The Resurrection of Rock Ridge


It may not look like it but I completely re-did Train City. Everything from the turnouts on the main in were taken out.

What happened is I measured my structures. Nothing fit. As it is I have a lot of work to do. First of all, I think I'm going to bash my engine house. I think it was built for a Big Boy and my engines are around 6". I may cut it in half. That will allow me to move the turn table in to the left and open up the city more.

The cattle ramp faces the wrong way. I may just scratch one.

The corner building is the el cheapo Railroad Hotel. This will be the visual key of the whole layout. The other structures will be mostly Campbells and other craftsman kits. This will downgrade the whole layout. I may just scratch something with a similar design/footprint. Of course, I'm pretty good with paint...

Well. Here it is. Still looking for comments.

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Not bad Chip! I'm sure you can make that hotel look great!

You might be able to fit some narrow structures along the opposite side of the "road" , next to the turntable lead.

Another thought, if you don't NEED the passing siding to the top, removing it can allow a little more scenery, or even backdrop houses?

Anyways, since I forgot to draw it in before, try this thought out for size. I added a connecting loops from the staging to the main layout so the trains can come out either direction.
 
Not bad Chip! I'm sure you can make that hotel look great!

Just a matter of work. As if there wasn't enough to do.

You might be able to fit some narrow structures along the opposite side of the "road" , next to the turntable lead.

I didn't spot all my structures, just the major ones. I have a bunch of smaller structures that would fit. I do have to provide room for the service facilities--the firewood, ash pit, water tower, and sand house. They are all pretty small and I think I can get them in plus a row of smaller buildings. I just have to find ones that look good from he back, So many of the ones I have are pretty sparse back there.

Another thought, if you don't NEED the passing siding to the top, removing it can allow a little more scenery, or even backdrop houses?

I don't need it, but I like operations. With a siding, I can get another operator in there (I need to get rid of that couch). I think I mentioned that I'm planning to make the passing sidings into narrow trestles. That way you can see through them to false fronts and backdrop houses. My wife is an artist, and although I doubt she'll paint the entire backdrop, I'll get her to coach me in extending the town through paint to make it look much larger--like a Fresno or Bakersfield in the W's. Staging is Sacramento.

I have to get my son to think of a new name for Train City. Unfortunately, once a thing is named, it stays named.

Anyways, since I forgot to draw it in before, try this thought out for size. I added a connecting loops from the staging to the main layout so the trains can come out either direction.

I'll give that a lot of consideration. I got it in my mind that the wall would create an illusion of staging being separate from the layout. I had figured I could run two directions by backing out onto the main.

It does make things convenient.
 
Few more changes.

I got rid of the sofa. I'll have to find some low comfy chairs.

I took Josh's suggestion and connected the staging to the main line, so now staging can run both directions. This creates a cascade of several other changes. Now all illusion of separate staging is gone.

It creates a reverse loop. I have an AR-1 sitting around, guess I'll put it to use.

The reach to the back corner became 36" to the turnout, so I moved the turnout onto the hidden track where I can reach it from the backside. This means I'll have to have a turtle and LEDs to tell me which way it's switched.

It also means I have to scenic staging. I widened it by 3" to fit false front buildings. I'll also either bash or scratch the front portion of a roundhouse. I'll also have to build a passenger station.

I also need to put some sort of scenic divide between staging and Train City. A backdrop would have to be at at weird angle. But if I can't fit a hill or cliff or something, a backdrop will have to do.

Any new comments. So far your help has been very productive.

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Looks good Chip. You don't need to create sceniced staging, just a simple stub backdrop there can divide it.
 
Just when I thought I was almost done.

Okay, I figured out what Randy was saying and I tried the crossover idea again. I was able to get 3.75 inch at separation between the tracks at 2% grade which is doable with my locos. The other side is 1.56% down counterclockwise to the staging area. This is not as hard to landscape as if I would have gone with Crandall's idea to just enclose the back track. But I only eliminate one trestle. Dang, I liked the idea of wiping out three. Oh, well, I like trestles. So thanks to Randy and Crandall and to Bill whose idea it was originally.

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Pretty nifty there Chip, whatcha gonna do with all that open space behind the Rock Ridge Module?
 
Pretty nifty there Chip, whatcha gonna do with all that open space behind the Rock Ridge Module?

It will be mostly woods. There will a road that starts at Train City and winds through the canyon under a small trestle and up to the far side of Rock Ridge. There will be a couple of mini-scenes on the road. In the lower right corner, I'm planning a line camp with a couple cowpokes doing some branding. Mostly I want an expanse of trees and rolling hills.
 
Josh and ChipDo I hear REDWOOD = TREES!!!
Hope they( REDWOODS) could be made at the right scale/hights! . It looks very impressive when you( CHIP) could make them so tall so your trains look very very small!!. So maybe only the first half of the tree( 40 inches) Watch the website of "Shamus" And I know a dutch MRRC that made the redwoods in HO scale! trunks were made from broomsticks!:eek:
BTW Chip: very nice layout/design:eek: and did you find some time to contignue Bob's ( I am curious:eek: ;)
 
Josh and ChipDo I hear REDWOOD = TREES!!!
Hope they( REDWOODS) could be made at the right scale/hights! . It looks very impressive when you( CHIP) could make them so tall so your trains look very very small!!. So maybe only the first half of the tree( 40 inches) Watch the website of "Shamus" And I know a dutch MRRC that made the redwoods in HO scale! trunks were made from broomsticks!:eek:
BTW Chip: very nice layout/design:eek: and did you find some time to contignue Bob's ( I am curious:eek: ;)

I calculate redwoods to be between 2.5 and 3 feet tall with a base diameter of 2-3". This layout will be scrub oak. I may extend it to a redwood layout in the future, but my original plans to do the California Western and Northwestern Pacific are scrapped for now. They may get revived once this layout is near completion.

I'm waiting to work on Bob's layout for his comments on what he'd like to see from our preliminary efforts.
 



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