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MY LAYOUT
Detailed landscaping in N-scale
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 N-scale
modeling
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| - A large layout in a small format - | |||
The N-scale gives a great opportunity to obtain an advanced track layout and a detailed landscaping in a limited space. My layout is 3,20 x 1,60 meter - doesn't look that much but the N-scale gives a lot of room for a realistic scenery. An equivalent layout in larger scales will occupy a full room to attain the same result.I definitely agree that HO opens up a lot more possibilities to make own modifications and scratch building on rolling materials and an easier handling - but space. Buildings and other accessories is not giving a problem to do landscaping in N-scale - a large assortment of all kinds of materials are easy to find on the market. I started to build my layout based upon analog technology with track
sections controlled by separate trottles controlled from a panel with LED's and switches.
From a gradual transfer to DCC with loco decoder installations, block sensors and control
of turnouts - all functions in the layout are now controlled from a standard PC using the
program Winlok 2.1. |
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| Layout | |||
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The track layout have several loops all connected through switches to enable a great variety of routes. Most curves are hidden by tunnels to give a more realistic view of the layout. Some loops have parallel tracks with stations and a switching yard.The rails are rust-painted with Humbrol 113 and mainly built with PECO`s flextrack laid on a roadbed of cork glued to the plywood baseboard. The tracks are spread with ballast from Faller. Turnouts used are Arnold, Minitrix and PECO. The later with best realistic design with switch machine underneath the layout. Catenarys from Arnold - faked with a thin rubber string - a practical solution that gives free access to the tracks for cleaning. The loss of non conducting catenary does not make sense when using DCC controlled tracks. Signal systems are avaliable from Brava and others to a high cost. I have built swedish N-scale headsignals from LED`s and plaststruct material. (see page "tips". The signals are also shown on my computer screen following the "real" signals on the layout. |
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| Scenery | |||
The landscape is formed from pieces of foam, aluminum-net and gypsum on a base of 10 mm plywood (2,30 x 1,20 meters) laid on a benchwork for good stability. The gypsum is formed with a knife to sharp edges to get realistic sections of rocks. Lakes and other water areas are painted direct on the bottom layer covered by a curled transparent film from Faller. Sand, small stones and green areas are made from various scatter materials from Faller and Woodland Scenics. Trees an other vegetation's are made of materials from Woodland Scenics. The Faller "Obersdorf" and the "City Flensburg" backgrounds gives a seamless connection to the layout. The Faller
special catalog and the Woodland Scenics Videos for landscaping is a good help to get a realistic scenery. |
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| Ships and boats | |||
A modelrailroad layout including waterareas is a more living scenary and gives a nice general impression. My latest extension of the layout with trams in a cityenvironment also includes a river with ships and boats. It is not easy to find ships in the N-scale but by incident I found lots of ships and boats on a hobby fair as "paper cut out models" in scale 1:250. Not really N-scale (closer to Z) but mixing scales on a layout is not wrong with respect to a scenary depth and think of the real size of a ship like the ferries of 200 meters length that equals 2,3 met. in H0 scale and 1,3 met. in N-scale!! Back to the ships at the
hobbyfair. "Paper cut out models" - an old used technique
giving a very good final result. You can find these paper cut outs on
internet. Download, adjust size and print out on an ink jet printer on 180
gram matte paper. Ideal paperthickness for cut out models.
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m/s Hansa built 1899 and lost by torpedo in Baltic Sea 1944 m/s Slite built 1955 in Sweden scrapped in Turkey 2006 |
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| Buildings and vehicles | |||
Various vehicles from Viking and Herpa modified and painted to match environments. Very good assortment in N-scale. The
buildings are mainly German from Faller, Vollmer, Kibri and Pola all with lots of material for
N-scale. |
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| Locos and wagons | |||
As said in the introduction - I have not tried to imitate a special original. The rolling materials are a mix of Swedish and German locos and wagons having a close relation compared to others. US materials belongs to a different "trainculture" and should be used with no mix to European. N-scale locos and wagons have today a high degree of detailing with very smooth running and the assortment increases. Lots of Swedish materials are avaliable and more will come. The Fleischman RC4 loco is a good example with characteristics fully comparable with the best H0-locos. |
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Per-Ake
Jansson |
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