Part 2 of the second level

Here is a view of the another ramp going to the north
table of the layout. It will be hidden by buildings.
The north table has only the bottom layer which
will be all narrow gauge track. The second level on
this section is only six inches
wide, due to the fact of the hidden ramp that goes
on the back.
The bottom photo is the end of the second level.
As you can see it has a peninsula that goes to the
north table. This section is only 24" long by 12"
wide.

Just FYI the second level is made
out of MDF board just like the
lower section. The only difference is that the
lower section is covered with homasote.

Second level

The second level is where most of the narrow gauge action will be taken. This section, for the most part is only 12 inches wide. This is where my creative juices will really start flowing. To begin with, modeling in O scale in such a small area will take a great deal of creativity and imaginations. O scale buildings takes a lot of real estates, especially if you are trying to model an urban city in O scale in such a small area like this. So time will tell how the finish product will look.

We shall start from the wharf. Here is a photo of the wharf with the false "temporary buildings". As you can see the wharf serves both the standard and the narrow gauge roads. This is where the merchandise arrives by ship and it goes by railroad to the rest of the destinations. The standard continues on away from the city while the narrow gauge serves the existing city. This wharf is 6 feet long by 12" wide. It has more than 1700 pieces of planks hand laid one by one.

Let's continue up the grade following the
narrow gauge road. Here we see the ramp
around the corner from the wharf to the left
heading up to the second level to the city while
the standard gauge goes underneath the city.
By making this small layout bi-level it makes it bigger with more running truck and more switching capability. The other advantage it has is that I can incorporate both gauges on the layout,
the standard and the narrow gauge. Giving the viewer an understanding between a narrow gauge train and a standard gauge one. The other interesting thing about this layout that it is a point to point, instead of a running around layout. That gives it a more prototype atmosphere and consumes more time and attention while operating the train.

Here on this corner is my favorite corner is the
point where the narrow gauge train coming from the wharf meets the second level. You can see the the narrow gauge equipment on all three levels, the bottom, the ramp and the second level. You can also see the standard gauge coming out of the lower section from underneath the city. The lower photo you can see a closer view of the corner.
The section where you see the strip is where the
Warren bridge will be located at.

July 13.

Well it has been a awhile since I have updated my blog so here it is:
I've done a lot since the last post. The second level of the layout has been installed. This is the section where most of the On30 track will be. Most of the switching will be up here also. Here you can see the first grade almost completed. The only left here is to do the Warren Bridge which will be installed here.
Also you can see on this corner the three elevation of the layout. The bottom left you can see the standard gauge train and on the right you can see the narrow gauge boxcar. On the ramp you also see another narrow gauge boxcar and on the top level you can see the Davenport narrow gauge engine. This corner is one of the most interested paft of the layout because of the multiple layers that they are all visible and full of action. This is the Southeast corner of the layout.

On this photo is the southwest portion of the layout. This is the corner where the railroad comes out of the wharf and into the city. The standard railroad will go underneath the city as you can see and the Narrow Gauge turns to the left and goes up the ramp that you see on the above photo. The Standard gauge will come out on the southwest corner underneath the Warren bridge as you can also see on the top photo. The narrow gauge track is hand-laid track while the standard is from Old Pullman.

The last photo is the end of the line for the standard gauge. The next post I will cover the second level.

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The Progress

I managed to lay more track and to finish the standard gauge track project.

On this photo you see the motor passing the first turnout and the passing siding just on front of the motor.

On the rest of the photos you will see the second turnout and the stub.

The top photo is from the end of the line.

June 22

Yesterday on June 21 for the first time in many weeks I was motivated enough to work o my layout. I finished laying the standard gauge track. It covers three sides of the room, from the wharf to the opposite end of the room in a u shape. On the other end it has a passing siding with a spur at the end of the line long enough for the motor and one car to fit. Here you can see the track leaving the wharf making a left turn and going behind the grade of the narrow gauge road.

Grade

On these two photos you can see the bottom portion of the grade. I installed the Woodland Scenic incline kit in the middle. On top of the incline set I installed two (side by side) sheets of balsa wood, 3/32 x 3 x 36 inches long to be my base for the road. On each side of the incline I just cut a 2 inch thick styrofoam sheet to size to give me the support. You see it well on the aerial photo of the incline. This will give two functions for the incline, a road that will connect the upper portion of the city to the lower portion and the second purpose is for the narrow gauge to go the upper level and service those industries on the top prtion of the city as well.

As you can see on this photo from the front of the layout the degree of the grade. Once the layout is done, from this view you won't be able to see the standard gauge train. It will be under cover. The top of it will be the city that the narrow gauge will serve. "A big metropolis". On the front of the grade the city will be table-top level. So the city will be split level.