Sumida Crossing

[IST]

After I glued down the foam, I realized I wanted the road from the bridge (the big commercial avenue from the Urban Station scene) to continue through this area and under the tracks.  Which meant a bridge for the tracks above the road. Which meant a gap in the foam.  The foam I'd glued down the night before.

Bah, Murphy's law. But do not mind, I like the idea, your city will look better with it.
Nice job and thanks for the detailed information (& pictures) about what you did.

[qwertyaardvark]

Looking good~ :)

[disturbman]

I'm really impressed by yours (and qwerty's) progress. You are both doing great.

[KenS]

Time for an update.  Work on the "River Crossing" scene progressed this week and weekend.  I finished tweaking the little things I needed to tweak before plastering, plastered, filled gaps with WS Foam Putty, built my "concrete" embankments with WS Foam Paste and plastic window screen, and glued down the cork roadbed (it's drying as I type).

But I still haven't got to the "paint the landscape green" stage, which I wanted to be at last weekend. Maybe by next weekend.

Photo 1 shows the plaster, before gap-filling (I don't have an "after" photo yet).

Photo 2 shows a couple of the embankments, with screen embedded in paste (still wet; it takes forever to dry). I think the texture will be more apparent once I've tinted it.

Photo 3 shows a similar touch done on the embankment wall in front of the bridge abutments. I'm not sure how this is going to look, and this and the other bridge abutment were done as a test. If I like it after painting, I'll do the whole embankment face along the river.

As I've mentioned previously, the gray is just primer, and will ultimately be covered with a lighter "concrete" color, or by something that looks like a real road for the flat part.  That may not be soon, however, as once I get this section roughly done, I'm going to turn my attention to one or both of the other scenes, to get them to a similar "not pink and roughly usable" state, before I worry about detailed scenery.

If you want more photos there's a page on my site with a more detailed write-up of what I did, and my Construction Photo Album has those and earlier photos in a larger size.

[qwertyaardvark]

Wow your layout surfaces came out awfully smooth! I wish I had the same luck with my layout... I might give that flex paste a try on my layout to smooth out some of the rough plaster patches.

[Mudkip Orange]

It definitely has the look of an engineered slope...

[KenS]

Wow your layout surfaces came out awfully smooth! I wish I had the same luck with my layout... I might give that flex paste a try on my layout to smooth out some of the rough plaster patches.

Well, I think the plaster was fairly smooth to start with, since it was laid directly on foam smoothed with a Stanley Surform ("cheese grater") rasp, and I tried to keep it as smooth as possible to make a base for the screen/paste combo.  The one potential problem with the paste is that it supposedly dries flexible, which makes it hard to sand.  Since I'm not planning to sand those embankments, that wasn't an issue for me.

[KenS]

I did some painting. Then I watched paint dry. Then I did some more painting. (repeat until 1=0) 

But it was all worth it.  I have the "village" part of the River Crossing scene to the point where it almost looks like scenery (it could stand some trees, shrubs, and grass that wasn't just a coat of paint, not to mention real streets, signs on the buildings, etc.).  But it looks a heck of a lot better than pink foam.

I also cut out (and painted) the hardboard fascia panels to protect the edge of the foam. They're just held in place with clamps for now, to make access to the wiring runs behind them easier, but I'll eventually attach them with either bolts or some kind of hinge.

I'm going to leave this as it stands, and turn my attention to the elevated Urban Station next (a whole carton of viaduct extensions and platform segments arrived this week from MB Klein), although I'm also working on the Riverside Station, but neither had made much progress yet. At some point, after trains are running, I'll come back and do more scenery work.

The ink-colored embankments came out better than I'd hoped. The detail of the triangular pattern (from the window screen embedded in the paste) is much more visible than I thought it would be.  The color isn't quite right (the real ones are darker, and I think more evenly colored), but it's not too far off.

The train is just posed there (at the moment, none of the tracks connect to anything at either end), but it really makes me anticipate the day it's done for real.

Here are some photos to show the "final" state.  The detailed page on my site and photo album, both linked from my earlier posting) have been updated to match.

