Scenery for my 4x7 N Scale

[Anonymous]

hello everyone i am now working on my 4x7 n scale layout and i have run into some problems. what kind of track shoul i use? flex or sectional? and for scenery i want a turn table what is a good turn table? also what is so goos scenry ideas? i want too design it in the desert. any help will be greatly appreciated!

[tstage]

Keith,

Track: Atlas, Peco, and Walthers/Shinohara all make good sectional and/or flex track. Will you be putting in switches (i.e. turnouts)? Peco and Walthers/Shinohara turnouts tend to be better than Atlas. (I don't know if W/S makes N-scale turnouts though.)

Turntable: How much money can/do you spend on one? There are good turntables and bad turntables. Are "good" one is going to run you at least $125. ("Good" meaning less hassle and frustration operating.)

Also, it would be helpful to know what code of N-scale track you are thinking of using. There's Code 80, 70, 55, and 40? The numbers are how high the rail is in thousandths of inches. (E.g. Code 80 woud be .080" high, Code 70, .070" high, etc.) The larger two would be used on your main line; the smaller, your yards.

Tom

[pcarrell]

CSX,

I personally prefer flex track as there are fewer joints, and therefore fewer chances of derailments and electrical gremlins...follow?

As far as the turntable goes, there are many ways to go. Atlas makes an absolutely bulletproof one that is quite affordable. It has built in indexing and everything. They sell a motorizing kit for it too. The whole thing should only run 50 or 60 bucks brand new, and thats with motorizing kit. Now for the bad news. The deck is not real long. Also, some feel that the motor is very loud, but there are things that can be done about that. There's more though. The turntable is a covered pit turntable (and it could use some detailing at that). These were not real common, although if you are doing a fictional RR you might be OK with that, especially if you have a snowy area that it's in (probably not in the desert like you though). There are some (I've seen some web articles on this, though I don't remember where...You'll have to do a search) who have used this thing as a base to build off of. They leave the mechanism alone, mount it under the table and mount a pit above it. They then mount a shaft to the center of the thing and run that up through the bottom of the pit and mount a bridge on the shaft. They then wire the bridge rails to the turntable rails and make all the other connections using the Atlas turntable wiring connections (clear as mud, right?). Electrically it's still an Atlas turntable, just kind of remotely, ya know?

The other consideration to be concerned with on the Atlas turntable is it's inherant design. With DC or DCC control you don't need any special wiring (a BIG plus). No reverser unit or anything is required. There is a concern though if you are using DCC and onboard sound. The table is designed in two 180 degree circuits. There is a dead spot in between each of those two circuits. Not a problem unless you are running sound as your sound unit will have to start its cycle all over and will have a short interruption as it passes over the dead spot.

There are other tuntables out there, most are much more expensive, but this one suits my needs so it's what I know about. You might check out the Walthers turntable as it has a longer bridge.

As to the desert scenery, I've always admired it but I model the great state of Maine and they don't have too many deserts there so I will let others address that issue, K?

Good luck and I hope this wasn't too confusing. Keep us posted!

[ereimer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxtrains23
[also what is so goos scenry ideas? i want too design it in the desert.

look at the march and april issues of model railroader magazine for pelle soeborg's articles , he shows how to do great desert scenery

[leighant]

Here is one layout I threw together in about ten days for a display. It was 30 by 40 inches.

Scenery was hard shell. Plywood roadbed cut out in shape of track and supported by framework at desired height so there was no level "table top" anywhere. Then ROUGH scenic contours made by crumling up old newspaper, covered with layer of industrial dispenser-type paper towels soaked in HYDROCAL type plaster, let plaster set and add another layer of Hydrocal soaked paper towels. When set, pull out and throw away newspaper that formed original contours. "Hard shell" scenery supports itself! Then plaster of Paris for texture to suggest rock layers and to cover the joints between the Hyrdocal paper towel pieces. Painted with sandy/ dirty color. Then "wetted water" sprayed on and sprinkled with earth color dry tempera powdered paint so water soaks up into powder and holds it a little through powder looks like loose first. Natural gray clay kitty litter (UNUSED!!!!) for rock talus, held in place with a little dilute white glue, the same as ballast. Pipe cleaners painted green to form sagauro cactus.

This was a display layout, twice around oval. Train just went around and around, no turnouts to avoid stalling and complication. Not much fun for the operation except building it and showing it off.

This is a 2 x 4 foot N scale layout I built for friend's kids in 4 weeks as a commissioned Christmas present. I used 2 track switches to make spurs so cars could be switched in and out of train, give operator something to do, add some "play value". One switch ran to spur at depot, another up to area considered to be a mine, but I didn't build any structures for the mine, just a loading place in a rocky area about an inch and a half above main level.


