Woodlawn Industrial Park (was Northeastern HO scale switching layout)


tdipaul said:
Lookin good.

What is the plan for ground cover here I have similar areas

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I have been using fine sand to represent gravel (see pic below) but I'm not very happy with the way it came out. It looks too uniform so I think I will try giving it a light black wash to create some variety.

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I had an operating session with group of friends and it was a big success. These friends are railfans but not model railroaders. I had several switching tasks ready for them and they all got into the spirit of it and before we knew it, 4 hours had gone by! Everyone had a lot of fun and I think I may have persuaded at least one of them build a layout :)

The layout now has ground cover. Still a lot of work needs to be done:
- Add trees
- Add more street lights
- Add more fences, especially chain link
- More variety in ground cover
- Add road markings
- A crane of some kind for the team track
- Get a better oil tank. The one I have looks too European (it is from a very old Faller kit after all!)
- Create some kind of a restaurant near the cold storage warehouse. It would be nice to have one of those railroad passenger cars converted to a diner. Any suggestions?

But the good thing is that I can now operate without seeing any obvious incomplete areas - it's "good enough" (as @tdipaul mentioned in his layout topic). I am also a big fan of Tony Koester. I actually got to visit his house and see his Nickel Plate layout about twenty years ago when it was still under construction.

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Ned Torbin said:
Coming into this thread is like watching a really nice plant grow! Not to mention I'm learning stuff :)
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Glad you like it! I always like threads where you can flow a layout from concept to completion. That this is the first layout I have ever built that has come this far. In the past, I usually often lost interest about half way through the build. I deliberately decided to restrict this layout to be of manageable size so that I actually had a chance of completing it :)

Right now, I am having so much fun operating the layout that detail work has paused for a bit but I will get back to finishing the details. I will post a video of a typical operating session soon.
 
The layout now has an official name, Woodlawn Industrial Park - that was one of the options in the decals that came with the water tank :) .
There is actually an area called Woodlawn in the Bronx but this layout is definitely set somewhere in New Jersey!

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A wide angle shot of the whole layout. The best you can say about the legs is that they are functional :) . They are pretty uneven but thanks to the height adjustable feet, the layout itself is pretty stable. I really need to improve my carpentry skills for the next layout.

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Topherisme said:
Looks good👍 Already contemplating next layout, good deal!
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Yeah - it seems a little premature to talk about another layout :). But I have always thought about building a portable N-scale layout that I can take to train shows and for demos. That layout is going to be completely computer controlled with trains running around automatically. But realistically, I don't think I will even start to think seriously about it until next year.

There is still a lot of work to be done on this layout!
 
My new acquisition - an NS MP15DC that I bought used on eBay. It runs beautifully and has a sound decoder. Looks like the previous owner added an air conditioning pack to the roof. This gives me some variety in terms of motive power. The Genset is a great loco but I've always wanted a smaller switcher as well.

The only nuisance is that I now have to get my DecoderPro setup operational again. Several locomotives all have the same default address of 3 :)

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Looks like it will be a nice addition to your layout. Please post a photo when you have it in place.
I also attend the Springfield show every year. Hope to see you there in January.
 
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