually when I am learning a new skill, I have to screw it up once or twice before I learn how to do it right. When it's something that I am only going to do once or twice, it's probably not worth the trouble to learn to do it right.
I did experiment with spraying one side of a small piece of glass with a smooth layer of chrome paint but it didn't work out that well so I never tried it with a large piece of glass.