March 6 Update: Bye Bye Bridges

Another airplane exhibit is in the works

Annnnnnnd....here I am on March 11th and I still have not actually written the article after posting the photos on the 6th. hhehehe

I'm in a bit of "analysis paralysis" of late - sitting on making changes due to overthinking where I am and where I want to be.  It's a funny side effect to re-doing my layout space. I'm thinking through all the parts of it so I don't need to tear it all down right away. 

I look back on some of the work that was torn out and it hurts still. So, I think I'm dragging me feet about moving forward a bit.

I got a new engine and already had an interesting interaction on the MODEL RAIL RADIO Facebook group about it. I posted a small video of the blue Kato unit moving and remarked that I was happy about the crawl pace it was able to do. Someone said that it wasn't a crawl and that it was going about 20 MPH in N scale speed. (Not sure if that was correct, but...) I said that I was actually saying that in relation to some other engines I had that could not go as slow, not in relation to scale speed. My point was taken and the conversation was a success. :) We have a good group of folks on MMR for the most part. It seems like there are many respectful conversations that go on. Nice to see.

Loving this little Kato workhorse! :)

Kiwamura Station is coming along. I think I'll be able to make it work nicely. It's going to be a big improvement over what I had before. Again, one for the plus column for the remodel! :)


The Kiwamura bus situation is under control as well. heh

I'm looking at incorporating the level changes from bench work top to top of uniplates to add some subtle variation in heights. Create some visual interest like I did with adding straight foam core to the mix to break away from the squareness of the uniplates. I think it will be a good addition as well.

I'm doing the same thing with street and sidewalk elevations. It should add some visual interest as well.

I gave up on the bridges as well. I think it will work better without them. Their location made things...strange. I wanted to have a creek or river run under them, but it would be odd or flat if I didn't do major reworking of elements. So, I just pulled them out. They were neat, but they would have bugged me down the line. There will be a small pond of area of water in a few places in the future. Just need to sort out where.

This area leading into the Soyokaze Temple area is working well so far. I have space to complete the road, fix the steep incline of the Naze Bridge, and things are running well and looking like I wanted them to. A bit of terrain shaping and I'll be good to go.

The banked turn here in the top left (above image) is working wondrously. The roadway (bottom / white) is working well. Now...to commit and lock it down. :)

I think this little station will be a fun section to detail. Some potential there for sure.

And lastly, I got a new KATO Centram for the tram section of the layout. Ran really well...once the track was cleaned. I have to say, I would LOVE for deadrail to work itself out with an easy system I'd be able to sort out. Fingers crossed.

Which brings me to hobby time again. It's been an interesting time period. Work is ramping WAY up due to me working with a different group - now working with three groups at work instead of two. With the analysis paralysis tossed in, hobby time is down to a crawl. And then I got into playing an online game,  which so happens to be a lot of fun with no long term worries. So...hobby has been back burnered right along with bike rides. I have a feeling things are slowly moving forward. I even finished this post. (But, didn't proof it....so....)  hehehe

Happy Hobby time, Folks!