Beverly's and Chris's Slab Door Layout

Loren,

Here is the proposed track plan and general placement of buildings, roads and water. Each square in the track plan represents an inch...



As you can see, the entire right side is the town where there will be an extensive road system. Plus, you can see the grey area that will also be roadway. The buildings in the track plan are randomly placed so this is only a general guide to what the town will look like. I completed several building kits last year, but have another batch of about 10 or 12 kits to build. I won't know how the roadways in town will look, but I will need various curved sections, plus corners, T intersections and straight sections. For a large part of the non-town roads, I could make them the European equivalent of gravel or dirt roads, though I don't know what that looks like prototypically.

Typically, town roads are an inch (25 mm) wide. Here is the inspiration for my cobblstones. I may not have the patience to do work as fine as is found on this guy's site, but I'm aiming for something like it. Perhaps I'll wait until my track arrives and my buildings are all built to work further on the cobblestones.

I do have materials other than CelluClay to work with, the most promising of which is the polymer-type clay I used for the bridge in last year's micro pizza layout diorama. This stuff will shrink slightly but will not crack, and it's a very stable material overall. Warping can be a problem if dried incorrectly, though. Yeah, I'll put the cobblestones to rest until a future date. At least I've got plenty of ideas to work with in the future

Beverly, are you planning a phd about mountain modelling? LOL! It looks like a very scientific approach and I'm curious for the results.

Bev,
That inspiration sure is some nice modeling. I'd love to see it up close and personal.

I'll put my nickle on you being able to duplicate that quality of modeling.

Your layout will be fun to see in Z Track someday.....right?

Loren

Johan,

Yes, I AM going for my PhD - in all sorts of Z activities. How did you know?

I won't have photos of the mountains at least until tomorrow. Darn if I didn't get side tracked (pardon the pun ) when my track, inclines and other Z goodies arrived this afternoon. Everything else went out the window You see, I've never had MTL track before, other than the package of MTL flex we used on our micro pizza layout. It was so much fun laying the track after it arrived. I'm such a newbie when it comes to model railroading and am just trying to catch up with all the great modellers on this board. That's why I'm testing, experimenting and practicing so much.



Loren,

Isn't that guy's site amazing I don't know if I have the patience to do the finely detailed work he's done, but his work is definitely worth holding up as THE standard to measure up to.

Now that the track and inclines have made their entrance, I'm going to be taking a lot of time to figure out how to put the many elements of the layout together. The track laid out makes our Z dream real. I'm in this "high on life" place right now knowing that the next few months are going to take me and Chris on an incredible journey

Bev,

Yes, that modeler does some exemplary work that's for sure.

There are others too that are absolute tops in their area of expertise. John Cubbin and Dave Smith are two that come to mind immediately.

I just commented on Tim Bueling's post showing his resin creations. Another leader in this scale.

Then there is Robert Ray.......a specialist and genesis in many respects. What can you say about Robert except he rocks totally !

How about some of the electrical gurus also, like Jeff Merrill, Kim Vellore the animated leader in Z and others too numerous to mention.

And if you are one of those numerous persons reading this without your name having been mentioned, please don't take offense. Each person who contributes to this hobby in any way is to be praised for leadership qualities.

So Bev, now that you are rich with track and your mind is racing, let me give you a small bit of advice. Resist the temptation to 'get it done quickly'. You can pick any of the contributor's gray matter for free, sound, and wise advice.

Many have gone before you and will be glad to give you a hand in creating your layout.
Take your time, don't glue anything down until you have hashed and rehashed the idea in your mind several times, maybe even laid it down without glue and also take advantage of that guy you feed daily at the table and ask his opinion.

Did you know that once in a while husbands really do have good ideas?

No doubt in my mind, but that your layout will both look like a winner and run like a winner. And one final bit of advice, (free as it is).......make sure your track work is about 99.9 % perfect before you go on to anything else. Bad track = bad times.

There, I've said my peace so now it is your turn at bat.

