My little, unfinished N-scale version of E. L. Moore’s Elizabeth Valley RR (EVRR) has been hanging on my workshop wall for a long time. Lately it has been giving me some accusatory stares along the lines of was I ever going to finish it :-) To tamp down the nagging voices in my head, and maybe start things off on the road to finishing it, I decided to make a video that would document where the layout’s at construction wise. The video making process has helped me look at the project with fresh eyes, and some improvements are now quite clear: extending the front a little with foam, maybe trying an alternative track block decomposition, replacing a valley track segment with one with a little bigger radius, and so on. The video segments are a little disjointed - and take the dates I mention with a grain of salt - but hopefully the big picture comes across.
Don't get discouraged about how to scenic this layout. You know the forms it requires; I don't think piled Styrofoam will work comfortably on it. In tight spots, build up with cardboard or wood covered with plaster. Mountain canopies can be built with the webbing of cardboard or careful hard scell scenery. What'll tie it together is the foliage you finish it with, amongst the structures and bridges. ELM was a little sparing with his trees, as was most layouts back then. You can fill it in better to look like the Eastern US hill country he was depicting. I know he named the layout after his wife, but there is an Elizabethton in TN and a handful named Elizabethtown. The Tennessee one actually looks the most like this, for inspiration: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Elizabethton,+TN/@36.3487196,-82.2106876,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipO9C6FphiFGSv-ZKRHbb2_sbUohUzcDAPLkaJjc!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO9C6FphiFGSv-ZKRHbb2_sbUohUzcDAPLkaJjc%3Dw203-h360-k-no!7i1152!8i2048!4m7!3m6!1s0x88507e050caf233f:0x50b3dedbb97e6650!8m2!3d36.3487196!4d-82.2106876!10e5!16zL20vMF90NDk?entry=ttu
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words! At present I'm going through the workshop looking for the electrical parts I bought for this layout and have set aside since then. I think if I can wrestle the electrical system to the ground I'll feel better about spending time on the scenery.
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