Coming along.

Added some trees, and the structures from my old layout. I also painted the mountains, and finished up some touches on the tunnel and the roads.

Smoothing out the roads and concrete.

Tearing down the old.

I thought about it for awhile, and dedicted that I didn't need 2 layouts. So, I tore the other one down. Thought I should use the structures for my new layout and focus all my resources on that. Yes, it looks like a bomb hit it, or a construction crew went to town. But it was fun making it, and I have my blog and the pictures to reflect back on. Right?

Now, we add, the all purpose plaster.

I bought a bucket of sheet rock plaster from Home Depot for just over $11. That should give me plenty to do whatever I need to do. After I paper mache the mountain so that the plaster doesn't leak through the wire mesh, (a lesson I learned from my tunnel and wasted a lot) I put on a rather thick coat of plaster.

Work on the mountains.

This time, the mountain is much bigger, and better. I'm also adding a small hill where the houses are going to be. I get the basic shape with some wire mesh over wooden blocks for support to start.

As you can see, I took out one of my roads, becuase I wanted another hill there.

The first mountain.

It's not a pretty sight, I'll admit to that, but it is a starting point. This will be the first mountain with a tunnel that the train will travel through. I used some old wire mesh that my father gave me.
As you can see, I've cut a hole in my layout, this will act as a road that travels down, and eventually under the train tracks.

Let's get started with the larger layout!

The first step, is to draw out your basic track plan in pencil on the plywood. Then we tack down some cork roadbed and some track, following our sketched out drawn up plan. However, as with most things in model railroad, this is subject to change as we go along.

The start of the new beginning.

So here is how it all begins. A 4x8 piece of plywood drilled down to an old weathered table that my father gave me. Looks pretty boring right now, but wait until we add some creativity, time, money, and magic to it.

And there you have it!

Of course, with any HO scale model train layout, no one is ever completely "finished". There are always things that need to be touched up and details to be added. But I think I am at the point where I am going to start a new layout and move to the next level. This was a fun, small, starter layout to give me an idea. Now it's time, to try something LARGER! :)

Painting the house.

As a new model railroader, it's a process that I learn as I go. Unfortunately, sometimes I learn from my mistakes. And today I learned, the hard way, to paint my buildings before assembling them and mounting them into my layout. This one, I painted after it was assembled and mounted into my layout, and my goodness was it a pain. I always thought I could do it later, and yes, that is a possibility, but I wouldn't recommend it, nor will I do it again. It was just too difficult to paint those little details with the tree in the way and the awkward positions that were needed to get to areas I couldn't see, or hardly reach. You can see from the photo where I need to touch up and fix my mistakes. It turned out fairly well however. It's all good thought. I'll know better next time.

Slow down there buddy.

This is what happens when a guy is driving a fast sports car in a residential area where kids are playing baseball. The black and whites will give him a ticket!

This is a new police car that I purchased at a train show at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi.

Baseball field fence........

I realize it's been awhile since my last posting. I put the model railroading away for a little while. But lately, I finished my chainlink fence backdrop behind the catcher in my baseball field. Used some wire mesh and some wedding tule.

Take a look!

Train trial run!

We tried my little train for the first time on my layout and it seemed to work great! Cool huh? Check it out for yourself!

Telephone poles....

With some tiny wood dowells and some black thread I was able to make some fairly realistic telephone poles. Still a few details that need to be added to them, but so far, they are off to a good start.

Adding the Mountain Climbers.

So, now it's time to add some suicidal dudes scaling the cliff face. I used a special kind of thread, that has multiple threads together that closely resembled ropes. And with a little glue there they are, larger than life. Yet really small. :)

Cars and signs....

I made a fence out of some wedding tule and some nails. Then I cut the tops of the nails off. Doesn't look bad, for starters. I may come up with another more effective method later on, but for the time being it looks cool. Also, some cars and a few road signs. The road signs are printed really small on photo paper. The posts are just tooth picks cut to size.

Starting to add some character....

Nothing brings a model railroad layout alive like people. And if I want my layout to be interesting, I am planning to add a lot of people everywhere. It will be fun once it is a beehive of activity and there are little fun things to see all over the place. People are what add a story to layouts. So, I've started with these people. There will be many more to come and stories will come with them.

Making the protal look better.....

It doesn't look that great yeat, but it's getting there. First of all, I paint it a light gray, almost cement color. Then I'll touch it up later.

My first building.....

I had to dig out a hole, into my street, to allow the store to sit right on the table, then fill in the cracks with dry wall mud. Hopefully, after a little sanding and some paint, it will be level with the ground of the store.

Also, you can see that I added my little Railroad Crossing painted on the street. I did that with a satalite photo of a street in American Fork with a Railroad Crossing on it. Then I traced the symbol in Illustrator and then scaled it down to size. Not bad for a first attempt 'eh?

Don't like the name of the store, gonna have to come up with one of my own. :)

What we have so far.

Here's what our new house looks like so far. Kind of bland, I know, but we'll have to add some green, a yard, tree's, kids playing, etc.
I picked up a couple little cars from the hobby store to get an idea of scale before moving onto the next step with the roads. Want to make the lanes the right size.