N•RAIL Photo Progress Report March 2018

A photo gallery progress report to show where things are at this point. It's a nice snapshot of a moment in time so I can look back a few months from now and see how much I've gotten done - if anything. :)

July 14th Update: "One small step..."

I've been making a little progress, but work has been madness of late.

I managed to get some elevations dialed in. I need to plan next steps.

VIDEO UPDATE

Working on REV 03 of my layout! Or...is it REV 06? Hmmm.....

 REV 03 is starting to move forward! I think I might have an idea that will work well for both my HIGH SPEED and FREIGHT trains! Very exciting. Now....I just need to make sure the power works out. hhhehe

As the video below says, The idea is that the freight will roll through to the harbor area on the far left and the high speed will cut in on the inside.

The video

I like the idea of extending this area a bit and putting the big station in here. It can be "parked" at the station with the freight going out and around it. Very exciting. I hope it works!!!  heheheh 

Comments welcome!!!!!!

Do I really want to tear all of this appart?

So...here is the deal. Firstly, someone asked me if I had a track plan recently. I had to say that I didn't because...well..I don't. :)   The first rev of the layout was much smaller. Then, I branched out into another room in my office. THEN, I consolidated the entire thing into the one front space. All of that was done through trail and error track building with the KATO Unitrack. I would build things, try them out, and adjust. LOVED that system. It really worked well with my thinking. However, I didn't think things ALL the way through.


THE TRACKS

So...my tracks are called out in this YouTube video.

I have some still shots of areas as well.

THE PROBLEM

The problem is - as stated in the video - is that I want to tear everything up and re-group, but I HAVE SO MUCH WORK IN ON THIS IT'S REALLY GOING TO HURT!!!!!!! 

I talked to Tom Barbalet from the most excellent MODEL RAIL RADIO (( If you don't listen, you really should. It's a fantastic podcast! And FREE! ))  and he rally blew me away with his statements. He said that I was a great modeler (Wait....WHAT?!? ME?! :::blush:::) and that tearing up a layout to get something that I REALLY wanted doesn't seem like a problem to him because I'd be able o not only handle the rebuild, but I'd be able to make things better.

I was really blown away by these statements. I have HUGE respect for Tom and to hear him say this really filled me with pride and confidence.

But....there's a lot of work done here.....

It's something I'll be doing a lot of thinking about over the next month or so. I'd love feedback if time allows. It's a big choice. But, if I could tighten things up and be happier with the layout, it migh be well worth the effort.

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The Crushing Weight of N Scale Time Management

I've been playing around with blog posts titles. "The Crushing Weight of N Scale Time Management" is an attempt at being a little more interesting with my titles. :)

I still snag items from HOBBY SEARCH. I grabbed a lot this round due to a recent freelance project I took on. The perk - adding to my monthly allowance for hobby supplies!





I've been adding to the population of the layout slowly but surely. I add a few people here and there and it's slowly getting up to fun levels in certain sections.

Recently, it was the little shopping spot in Soyokaze. I added some additional stalls and some more shoppers. I plan on adding much more here in the future. I want it to be fairly crowded.

I also added some farmer folks to the back scene. Mostly more resting folks at the moment. Taking a little break from work to chat and enjoy the breeze.

More people - sitting on the ground and chatting towards the middle of the photo

Folks are still wandering around the Soyokaze Temple as well.

I picked up a small market. I still need to weather it, however. It's going to see a LOT of business - it's right by the factory and I'm sure they'll make several runs a day to pick up sodas and food. :)

I moved the little medical building over to the other end of the layout as well.

I was out with my daughters and past these signs at a sushi place. I snapped some photos and will be sizing and printing them so they can appear on my layout in the near future! I like the look. I may have to go back when there is less glare on the window, though it will work well if it's supposed to look like it's behind glass.

This one was on the other side of the shop. It had far less glare, so maybe going back in the morning to shoot the other side when the sun is in a different spot would make since. We'll see. Another fun design.

As of the date of this post, I have not made plans to change up the track arrangements. I'm leaving things as is, but will have to address the one section of track - the switch, really - over by the harbor area that's causing derailments. Not sure what's going on there.

I'm still enjoying running trains around from time to time. I'm trying to clean the track more often so that I'm able to run freely without worrying about the track being clean or not. A nice way to relax during the day and post work day to relieve the stress.

Cheers!
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