I took the bargain buildings I picked up at Benson to try them on my freemo module, specifically to test what the small town area would look like with more buildings. I was only planning to use the DPM brick buildings on one side of the railroad crossing, with an open gravel area on the other.
Having tested the space with more buildings I'm now undecided, the street does look good with buildings on both sides, but having more symmetry on the board reduces the potential gains from flipping it around as there would be less variety. If I stick with the current plan then the module should have more versatility. Decisions decisions.
I also tested my Rix bungalow in position, this time with it's brick porch attached, the two houses are going to work well in position, and should give a nice 'Sears home' feel to the edge of the town.
There was a good turnout at the space tonight, and lots of work going on with the modules, including the first train running as my SD60M took a few trips back and forward along the station modules. A landmark event, and good progress towards the goal of getting the entire circuit up and running.
Lots of work going on across all the modules, including the wiring for the station area and some discussion about the scenery for the outer sections of the city.
The wye crossing boards were also being fitted with connection bracing to connect them securely and allow track laying to begin properly.
Here is a short video of the first train running. This is my SD60M running with a random collection of cars that were available around the club space.
I spent some time working on my freemo module over at the club space tonight. I had three work-in-progress buildings with me to double check the spacing and layout of the town at one end.
I had laid out the building locations using paper templates, cut to measurements from the Walthers catalogue, and for the most part that seemed to have worked well. The two rix bungalows turned out to need more space than I had allowed, mainly because I chose to use the version of the kit that includes a brick porch.
I realigned the road slightly at one end, and using a Rix wooden overpass kit that one of the other members has built for another module, I was able to previsualise the size and shape of bridge I will be adding to my module.
I had already added ramps to either side of the gap to build up the road surface to a more 'double stack friendly' height, but once I saw the Rix kit in place it was obvious that I didn't need as much space as I had thought, so I was able to remove one of the added pieces and replace it with a much smaller ramp.
I will be cutting back the edges of the embankments on either side of the bridge to give a shallower angled slope, which will make the trackside area much more realistic. The bridge itself will be a scratchbuilt structure based on a Norfolk Southern prototype in Virginia.
