Jess Red Horse
Friendly Indian!
I had a bit of a problem with my layout design and this I discovered after the layout was built, I found I needed more road surfaces to be able to display the growing collection of HO scale autos I have, when I put a lot of them on the layout it gave the feeling that the town was being over run by tourist so since I couldn't add on too the width of my layout the only other option was to go up a level.
Here are some pics of how I solved my road shortage, hope you approve.
Here you can see that I had this strange gap between the back drop and the tracks, this was going too be hidden with a lot of bushes and trees but then I got another idea too fill this gap in and blend the scenery with an elevated road way.
(Foot note; I still have to finish painting the back drop, also I have hooked up the red warning lights on the back drop so they now work).
Here it is really noticeable by the big naked wall in front of my buildings that look too be "floating" above the layout, the reason it was built this way is because I needed a strong wall to screw the back drop too.
This is a shot of the end of the back drop; here we can see the weird lack of transition between the back drop and the layout. (Note: the wood road way supports are upside down on the layout, this I did just to figure out the placement of each support.
I used a 1/4" foam board or "poster board” for the road way surface, this kept the structure light but also strong enough to support scenic details that will be added later.
One of the ideas I'm kicking around for ending the road way, this is a lighted bill board with an advertisement for a van show event (another passion of mine).
Here is a nice shot of a box car converted too low income housing under the raised road way.
Here we can see my Athearn F-7 Santa Fe passing under the road way, the clearance will accommodate the highest of my rolling stock.
I still need to add street signs, painted on hot top, bushes and so on also I have the room on the building side of the road to install side walks with people out and about in town and other details, I think this will be the only area where I may add the telephone lines to the poles.
In this pic I added adhesive text on the road so after the roads surface is painted gray I can remove the stick on letters too expose the white under surface this will look as though the letters were painted ON TO the road surface.
I cut off the bases of the telephone poles so that I could insert them right into the road surface this gives it a more realistic look.
I was really pleased with the out come of this solution to my street shortage, I hope this may inspire others who can not build OUT too build UP!
Thanks for checking out my idea.
And here is two parting pics of my first kit that I built by Life Like, it is of a Fire House.
Have a great MRRing week my friends!
Jess Red Horse, "My people once chased the Iron horse until they realized they could not kill them with a bow and arrow"...LOL!
Here are some pics of how I solved my road shortage, hope you approve.
Here you can see that I had this strange gap between the back drop and the tracks, this was going too be hidden with a lot of bushes and trees but then I got another idea too fill this gap in and blend the scenery with an elevated road way.
(Foot note; I still have to finish painting the back drop, also I have hooked up the red warning lights on the back drop so they now work).
Here it is really noticeable by the big naked wall in front of my buildings that look too be "floating" above the layout, the reason it was built this way is because I needed a strong wall to screw the back drop too.
This is a shot of the end of the back drop; here we can see the weird lack of transition between the back drop and the layout. (Note: the wood road way supports are upside down on the layout, this I did just to figure out the placement of each support.
I used a 1/4" foam board or "poster board” for the road way surface, this kept the structure light but also strong enough to support scenic details that will be added later.
One of the ideas I'm kicking around for ending the road way, this is a lighted bill board with an advertisement for a van show event (another passion of mine).
Here is a nice shot of a box car converted too low income housing under the raised road way.
Here we can see my Athearn F-7 Santa Fe passing under the road way, the clearance will accommodate the highest of my rolling stock.
I still need to add street signs, painted on hot top, bushes and so on also I have the room on the building side of the road to install side walks with people out and about in town and other details, I think this will be the only area where I may add the telephone lines to the poles.
In this pic I added adhesive text on the road so after the roads surface is painted gray I can remove the stick on letters too expose the white under surface this will look as though the letters were painted ON TO the road surface.
I cut off the bases of the telephone poles so that I could insert them right into the road surface this gives it a more realistic look.
I was really pleased with the out come of this solution to my street shortage, I hope this may inspire others who can not build OUT too build UP!
Thanks for checking out my idea.
And here is two parting pics of my first kit that I built by Life Like, it is of a Fire House.
Have a great MRRing week my friends!
Jess Red Horse, "My people once chased the Iron horse until they realized they could not kill them with a bow and arrow"...LOL!