[disturbman]

Coolio! Now, this village of your is in dire need of some weathering. 

[KenS]

I've turned my attention to the Urban Station for the moment, and am working to settle on a final track plan. During construction of the River Crossing scene I narrowed the inner loop, replacing the 310mm of straight track (sized for a double-crossover) with 277mm (248+29). This positioned the bridge leading to the viaduct station better, and allowed me to simplify the tracks entering the viaduct station (see photo 1, trackplan, and photo 2). This necessitated moving the crossover track between the inner and outer loops into the viaduct station (the only place the two tracks are close enough for a long enough run), from where it had previously been hidden in the unsceniced end section. That's not ideal, but I'll have to live with it.

The win was that the simplified station tracks meant that I could extend the outer platform (on the "Shinkansen/Rapid" loop).  The end result was a 2.7m platform, long enough for a 16-car Shinkansen or two 10-car commuter/express trains. The inner pair of platforms are both sized for an 11-car Yamanote line train (actually, they ended up long enough for 12 cars).

Photo 2 shows part of the mock-up for the viaduct station (the wood isn't going to be used for the final support structure, although I haven't decided yet just how I'll support the station; it's too high for the usual viaduct supports to be used).

Photo 3 shows the complete mock-up, with a 10-car Chuo E233 at one of the commuter platforms (the far end car is at the end of the platform, so you can see the extra space for two more cars at this end). The black material under the tracks is Woodland Scenics 1/8-inch roadbed foam. In 12" x 24" sheets it just fits the 3-wide parts of the viaduct station.

Photo 4 provides a slightly different perspective.

Now that I've got the length of the station, and the placement of the tracks entering it, settled, I can cut the plywood for the roadbed of the return loop on the unsceniced end section. This is beginning to feel like progress. 

[disturbman]

You could try to cast your own pillars/piers.

[Mudkip Orange]

This necessitated moving the crossover track between the inner and outer loops into the viaduct station (the only place the two tracks are close enough for a long enough run), from where it had previously been hidden in the unsceniced end section. That's not ideal, but I'll have to live with it.

Ehh, it happens. Overbrook, PA has a full four-track interlocking right through the middle of a commuter station. The usual track fences are replaced with numerous dire signs of the "DO NOT CROSS TRACKS HERE YOU WILL DIE" variety.

[KenS]

Good to know. There's a prototype for everything, I guess.

But the part that really bothers me is that when I'm using the outer loop for Shinkansen, I'll have a crossover between the standard-gauge and narrow-gauge tracks, and that's not particularly prototypical. Oh well, pay no attention to the gauge-change behind the curtain... 

And, when I finally get around to adding signals, I'll either have to pretend it isn't there, or do something that probably doesn't have a Japanese prototype.  Although there are prototypes for block/starting signals leading to two lines and mid-station signals, so I guess I could claim those as the prototype.

[Bernard]

Ken - You are really planning the layout out by marking up the foam and test fitting the pieces. Have you run trains over the sections you've already done just to check how smooth the slight elevations are? Two months, that's not bad, if you enjoy it, what's the rush. 

[CaptOblivious]

Ken, I see how you could move the double cross-over out of the station, and into a more discreet area; it requires re-jiggering of the right-most shinkasen curve though.

[KenS]

Have you run trains over the sections you've already done just to check how smooth the slight elevations are?

I've run a train back-and-forth over the grade and bridge between the "village" area and the Urban Station, but I did it from the far end of the table, so I wasn't watching the train closely on the grade.  That's a good idea, and once I get the Urban Station back together (it's apart for support construction this weekend) I'll check it out more closely.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Capt. O.: that jpeg you attached just seems to be a screen grab of my existing curve (or I'm overlooking something).  What was your idea?

Update: Oh, I get it (doh!). Shortening the outer curve and reversing the direction of the platform curve in the station would let me move it down to the far right.  Interesting thought.  I'll have to try that out.