Click on picture to make it display bigger.

Background from Walthers.

All track EXCEPT spur to the mine was level on plywood table top. Though track was level, scenery extending both above and BELOW table top. An area was cut out under the track in front to allow placing a bridge over an open space.

If you are doing desert, I think you need to make at least some part of the layout look like it is out in the middle of nowhere. Avoid filling the whole layout with structures, houses, stores. An area with track, a pole line, a fence line that goes on and on helps to suggest that kind of scene. If you want a town or a railroad yard facility, it might be good to limit it so that the town or railroad service area stops and the track goes on into the "outback".

Dividing a small layout down the middle with a double-sided backdrop into two scenes allows separating those scenes into one that might be a town and the other side that looks like the track several miles away, out in "the middle of nowhere."

I do that on my East Texas layout, with a solid line of tall trees so that you cannot see the entire oval of the main track, from any one angle. The "main" view is only one track going through a town scene.


Click on picture to make it display bigger.

This is not the kind of scene you want but it shows building a scene in a very small space against a 2-sided background. I built an N scale layout only 4 feet long and 2 feet deep, with only 4 switches. But it represented 2 entirely different scene several miles apart so you felt that train really went from one place to another. One scene was the side of a port with a grain elevator, a docked ship and a scene across the channel painted on the background.


Click on picture to make it display bigger.

The other side of the layout was a small farm town where the layout, representing a short switching line to the port, picked up cars from a long track supposed to represent a connection with a mainline long distance railroad. I don't have a picture of that scene on-line. But you can imagine the idea.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by leighant

Here is one layout I threw together in about ten days for a display. It was 30 by 40 inches.

Scenery was hard shell. Plywood roadbed cut out in shape of track and supported by framework at desired height so there was no level "table top" anywhere. Then ROUGH scenic contours made by crumling up old newspaper, covered with layer of industrial dispenser-type paper towels soaked in HYDROCAL type plaster, let plaster set and add another layer of Hydrocal soaked paper towels. When set, pull out and throw away newspaper that formed original contours. "Hard shell" scenery supports itself! Then plaster of Paris for texture to suggest rock layers and to cover the joints between the Hyrdocal paper towel pieces. Painted with sandy/ dirty color. Then "wetted water" sprayed on and sprinkled with earth color dry tempera powdered paint so water soaks up into powder and holds it a little through powder looks like loose first. Natural gray clay kitty litter (UNUSED!!!!) for rock talus, held in place with a little dilute white glue, the same as ballast. Pipe cleaners painted green to form sagauro cactus.

This was a display layout, twice around oval. Train just went around and around, no turnouts to avoid stalling and complication. Not much fun for the operation except building it and showing it off.

This is a 2 x 4 foot N scale layout I built for friend's kids in 4 weeks as a commissioned Christmas present. I used 2 track switches to make spurs so cars could be switched in and out of train, give operator something to do, add some "play value". One switch ran to spur at depot, another up to area considered to be a mine, but I didn't build any structures for the mine, just a loading place in a rocky area about an inch and a half above main level.


Click on picture to make it display bigger.

Background from Walthers.

All track EXCEPT spur to the mine was level on plywood table top. Though track was level, scenery extending both above and BELOW table top. An area was cut out under the track in front to allow placing a bridge over an open space.

If you are doing desert, I think you need to make at least some part of the layout look like it is out in the middle of nowhere. Avoid filling the whole layout with structures, houses, stores. An area with track, a pole line, a fence line that goes on and on helps to suggest that kind of scene. If you want a town or a railroad yard facility, it might be good to limit it so that the town or railroad service area stops and the track goes on into the "outback".

Dividing a small layout down the middle with a double-sided backdrop into two scenes allows separating those scenes into one that might be a town and the other side that looks like the track several miles away, out in "the middle of nowhere."

I do that on my East Texas layout, with a solid line of tall trees so that you cannot see the entire oval of the main track, from any one angle. The "main" view is only one track going through a town scene.


Click on picture to make it display bigger.

This is not the kind of scene you want but it shows building a scene in a very small space against a 2-sided background. I built an N scale layout only 4 feet long and 2 feet deep, with only 4 switches. But it represented 2 entirely different scene several miles apart so you felt that train really went from one place to another. One scene was the side of a port with a grain elevator, a docked ship and a scene across the channel painted on the background.


Click on picture to make it display bigger.

The other side of the layout was a small farm town where the layout, representing a short switching line to the port, picked up cars from a long track supposed to represent a connection with a mainline long distance railroad. I don't have a picture of that scene on-line. But you can imagine the idea.





WOW!!! you have helped me so much i never thought of that middle of nowhere thing that is amazing! Where would i get a fence though? that is an awesome idea thnx for the comment keep commenting this too help out thnx alot!

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