Back to my little projects,

Loren

Loren,

All of the modelers you mention are American. They are all leaders in Z without doubt

But because my work is based on German railroads, towns, mountains, farms, etc., I need examples of what great German modelers are doing in their respective scales. Having travelled in North America, most of which has been in Canada, I don't have any frames of reference at all to what I'm modeling, except for what I pick up on the Internet.

You are definitely right about taking my time. I already slightly modified my track plan and had to go back to the drawing board to make sure I had all the pieces on paper correct compared to the minor change I made.

Working on paper is vastly different from having actual track and inclines. On paper, I couldn't imagine how I might deal with elevations. With the inclines in my hot little hands, I can arrange and re-arrange them and think about these or those aspects of the big picture.

So much time for thought and pondering has to go into this project before anything is glued. Oh, and asking questions is going to be high up on my list of things to do before glue. The discussion on the subroadbeds has already given me a lot of food for thought

Bev,
I never even stopped to consider the fact that I had mentioned all American modelers, but my point actually was that many aspects of model railroading are universal, such as trackwork, scenery techniques, electrical, etc.

True, the European look will differ vastly from NA model railroading, however the building techniques remain universal. Loosely translated that equates to track work must be good, scenery placement logical and realistic in appearance, and black wire to black wire.

I think that is the beauty of this hobby, the building techniques, no matter who invents them can be applied by anyone for good results.

My bottom line?..........if it goes around three times without falling off, then I'm having a pretty good day:laugh:

Loren

Loren,

True, many techniques are universal. I have a lot to learn from the American modelers you mentioned.

I'd really like to see European sites posted here, if anyone knows of any. I have so much to learn about the everyday details of the German landscape





So, the track and four 2% inclines arrived yesterday. As they say about a rolling stone, I'm gathering no moss when it comes to seeing what our layout might look like. This photo was taken just a few minutes ago. Toothpick hold the inclines in place, and one of my test mountains, that is not quite dry, is shown in front of the castle. The train on the oval track is the Rheingold Express without the locomotive. The red passenger car is one of several that go with King Ludwig II's train...




Here's the track plan that goes with this photo. Only a few lengths of track have been switched around from the plan that's been previously posted on this thread...

Go girl go!

That's going to be a winner, no doubt.

I know several will give you some European direction as far as sites to check out.

I think the real challenge will be to get your husband to build a stand for this layout that will match your scenery quality.

Looking good
Loren

Very nice start ... BTW, are those Z-scale flowers I see to the side there?

Hi Beverly,
You mentioned that you're interested in finding some German websites for some ideas on landscaping etc. Here are a few that I visit often. Several of these sites have some useful pictures that you might find inspiring. Of course the text is usually only in German and if Google's translator still leaves you scratching your head, drop me a line, and I'll try to give you an American translation (stingrayone**comcast.net, replace the ** with the "at" symbol).
Card models, this site has a large catalog of structures: www.gleimo.de/
N-Scale site: www.1zu160.net/
another N-scale site: www.ndetail.de/modellbahn/
Card models (Mostly Northern Germany): www.makamo-modellbogen.de/
Monthly free e-magazine: www.trainini.de/index.html
Jens Wimmel's site: www.zettzeit.ch/
Guido Kruschke's site: www.220dasjournal.de/
website for German magazine: www.eisenbahn-journal.de/
website for another German magazine & book publisher: www.miba.de/
website for retailer (also handles German books: www.train24.de/

Unfortunately I had some serious pc problems around the holidays and I lost several other links that had some wonderful pictures. I'm still hoping that I'll be able to retrieve them (someday!). One of the things that isn't obvious (not to me anyway) is the way the building designs differ between relatively flat Northern Germany and the hilly South. In the South, you'll see a lot of stucco covered buildings (but with timbers exposed), very little raw brickwork is usually visible. This is in contrast with similarily old structures in Northen Germany where brickwork is usually visble. I saw exposed timbers (Fachwerk) in bith the North and the South. Also note that on the buildings I saw,the exposed timbers were almost always flush with the surrounding stucco or brickwork. I have photos of several old buildings in Badden Wuerttemberg taken in 2007. I could email you some if you'd like.
Have fun!
-Rainer