[KenS]

I've been working on the support structure for the viaduct station in my Urban Station scene.  I'm being a bit different, using threaded rod, PEX water tubing, and aluminum strips made for carpets rather than foam, plastic or wood. That, plus a simply incredible amount of nuts and washers (I've nearly used up a 100-count box of nuts on the first of two tables), makes for a fairly solid and yet realistically (I think) open structure. You can read all the details on a page on my website, if you care.

So far, I've done one of the two tables, although final assembly will wait until tomorrow or later in the week, as some paint needs to dry (doesn't it always?). This came out looking pretty good, although there are some rough areas I'll need to conceal or otherwise deal with.

I'd actually had the idea of using 1/4" threaded rod from some of the reading I'd done on helix construction, where it's sometimes used as a support since the height is easily adjusted.

photo 1: the rod/nut/washers (without the PEX) used to hold up the end where the subway enters the station.

photo 2: the same location, once the PEX was placed over the rods and painted. The blue clearance gauges confirm I didn't make a mistake on clearances.

photo 3: a forest of columns, the rear set with the aluminum strip applied.

[disturbman]

Great idea! But, aren't you going to need to paint the baseboard for the elevated station?

[KenS]

But, aren't you going to need to paint the baseboard for the elevated station?

Not sure what you mean by "baseboard".  The actual baseboard is hidden under the pink foam.  The foam itself will be given a coat of gray latex just in case it peeks through (and for the short term when it will double as the road surface), but eventually it will all be hidden under roads, buildings, or other scenery. I'm not going to do that until I finish the foam hill hiding the subway tracks down by the river, as I don't want paint between the two foam surfaces I'm gluing together.

Fortunately the columns are easy to install/remove right now, as I just finger-tighten the nut under the table, or twist it off to remove them.  I can install/remove the entire structure in under five minutes.  Eventually I may lock it in place by filling in the "pits" in the pink foam with WS Foam Putty, but that's something for the future.

On the front of the layout, a fascia board will hide the edge of the table (gray wood in the photos) and the pink foam there.  I'm not going to cut/paint/install that until things are a bit further along.  One thing I'm thinking of is supplementing the fascia with some plexiglass, to prevent a derailed subway train from exiting over the lip of the fascia and falling to its doom on the concrete 50-some inches below, while still allowing visibility into the underside of the station.

Finally, I did consider painting the viaduct station itself (and I may still do it), but I'd need some more concrete-like color, which means breaking out my airbrush and figuring out how to use it again (it's been about 15 years...). And I need to acquire a paint booth before I do that. One of the reasons it's been unused for so long is a lack of one, and an increased concern about poor ventilation in my cellar that kept me from using it without one.  A lack of model-building activity has kept me from having any reason to do so up to now, but once I move on to building/customizing structures, I'm going to want to paint them. I did a little bit of that when my HO layout was new, and structures definitely look better with flat, airbrushed paint jobs than in the original shiny plastic.

I have more than enough projects to keep me amused. 

But that's sort of the point. Part of what I want to get out of this railroad is a a way to de-stress after work that doesn't involve couch-potato passivity.  Between building scenery, structures, and digital control/signaling systems, and converting trains to DCC, I should have plenty of that.

[disturbman]

What I meant was, don't you think it's starting for you to be time to paint this pink foam board so it doesn't show up under the station. That's just for practical reason. Once you do that you won't need to disasemble the elevated station, the pillars and the rails... except if you have a subway derailing. :)

Thanks for the answer. I envy you. :)

[Bernard]

Ken - That is an interesting idea of plexiglass. Would it be easy to remove and get to the trains when derailments happen? I know what you mean by not having trains fall off the layout, that is why I put mountain ridges on the edge of my layout.
Since there is a hidden sublayer to your layout, have you thought of painting the pink foamboard black? It might show up the lights of the trains better, just a thought.

[disturbman]

Good idea Bernard. I even think that the paint shouldn't be glossy.

[KenS]

disturbman: yeah, I want to paint the foam under the station, but I also want to paint the foam behind it at the same time to keep it even (and it's less work), so I'm waiting until I finish the foam hills at the end of the scene so I know where to end the gray and start with some green. I also want to do both tables at the same time, so I need to finish the other set of columns first (which I started working on last night).

