My plan for the in-between-layout...

I am struggling with naming my towns, factories and scenes on the layout. I never thought that would be a problem but when I try to make up names for example a weaving mill and end up with "The Ribbing Weaving Mill" it doesn't feel that realistic.

Do you have any suggestions? I have been exploring google maps for inspiration and I've found that the northern atlantic coast is rather similar to my vision of the layout.

At the moment I have come up with the following names:
Lake Tear (or The Tear pond) - Logging pond/minor lake
Port Greville - My main seaside port
Ashford Wharf - Small repair yard for boats.
Lakeside Municipal Sawmill - My main industry by the lake
Lakeside Penitentary - former military base now correctional facility
The Ribbing Weaving mill - Minor spinning and weaving mill.
O'Sears Cooperage - Cooperage for the yet unnamed distillery.

I will post another post this evening with an update on my plan and some photos of the mess the layout is at the moment.

Petter

Hej Petter,

I'm not sure you have to use names for your layout that resembles real names. Personally I would go for names that plays a little with letters and words. Like this English Z-head who named his layout "Knownaim City Yard"...

...so why not play a little with words and languages...

just my two cent worth...

This is a photos of my endeavors in the dangerous world of trying to attach wires to the track.
Currently I am working on my sawmill and brewery scene which is the main event on my freelanced layout and I am slowly learning how to solder.



My process is that I remove one of the plastic ties from a piece of track and then solder a black and a orange/red solid wire with the help of some flux. The solderings are a bit coarse since I am both rubbish with the soldering iron and a bit concerned with melting the ties so I try to make them as fast as possible. The melting point of the solder I use is 220 centigrades - it's a 0.5mm and probably 40/60 solder which works fine for this.

I am not 100% happy with the looks of the track with the missing tie but I hope it will look better ballasted.

On trainboard I have posted a few more photos of my "progress" on the layout and I hope you will appreciate them...

Petter

Hejsan Petter,

I am not 100% happy with the looks of the track with the missing tie but I hope it will look better ballasted.

hmmmm.... why not offset the two soldering points by a few ties? Then you can hold onto the ties all the way, while only cutting away the part under the rail. If you can get clear with just the part between two ties for soldering, you might even save the tie stub on the outside of the track.

That's a great idea! I have been so focused on my coarse solution that I didn't see your rather smart solution myself - I only have to find a fine enough point for my soldering iron and then I will try that.

Hejsan Petter,

I only have to find a fine enough point for my soldering iron and then I will try that.

I haven't tested it yet, but another Z-scaler recommended the Star Tec 081 soldering station to me. It has a really fine tip.

Hejdå

Uwe

Nice Work. I do the same as the picture above, only I try to solder the wires on at a 90 degree angle to the rail so they fit straight down into the roadbed. It's harder to bend it after, as the solder wicks up into the wire. If you save the tie you can dissect it into three pieces and glue it into place after the track is installed, or use a wood tie.

I use a Weller soldering iron with a very fine tip.

The last few weeks I've been busy setting up the window part of my layout.
My beloved one have allowed me build a wooden shanty structure in one of our rather deep windows and this is how it looks from below:



I've had to elevate the layout to match our IKEA bookshelves that we'd sawed in half in order to gain wallspace. I use a 2 cm thick MDF board as main foundation for the 5 cm styrofoam - in total the height is 110 cm from the floor to the main level.

This is how the window looks from above - I haven't glued anything on yet and I am so sorry for the dark photo but my flash didn't want to come out and play today.
I bought an MTL expansion set and a few pieces of flextrack from a Swedish N-scale dealer who helped me a great deal with importing this - unfortunately MTL isn't readily availability here and I feel a bit frightened that so much of MTL tracks are unavailable at the moment.

I really like the looks of the tracks - it feels more realistic than the "fatter" Marklin tracks - although I have some difficulties with the ties when joining flextracks together. I will nail the tracks down after I've got my hands on another switch and I've laid down the cork railbed. At the moment I cannot wait to start running my trains on this small oval loop.

The idea of this part of my railroad is that I will have a small community here, somewhere between a military outpost and a logging camp. This photo shows my initial thoughts with a campsite on the left and a small station/hardware outpost with a small village. The return track on the right will be hidden in some dense woods in order to hide the small loop. The main track to the right will enter a small swamp - I am thinking of perhaps adding a bridge right below my yellow spirit-level.

As you can see from the yellow spirit-level in the bottom left corner this is further to the right compared to my previous post. Here the track closest to us is crossing the swamp while descending down from 6 cm height to 5 cm. The area around the track will be lowered before I do the groundworks in order to look plausible.

The track in the rear will emerge from the woods on the left (which is hiding the return loop in the previous photo) with a slight incline of 2%, passing a nursery-garden with a building site and few sheep.
The main farm house is at the moment a rather sad one (Marklin stock building) but will be replaced with due time, the building site and barn is old kits I bought a few years back that haven't found a proper site until now. The green houses are originally from my brother's n-scale layout but as far as I am concerned they will look stunning here with a bit of weathering and love.

I just wanted to let you know that I finally came around to upload some photos of my layout. I have put them on picasaweb since that was easiest for me to do with my computer.

I will try to add photos as my work progress, the photo attached is a view of my small nursery-garden situated in the corner of the layout as it looks at the moment almost done.
More photos showing how I made the landscape can be seen if you follow the links below as well as my first attempts of making a house from scratch following a plan.



Timber house: picasaweb.google.com/109363440726330132036/ScratchbuildingWorkshopForTheSawmill?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Layout: picasaweb.google.com/109363440726330132036/TheLayoutInGeneral?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Hi Petter,

Really nice. Thanks for telling us about your progress.

Matt

My progress is not enormous but I am a bit proud to present one new scratchbuilt house and a helix!


Helix:


picasaweb.google.com/109363440726330132036/BuildAHelix?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Carpenter's workshop:
picasaweb.google.com/109363440726330132036/ScratchbuildingCarpentersWorkshop?authuser=0&feat=directlink

I looked at all your progress pictures. You are doing a great job. Keep up the good work. Keep the pictures comin. I can hardly wait. Good luck

I have posted on my blog an update of the progress on my layout.
This shot shows how I have placed the buildings for my Sawmill.




Blog: www.trainboard.com/grapevine/entry.php?2662-The-sawmill-is-slowly-coming-together

There are also a few more photos on my Picasa site if you want more information on each structure.
picasaweb.google.com/109363440726330132036