The Home and
Design of the RGW....This Page
Currently Under Construction (Literally)
Train Room
(Shell) - Train Room (Interior)
- Layout Design
Layout Construction:
(click on pictures for full view)
September/October 2005:
One of the many advantages of CADRAIL is
that you can use the "Object Information" feature to provide accurate dimensions
of virtually any item on the layout. For example, you can quickly
determine the beginning and ending points of a line you have drawn in CADRAIL to
represent the facing edge of your benchwork. As such, we recently spent a
weekend addressing the SW Corner of the layout.
We first wanted to position the 134 ft.
Campbell Scale turntable at the west end of Renton Yard. We determined
that the location we originally set for the turntable limited our use of the
area to the west for house tracks. Therefore we moved the turntable about
16 inches to the east, freeing up space for buildings, house tracks and other
items to be determined.
Once we had that issue tackled, we set
out to dimension the SW Corner and the Western finger table. To make
certain that the layout design would actually fit in the corner and still
provide decent aisle space, we brought in the computer, called up CADRAIL and
then used the SW corner as (0,0) on the (x,y) coordinate scale. After
that, we found each point on the table, and ran masking tape on the floor to
represent the front edge of the benchwork. As you can see from the
pictures, so far so good.
In addition to the preliminary scaling
of the benchwork, a side project included the tracing of a picture of Mt.
Rainier on the SE corner of the layout. While this picture doesn't do the
finished product justice, you get the idea where we are going with it. Mt.
Rainier is by far the most distinct physical feature in this region and will
command a strong presence on the RGW.
During the weekend of October 8, we
decided to continue the development of the backdrop. As you can see from
the picture above right, the first stage is penciling out the distant images of hills
and in our case, mountains. The next step is to mist in white and blend it
in with varying shades of the background blue, gradually fading it into the
existing color the closer we get to the ceiling. Our method was to first
mix up a 90%/10% mixture of hidden lake blue and white (with a hint of gray) to
use for blending. We then shot about a 4 ft wide by 2 ft long section of
the white on the backdrop. Using two 2 inch brushes, we worked the color
onto the wall, adding the blue/white mix where needed to create the allusion of
mist on the wall. This is just the first of several coats. Notice
how the mist brings out the penciled in Mt Rainier. Here are the results:
Other Updates:
2008
2007
2006
2005