Bernard: I do plan to paint the subway foam. In fact, I'm thinking of doing some minor detailing inside the tunnel so that if/when I eventually run a train with a camera on it, it won't look too bad. I had originally thought to use black, but as I think about detailing it, gray makes a bit more sense.  The jury's still out on that. 

In the station area, the whole track will be "outdoors" (under the viaduct but exposed on one side at least), so I'm going with a "painted concrete" look there.  I'll probably try to make the floor in pedestrian platform/walkway areas look like tile, and other areas look like concrete, so a base of gray paint is a reasonable starting point there.

The plexiglass idea came from a recent model railroading magazine.  They had a tip using a small sheet with slots on the bottom that slid over screws on or behind the fascia. I'm thinking of something simpler, perhaps just using the bolts that mount the fascia to mount the plexiglass too.  But that would mean putting the bolts up relatively high unless I want to have several inches of hidden plexiglass, and it would make it a pain to remove if there was a derailment, so I might do something different like offsetting the fascia with a second layer of hardboard at the bottom, so there's a "notch" behind it at the top that the plexiglass drops down into. That's tempting, but I'm not sure how solid it will be, and I don't want the plexiglass tilting in and pressing against the scenery. More thought, and maybe a test fitting, will be required before I decide.

In most places, I'm going to just count on having a small raised edge on the fascia board to hold in a derailment. But at the station I want more visibility so I won't have much of a lip there.

[KenS]

Another week, more painting. 

After I finished making all the mounting points for the elevated station structure, I painted the pink foam tops of both tables with gray latex primer (which will serve as my "street" surface until I get around to making a better one) and then painted the subway cork with gray acrylic paint to match the Unitrack that will be laid on it. Now I'm going to let all that dry, probably for a week or two.

Then I cut out hardboard fascia panels for the Urban Station tables, and painted them.  I also re-painted the ones I'd previously done for the River Crossing scene, as the clamps I'd used for temporary attachments had damaged the paint. The fascia gets two coats of gray primer to seal the wood, and then two (at least) coats of the green paint I'm using.  If I see a noticeable difference between the two original ones (which got three coats counting the repair work) and the new ones (two coats so far), I'll add a third coat.

Lesson: latex paint may be dry to the touch fairly quickly, but it takes a long time to cure, and it isn't very strong, mechanically, until it does. It also remains a bit tacky, and will stick to things set on it (I'd observed this previously with the paint I used for the river itself, as the pink foam stuck to it in a few places). I've also had some problems with the acrylic paint I used on the cork remaining slightly tacky for a couple of weeks (not seriously, but track set on it sticks a bit when I try to move it later); it finally dried out, but it seemed to take forever.

But I did figure out how I was going to put in a plexiglass panel to prevent runaways in the Urban Station and in the subway station part of the Riverside Station scenes.  Basically, I'm mounting the fascia far enough away from the table to create a slot, with a mounting block at the bottom in a couple of places that both holds the fascia and provides a ledge for the plexiglass in the "slot" to rest on.  I don't have photos of the finished assembly yet (I'm waiting for paint to dry), but a test fitting before I painted worked pretty well, some I'm hopeful the finished assembly will work as planned.

The plexiglass is quarter-inch stock, cut from a 4-foot by 2-foot panel (about $40, but it made five 4-foot sections). I used that, rather than the thinner 1/8" stock, which would have been half the cost, so that the panel wouldn't flex in towards the station. The thinner stuff was just too bendy for me.

I've also been working on cutting/carving foam for the other bank of the river (between the river and the urban station) and working on the bridge abutments there. Nothing to show for that yet, but perhaps in another week...

