Stuart’s Tiny Layout

Looks great. Keep us in the loop.

Here’s an overhead view.

I carved some more sections tonight.

A tiny siding on this tiny layout. Either a locomotive or a nice piece of rolling stock will sit here. The little wood station is also here.

The layout is looking great!  Who says they don't have room for a layout?? 

@Mark Boyce posted:

The layout is looking great!  Who says they don't have room for a layout?? 

Thank you for your kind words!

It looks great - love the scenic divider!  I would recommend documenting your build and submitting it to the magazine for their series "O-Gauge in a Small Space".

-Greg

FUN-tastic O gauge indeed!  I agree with Greg.  Do an artical for OGR!

Thanks for sharing.

Though medical issues have me assigned to AMR* status now, I hope to re-enter the hobby down the track soon.

*Armchair Model Railroader

Joe

US Army Transportation Corps Vet

Active duty: 1964-1967

@Gustavflyer posted:

Here’s an overhead view.

Very clever, Gustav! Tiny, yes, but great ideas! Keep the pix coming.

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. That really helps when you have those pesky issues that come with construction.

I would love to have this layout featured in the magazine. I always look forward to seeing smaller layouts and how clever others are when it comes to building them.

I have to say "GREAT IDEA" , as stated earlier, who doesn't have room for a layout? The divider works to break up the oval and impression of a train going in circles. I have more room but the area is narrow so is divided as is yours, it works.

Thank you for sharing with us.

Ray

@Rayin"S" posted:

I have to say "GREAT IDEA" , as stated earlier, who doesn't have room for a layout? The divider works to break up the oval and impression of a train going in circles. I have more room but the area is narrow so is divided as is yours, it works.

Thank you for sharing with us.

Ray

Thank you Ray, at first I wasn’t sure about a divider but now I truly love it.

Here’s a short video.

I like the video, I looked at your profile, didn't see an email address, I thought about sending an article that I used for decorating my backdrops. Don't want to have problems with copyrights

Take a look at video in my signature,see if you might want it.

Ray

@Rayin"S" posted:

I like the video, I looked at your profile, didn't see an email address, I thought about sending an article that I used for decorating my backdrops. Don't want to have problems with copyrights

Take a look at video in my signature,see if you might want it.

Ray

Hey Rayin, I just added my email address. Thanks for pointing that out. I would love to see your article about your backdrop scenery!

OK, I will go into my stash of model railroad articles and look for it, will scan and send it to you

Ray

PS. It is not my own write up but one that I used for reference to do the backdrops, sorry for any misunderstanding.

Sent the scans, please let me know if they came through ok.

Ray

Nice seeing the train running!!  The divider works great!  You can expand your scenic possibilities by having two scenes!!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Nice seeing the train running!!  The divider works great!  You can expand your scenic possibilities by having two scenes!!

Thanks Mark! I’m going to have two independent scenes. One side will be agricultural with cotton fields and cornfields. The other with the tiny siding will be lots of evergreens and Menard’s newly released Cripple Creek water tower. Stay tuned

Here’s some of my evergreen trees. I made these using the furnace filter technique.

Those look good

Ray

I bought a pack of JTT Scenery Plastic Pattern Sheets #97481 Still Water today at Hobby Lobby. I’m going to incorporate a duck pond on one side  and a water filled ditch next to the siding.

Looks great, cant wait to see the scenery come together.  I am doing something similar but with prewar Lionel OO instead of O gauge.   AD

I got these great flats in today! An abandoned house and a little shanty

Here’s some placement ideas. The abandoned house will be behind a grove of evergreen trees and the shanty will look great near the siding.

Stuart, Can you tell us where the abandon house and the shanty come from? I acquired some business buildings similar to the type you show. I mounted on foam board to give more depth and cut around the outline, then I painted the edge of the foam a dark color and fastened to the backdrop. I never saw the house and shanty that you have, I like them and would like to add more to my backdrop. That house is cool.

Ray

@Rayin"S" posted:

Stuart, Can you tell us where the abandon house and the shanty come from? I acquired some business buildings similar to the type you show. I mounted on foam board to give more depth and cut around the outline, then I painted the edge of the foam a dark color and fastened to the backdrop. I never saw the house and shanty that you have, I like them and would like to add more to my backdrop. That house is cool.

Ray

Hi Ray, I bought them from a seller on eBay. The seller is pghtrainfanatic. He has a lot of great flats to choose from.

I remade the raised section and it looks way better. I also am liking these flats. The abandoned house looks great.

Coming around the bend.

Thanks Stuart I will acquire some of the flats from the vendor, yes he has some very nice things, and unique.

Ray

I have the tiny layout on its table and in its location. It fits well where I placed it.

Another run video.

Fits that space nicely!!

Early morning run

Another flat for the layout.

The water tank looks great too!

Yes sir, That tank looks fantastic, hard to believe its a flat.

Ray

I carved another raised area for the layout.

Great looking layout,  very clever idea with the divider. Look forward to seeing more progress on this.

I’m adding some topography to an area. I’m after a rolling terrain look. This will get covered with static grass mats in the future.

Before and after

The trees look great in front of the water tower flat. It really makes great use of forced perspective.

The trees look great in front of the water tank!

@Gustavflyer posted:

The trees look great in front of the water tower flat. It really makes great use of forced perspective.

Yes, I like the application of the forced perspective, that is what I want to do with the flats on my layout. It definitely adds great depth to the scene.

