Getting started

[rickdartist]

Here is the planter that was deeded back to the OPR. This will be the first phase and I have a lot of dirt to move. The inside measurements are 3'10" at the far end, 5' at the near end and 13' long.

[TinGoat]

Cool!

How 'bout a nice bascule bridge over to the other planter???   

[rickdartist]

I had thought about putting a bridge between the planters, however I plan to have two different scales. The planter in the picture is going to be 1/2 inch scale. The other planter will be 7/8 inch. They will represent the same railway but I want to have the larger scale for the mining part of the line. The 1/2" part of the line will be a water front district with a trolly. It makes since in my head, now I just have to make it reality. Should be fun.

[dmaynard]

2 different scales, thats just nuts
Cant wait to see how it all comes together. 

[Emettman]

Here is the planter that was deeded back to the OPR. This will be the first phase and I have a lot of dirt to move. The inside measurements are 3'10" at the far end, 5' at the near end and 13' long.

Hmm,  a tight 2-ft radius on the blocks at the tight end, and just enough length on a circuit to get a reasonable gradient to two levels? 

But why lots of earth moving? 
I can recommend just firming the earth and then using twinwall polycarbonate sheet as a "floating" trackbed (levelled on sand.)  Six to nine inches wide for a single track is fine, never deteriorates, and no weeds grow though it.  (use weed mat underneath at joins, and to provide a wider border to the right of way)
Hills and mountains, of course, you would need to heap up...
If you have some rubble to "lose", digging *is* required.

It's worked for me, as a constructively lazy approach, compared to some more "heavy engineering" methods I have seen.
Offered just as a suggestion.
Chris.

[adrian]

G'day Rickdartist

I had thought about putting a bridge between the planters, however I plan to have two different scales.

Guy in Melbourne had an exhibition layout that consisted of two baseboards joined by a covered bridge. One layout was HO and the other was N scale. An HO train would enter the tunnel and an identical N scale version would exit from the other end 

Great fun and it really used to confuse the public as he used to explain how the tunnel made the trains change size with a dead pan expression on his face !

Cheers
Adrian

[dmaynard]

Thats cool, some kind of molecular realigning device to change the size and mass of an object just by passing through it. If only I could get my ex-girlfriend to pass through such a device a few times....

Actually I was thinking of a bridge so your little folks could go from one part of your little world to another, something like a rickety suspension bridge. You know like the ones in the jungle movies with the floor boards that break when you are halfway across. 

[rickdartist]

When I first started the Adventures on the Castle Pacific cartoons, that's how my two main characters went from one world to another. They shrank by going into a mystery tunnel that closed up behind them and opened up into a garden with of all things a railroad.
I hadn't thought about a rickety bridge that only the fool hardy would attempt to cross. Interesting idea. How about a rail bridge with no middle. Something to think about.
Thanks for the idea.

[adrian]

G'day Rickdartist

They shrank by going into a mystery tunnel that closed up behind them and opened up into a garden with of all things a railroad.

Sounds a bit like a mix of 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice through the looking glass'.

(..........me'thinks that could be a theme for a new layout...........No, No, No......too many ideas already.......)

Cheers
Adrian

[dmunseyjr]

And for us older folk - there is the Grace Slick version of the Alice story:  "One pill makes your smaller, one pill makes you larger, and the ones your mother gives you don't do anything at all!"
Enjoy!
Don