Get Smart

Girder rail, tight curves and sharp turnouts are typical with city trackage but not at all with commercially available model track. So it looks like I’m going to have to learn how to handlay all this myself. Fortunately for me, my local hobbyshop offered classes on hand laying track and turnouts for 5 bucks, so I jumped at the chance! Here is my graduation project.

A Slice of Life

Big announcement: I don’t know what I’m doing! I’ve never built anything like this before. Do I build the streets first and then the sidewalks? Or vice versa? How do I create the flangeways in the pavement? Not to mention the nagging questions of whether the streets and sidewalks are wide enough. What’s a fellah to do?

So I built this little test piece. Took a scrap piece of wood, laid some rail, paved in the streets and sidewalks, experimented with sidewalk and concrete colors. Added a wooden pole with some piano wire for overhead then added city details (streetlamp and phone booth.). Cool.

This has been a helpful little exercise. Yessir, a helpful little exercise!

The Future Site of San Dollar, Ca.

That’s what I’m calling the city, San Dollar. Not quite San Diego, but close enough.

Well, I procured a piece of 3/8” real-estate. Cut it to 4’ x 4’, then drew the track plan, streets and sidewalks.

Now I’m getting an idea how big everything looks. I’m concerned that the remaining real estate for the buildings isn’t enough. The streets seem to be too narrow to accommodate automobile traffic as well. But if I widen the streets, the building real estate shrinks, and enlarging the real estate causes the streets to narrow! So, I’m trying to find the right balance. Further experimentation is required... Yessir, further experimintation!