N Scale ModelLayout In A Woodshed

The Railroad modeling hobby is an insistent bug and once you are bitten it just sits there and festers until you do something about it.

I got an N-Scale bite about 35 years ago In Vermont and it has never really healed. I still get flare ups every time I hear the Boston & Maine whistling for a grade crossing.

Having a Senior Moment?

Strangely enough, back in Vermont, I lived in what might be described as a railroad intensive town ideal for scale modeling. The town grew up right on the Connecticut River flanked by tracks, bridges, tunnels, a roundhouse (out of use) and a neat little railroad station. It was easy to kitbash structures and getting accurate measurements for scratch building was no problem.

My first N Scale Layout was banned from the house all together. Scale Model railroading was a hobby I got years of enjoyment from in the woodshed behind my Vermont home; it was an ideal building, close to the house, no windows and roughly seven by 12 feet in size. Just right for an N-Scale empire. Limit Your Hobby's Footprint...for a while In there I created another world at 1:160, no wars, no angry bosses, no strife. It was pretty much designed the way I wanted it.
I got to do it all from creating U-shaped bench work to powering and wiring the track and lighting and providing a hefty overdose of scenery complete with a village, factories, lumber operations, a cannery, almost anything that could justify shipping by freight car. Scratch building anything from a row of three deckers to a rundown and abandoned line shack (no it wasn�t modeled after my shed) but it turned out to be my wife�s favorite and the only survivor of the late 1970s HardyMont RR. polyester casting resin to simulate water. N-Scale-Model-Layout planning To some model railroaders. the concept of scratch building has no significance; they build models as they like and are not bothered dimensional accuracy which may have little or no meaning [to them now or] in future years. I try to replicate things from my imagination coupled with images I have retained over far too long a period of time. The line shack at the left is an example. It was one I worked on for two or three days.


Each wall board and roof strut was individually cut and stained. The roofing material is toilet paper, torn, not cut and than painted a dull black. Time wasn't good to the original and it is taking its toll on the model. Live Research From Your Computer Google Earth and MSN's Virtual Earth can make a big difference in researching the terrain you are modeling by zooming in on the scene whether it is a mountain canyon or a rocky ocean coastline. These tools take photos to a new level. Not only do you get a clear picture, but you can view it from any angle and in most cases, view it in 3-D. Virtual Research Pictures Here Constructing scenery generally involves preparing a sub-terrain using screen wire, a lattice of cardboard strips, or carved stacks of expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) sheets. A scenery base was applied over the sub-terrain; typically I used casting plaster, plaster of Paris or papier-m�ch�. I fabricated trees using natural materials such as a variety of weeds aqnd in some cases applied adhesive to attach model foliage.

The Bug Bites Again