Ray

I’ve made a few changes on the layout and I like them better. I’ll be posting more pics soon. Ive been away for awhile but I’m now working on the layout more diligently. Here’s a few pics of some resin castings I painted this weekend.

Beautiful little layout! Good luck going forward with it. I made a Christmas/Area 51 layout out of foam, where I can just switch scenery. Based on a build by Jim Policastro in OGR.

Very creative, interchangeable for any season or reason.  Cool.  Both settings are superb, Area 51 or Christmas.  Did you make the Quonset Hut, and is that a 37 Chevy PU in the Christmas scene.  I need a 37 Chevy PU - it was my first vehicle, cost was $90, hauled some trash and paid it off in 3 days!  What is the footprint of the whole setting?  Thanks for sharing!

Chuck, the Quonset hut was issued by Lionel a few years back, and pops up on the web occasionally, or can be found at shows. The only thing to  add is the stovepipe! Sorry, it’s a 1935 Ford, (Road Champs), with a Lionel logo on the doors. The layout was built based on an article in the Oct.-Nov. issue of OGR  (Run 238). The base is 2” styrofoam on 1/4” plywood base for rigidity. Very lightweight, by just changing the styrofoam scenery, I can make into whatever setting I like.  I’ve taken it to shows, and bring it upstairs to my living room for Christmas, where it sits on a patio table. It’s about 52 x 40”, just a Fastrack oval.

Gustav,

Nice job using the ledger-lock drive screws to fasten the frame pieces together.  As strong as 3/8 inch steel bolts, and they look great too!

Mannyrock

Updated pics of the layout showing additional scenery dividers. These also support the long divider that divides the layout.

I love this! What a fantastic idea!

Very nice use of only a little material!!

Looks great.

Of course, with a railroad that small, it might be more appropriately named "Western or Atlantic Railroad" as I doubt it could reach both!

I really like what you are working on.  With the kind of space I have now, this is inspirational.  Building a small layout like this is a great way to work on my scenery techniques.  I could see a version where the center is a city scape and the outside loop of track is a traction layout.

Very fun!

I like that name Western or Atlantic!

@cubalz posted:

I love this! What a fantastic idea!

Thank you for your kind words!

@GG1 4877 posted:

I really like what you are working on.  With the kind of space I have now, this is inspirational.  Building a small layout like this is a great way to work on my scenery techniques.  I could see a version where the center is a city scape and the outside loop of track is a traction layout.

Very fun!

I hope this layout will inspire others, I don’t have much space but you can still build a fun yet tiny layout

A little video to enjoy!

Based on a period photograph of Atlanta’s rail yard, and I circled it too, you can see a crossing area between the rails using planks. I did the same thing too

Final sanding and better fit

Working on some tall furnace filter style evergreens. Note the bark texture.

Those trees look great!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Those trees look great!

Thank you Mark!

I added some dark green turf to the branches and this is how I will finish them from here on. I added a skewer to show how the trees start out.

Building a forest one tree at a time. This shows how the trees look before painting and adding the coarse turf.

They will make an excellent forest!

Fine turf makes an excellent bark texture on tree trunks.

That’s great

Stuart,

When your layout is totally done, and you think about getting a second train of cars for variety, you may want to consider getting the very short Marx tin type cars from the 50s and 60s, in VG+ shape.    (I think they are 6 inches and less.)  They look great, and your train would look "longer" with a string of these short cars.   (More cars than are currently in your train.)

Just a thought.   I am really enjoying watching you build this.

Mannyrock

Really nice thanks to the good use of a visual backdrop barrier!

I finished the first stand of trees and I added a few stumps.

The "reward" for thinking SMALL for a layout is ... a BIG difference in the availability of funds in your checking account. Meanwhile, the value of your time invested in detailing a small layout can be just as satisfying as what you might spend on a large layout; except the total timeframe would be shorter and oftentimes more manageable.

Many exquisitely detailed large layouts are often the result of collaboration of many hobbyists in a train club; otherwise such grand projects require "eternal life" for completion by a "lone wolf" owner/hobbyist.

Mike Mottler   LCCA 12394

Mike, what great words for Stewart!!

Cool!

You're having WAY too much fun with that little layout. This hobby is supposed to be about rivets and hand wringing, NOT about fun. Tsk, tsk. You really should have known.

BTW all:

There was indeed a Western & Atlantic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...nd_Atlantic_Railroad

Andre

Scenery’ has begun on the W&ARR. I’m putting down some Georgia colored coarse turf. I shifted the turf to break it down more but I wanted to keep the texture too.

I added a duck pond tonight. It will be detailed with lily pads and ducks of course.

I have refined the tree technique and now am satisfied with how they look. Trial and error when it comes to scenery

The refinement looks top notch!!

This is turning out to be a terrific little layout! Some great scenic ideas as well.

While waiting on more ground turf I made a bumper based on some illustrations of the time period. I also started added turf in between the rails like was seen during that era.

I once again tweaked my tree making process and finally I’m satisfied with these trees. I really like how the bark texture turned out.

The trees look great!!

One more tree was added and I’ll nickname these after my favorite rock formation in Arches National Park, The Three Gossips.

Close up of the three gossips

Made a scragglier looking pine today.

Little bit of running

Very nice job!

The duck pond is now installed

More turf has been added, I’m going to need more of this stuff

Overall view

An Arttista fireman was added today, I have an engineer figure coming