The Downtown Spur model railroad is being built in the space previously occupied by my N scale Monon layout. I decided to do some major room clean up and renovation before beginning the new layout. The renovation is largely complete now and I've started construction. Here is the current version of the track plan. There will be some additional tweaking to the plan now that I have a lot of the bench work up and can work on scene composition in 3D. As you look at the plan, the industries in bold print are rail served. In this version of the plan I've modified the approach track into the Miami Produce Center so that it is a true switch back just as the prototype is.
Below are the lasted photos of the layout as of September 5, 2008.
Here's a close up showing the modified track work leading into the Miami Produce Center. Now, like the prototype it is a true switchback.
This view shows: the addition of the fascia, Thermo-King ceiling tiles, additional mock-ups, and the permanent mounting of my control system. On my Monon layout I learned the downside of traditional ceiling tiles - a never ending dusting of tile dandruff which was a real nuisance. On this layout I'm trying out 'clean tiles' from ThermoKing. While more expensive, the ThermoKing tiles are made of plastic and do not flake over time and are waterproof. We'll see how they work out. The floor is still subject to a fair amount of construction dirt so there is no sense putting a nice surface down only to have it ruined a month later. The fascia is standard floor baseboard trim.
The photo mock-ups of the block between 13th and 14th Avenues are now complete. The photo on the left (Microsoft Live.Local aerial) is facing west. The model photo on the right is facing west/nw.
Here's the same scene looking northeast with 22nd Street in the foreground.
In an effort to produce a cleaner, more comfortable look the electronic components have been mounted on a floating shelf ($20. Home Depot). The command station and programming track are placed in an under counter sliding drawer (Home Depot). I've found that having the command station mounted flat makes viewing much more comfortable.
Urban layouts are unique in that they require many more labor hours per square foot than more rural themes. It makes sense to do a trial run on your scene composition with simple mock ups before investing a lot of time building structures. It was this type of trial run that lead to the decision to do the mirror image flip of my track plan. With the initial trial run done and much of the plan finalized, my plan is to quickly but neatly lay all of the track with Atlas code 83 laid loosely in place and held with a few drops of white glue. Structures will initially be photo mock-ups. Next I'll hook up the dcc system and start running trains. Once I have all of that sorted out I'll go back and replace the track with Micro Engineering code 70, replace the mock-ups with actual models and begin the scenery.
Scene composition is something that is hard to learn by reading books or articles. This is unfortunate in that it is one of the more important elements in creating a realistic model of a railroad. Our problem is compounded by the fact that as the model track progresses around the room we are constantly faced with the maddening need to make 90 degree or 180 turns, must duck room columns and utilities, and never seem to have enough room to do what we want to do. The challenge is to compress our scenes so that they fit, appear un-crowded, and also arrange all of the elements so that they bear a reasonable facsimile of the real thing.
The scene above features the block between 21st and 22nd Avenues. The primary structures are: The Produce Connection, Family and Son, and Northwestern Meat. Photos of the prototype were manipulated with a photo editor and glued to styrene blocks. Looking at the model you are facing roughly north/nw. In the prototype photo you are facing west/nw.
This scene encompasses the block between 11th and 12th Avenues and features the semi-vacant Gulf Atlantic warehouse on the left and the larger shipper Trujillo Foods on the right. In both views you are looking west.
Here's a close up of the bench work. The base is made of 18" hollow core doors. The doors are spliced together by a 1"x4" board. Decorative shelf brackets without knee braces support the shelves in the middle. At the point the shelves meet the walls the shelf ends are supported by 1"x2" beams screwed to the studs.