Building My First Layout

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Wow ~$150 for plastic. Time, and Travel not included. Hmmm, guess I will need to make sure I have very little trackage near the big canyons.. If I did the whole nine yards, I would need ~320' of plastic. Can't add $$$ that high on my fingers!

Anybody have any idea if a 'step bit' would work, instead of switching bits all the time?

L8r
 


I bought my .080" acrylic sheet at Lowes for $46, it was 2ft x 4ft. I needed 2 sheets that size to cover the areas where the tracks are too close to the edge for my comfort level. I used regular drill bits that I got at Harbor Freight, but as diesel posted above, make sure the bits are sharp, regardless of brand. I'm not sure what plexi dimensions are in stock at other stores, or what they cost.
 
ctclibby said:
Wow ~$150 for plastic. Time, and Travel not included. Hmmm, guess I will need to make sure I have very little trackage near the big canyons.. If I did the whole nine yards, I would need ~320' of plastic. Can't add $$$ that high on my fingers!

Anybody have any idea if a 'step bit' would work, instead of switching bits all the time?

L8r
Click to expand...

I have no idea if step bits would work or not. My layout is 16x14x8, shaped like a wide letter J, so I'm glad I didn't need to protect all of my layout with plexi. I went with a 4" height so I could get more coverage per sheet.
 
Happy Columbus Day

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The USPS messed up again... they took my order from Missouri to Syracuse NY, which is only about 70 miles south of me, then they shipped it to Austin, TX. Now it has to come back to Syracuse to hopefully make it to my house in northern NY. Someone in Syracuse needs to find a new job...
 


I finally have a plan for the open area between my neighborhood and the Burlington Northern depot. I bought a Faller "wooden" playground... it took 3 hours to assemble. I like how it looks.

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To the right of the playground is a good place for a "backyard" baseball diamond. Gluing the figures in place took some creativity when using Elmers white glue. I had better results with the green tube of Testors cement for wood and metal.

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I only have around 40 scale feet between bases, and 70 scale feet to center field. But it's not intended to be a regulation ball field. I used the Woodland Scenics baseball players 1 and 2 packs.

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I'm calling this area the city park, with the playground and baseball diamond. The diamond isn't complete yet.

This is the parking area with 2 crosswalks. The cars are in the grass because I was adding the road markings when I took this pic. I'm having trouble getting the long yellow decals to stick to the painted roads.
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Marlin338MX said:
I only have around 40 scale feet between bases, and 70 scale feet to center field.
Click to expand...
I played ball on many fields like this one. Often with only three or four players on each team. Sometimes with what we called the "all-day pitcher" who pitched for both teams because we had an odd number of players. Baseball doesn't have to be perfect or even close to regulation to be fun.

I love your baseball field, thanks for sharing it!
 
Bruette said:
I played ball on many fields like this one. Often with only three or four players on each team. Sometimes with what we called the "all-day pitcher" who pitched for both teams because we had an odd number of players. Baseball doesn't have to be perfect or even close to regulation to be fun.

I love your baseball field, thanks for sharing it!
Click to expand...

Thank you! I agree, backyard and neighborhood sports aren't meant to be perfect, but they were always fun. This ball field is one element from my childhood in the 70's and early 80's that I wanted to display on my layout.

The wooden playground is similar to the wooden playgrounds that my son enjoyed during his childhood.

That's all part of the fun with building this model railroad... so many trips down memory lane.
 
Bruette said:
I played ball on many fields like this one. Often with only three or four players on each team. Sometimes with what we called the "all-day pitcher" who pitched for both teams because we had an odd number of players. Baseball doesn't have to be perfect or even close to regulation to be fun.
Click to expand...
we went one further and had a rule when we didnt have that many players. It was called "pitchers hand". If the ball was hit and you could
get it back to the pitcher in his mitt before crossing 1st base the runner was out.

A lot of time we were like you and didn't have near enough players to cover all the positions, so we made due with who showed up because
we wanted to play ball.

I remember times batting where if the ball was pitched and went by the hitter, the batter had to play catcher by retrieving the ball and throwing it
back to the pitcher.
 


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