Loren,

Chris is just now looking for a vacuum system that he can hook up to his table saw. He's also started learning to use the Google 3D drawing program (don't remember what it's called) so we can plan the cabinet (more or less) together. It's still pretty cold up here, so working in an unheated garage is a bit tough for the time being. At some point, it will all come together I'm still looking at the track layout. There are a few things about the way the track is laid that I don't quite know how I'll landscape it.


Rainer,

Thanks for the list of links I will take my time to go through them at length.

Here's Jo's Z Seite . Lots of photos when you select Tischanlage1 from the left menu

I found two .wmv movies of Europe. They are of someone's vacations taken to see the Nuremberg Toy Fair as well as to visit other countries near Germany. Turn down the music if you don't like it.

Movie #1
Movie #2

These movies came from this webpage .



Brad,

Yes, those are Z flowers that I photoshopped into the picture. Looks pretty good, eh

In addition to Rainers list, I would like to direct your attention to the wellknown 220dasjournal from the earlier days.

It used to be a great free online magazine. These earlier editions are no longer available from Guido´s current website, but some good samaritan has them on his site:
220dasjournal.huebsch.at/

Take a look here, in the 10th edition is an article on using Noch cobblestone for Z scalers, and how to make curves with them.

220dasjournal.huebsch.at/PDF/2004-10.220dasjournal.pdf


Matt

Hello Beverly,

just as Rainer wrote, I had the same problem once, and I'm still trying to regain my old bookmark list. But then Jens Wimmel has a very long list of links on his website, which I use as a starting point while searching for information.

Hi all,
Beverly had posted some pictures of cobblestone pavement made with nylon and wire window screening. In my opinion, they look great but a little on the large size. I also saw the MBZ sheets and the Z-scale ones are just printed on paper, no texture.
From an attached photo (I hope I resized & attached it correctly:) ) the old cobblestones I saw in Germany in a pedestrian zone look to be about 4" square (about 100mm), newer pavers were larger.

While in my LHS about a week ago, I recall seeing some photoetched screening which if my memory is correct, was available in smaller mesh sizes. Two drawbacks come to mind:
1)the photoetched stuff would be perfectly spaced, unlike the old cobblestones that were set by hand.
2) the photoetched stuff cost about US$15-$20 for a strip approximately 2" x 8" (50mm x 200mm). I could buy enough window screening for that price to do several windows on our home, but I might give it a try anyway.
-Rainer

Let's see if the picture is attached properly this time.
-Rainer

Here's another photo showing the old cobblestones in the "Fussgaengerzone" (pedestrain zone).
-Rainer

deleted because of missing picture...

Hello Rainer,

what your picture shows isn't that what is meant by cobblestones. That is a relatively new paved pedestrian street. Those stones are wider. Often up to 50 x 75 cm / 20 x 30 inches. But seldom smaller then 20 x 10 cm / 4 x 8 inches. They are also fitting much better together without wide gaps, and absolutely flat.
The same goes for the second picture, it shows also a relativly new pavement, just made to look old.

Cobbelstones are smaller (roughly 10 x 10 cm / 4 x 4 inches), and more round in the surface. That's why they are also known as "Katzenköpfe" = cat heads...
an example can be this:

About the pattern, there you can find as many as there are roads...
...sometimes just in rows, or also in a special pattern like circles and half circles.

Some other pictures can be found in a thread I started last year. Unfortunately I was occupied by other things so I didn't follow up on the thread back then.

Thank you Uwe,
I had posted the wrong photo the first time. The old cobblestone can only be seen off to the left in the first photo:blush:
I never knew that the old cobblestones were called "Katzenköpfe" (cat heads). I don't think that I will tell that to my daughters, they might get a little upset!
-Rainer