My goal here is to get the Urban Station to the point where I can install track, at least temporarily, and then focus my attention on the Riverside Station scene, which I plan to be the first one I finish (structures and scenery), so that I can run trains once I get the RS scene to the point where it has track.  Somewhere in here I need to build the second level of the unsceniced end, so that the tracks all connect properly. But that's for another day.

photo 1: a diagram of how my plexiglass will mount.

photo 2: the mounting itself.

photo 3: the tables before painting

photo 4:masked and with latex paint applied

photo 5: with the cork painted, and some of the vertical supports in place

photo 6: a collection of painted fascia panels

[Mudkip Orange]

Yep, you're really gettin' serious now.

[KenS]

Just a quick note: I installed the plexiglass and painted fascia panels last night, and they look pretty good.  The plexiglass is easy to remove, if a bit tricky to re-insert (it has a curve to it, so you have to get one end in first, then straighten it out to get the other in), but it works. And it's really easy to just lift out if I need access.  It looks as good as I'd hoped when it's in place, too.

[Bernard]

Ken - I took a break from working on my own layout and went out to get some lunch. I took out my computer to log on to forum, saw what you've done on your layout and now I want to finish lunch quickly so I can get back to working on layout. What am I saying....your work quickly inspired me!
I liked how you solved your problem with the plexiglass, it very rewarding when you can solve a problem!

[KenS]

It's been a while without an update, but that's because I've mostly been working on boring stuff (more supports for the viaduct station, fixing some of my lighting, finishing the fascia panels, painting). But now I've got something to mention.

Sumida Crossing has a tram line. I'd mentioned this in the What are you Waiting For? thread, and the tram and finetrack arrived today, and promptly had a test run. Several, in fact.    This is going to be a simple back-and-forth line.  But with spring switches at both ends (which work surprisingly well) and double-track in the middle, I can, in theory, run two trams with some simple relays to switch track polarity to the four sections (on a timer, or using some kind of detector). That's all for the future, and right now I only have one tram, and it's run manually.

The tram is a Tokyu Setagaya line series 300 articulated two-car unit (the model is by Modemo), and it runs quite nicely (it's doing loops on my coffee table test-track right now to break in the mechanism). The double-track non-street-running layout reflects the bulk of the actual Setagaya line.

I've also bought a second Overhead Transit Station (I already had one, plus the expansion to add a second platform; this brings me to three platforms with two overhead waiting rooms). The concept is that one waiting room is for the commuter loop, and serves both of those platforms, and the other is for the Shinkansen/rapid line). A corridor connects the two waiting rooms, and elevators lead down to the entrance building and subway. Right now the parts are just leaning together, and I'll need to do a little work to fit them. The corridor is the right length to bridge the two stations, but it isn't designed to connect to a building at both ends; they assume you'll put a staircase on the other end and the building has the wrong tabs to link to it. I'll probably also do some painting, to kill the "plastic" look, before I'm done with it. LED lighting is also a possibility.

One of the reasons I want the overhead station, rather than just assuming platform stairs/elevators go down to the entrance building, is to break up the long open viaduct area by putting a building atop it.  It's prototypical, and it avoids the rather boring expanse of flat track and platforms I'd otherwise have there.

One of the quirks of the OTS is that you need to buy an Island Flag Stop Platform A for each platform section under the station, as the station comes with stairs that only plug into this, but without the platform. I found this out the hard way and for more than a year my stairs were hanging in empty space. I've finally bought a few of these, although I'm using Kato's usual platforms (which model an asphalt surface, rather than the tile of the Flag Stop Platforms) for most of the platform length.

This is the usual test fitting to see how I like the look. So far I'm pretty happy, although I need to let it sit and think about it for a bit before I'm sure.

Photo 1: the current track plan for the tram (also showing the subway). This is subject to revision. It's two single-track terminals, plus one more stop in the middle (with side platforms flanking a street, very common on the Setagaya line).

Photo 2: the tram, a Tokyu 300 series articulated car.

Photo 3: the track under the viaduct station, without the viaduct station in place. More scenery is obviously needed.

Photo 4: shows the row of buildings across the street from the station. A second row backs up against the station, with a gap in front of the entrance building for a small plaza. The "commercial avenue" runs between the two rows of buildings. The tram line runs behind the far row of buildings, with the tram revealed by a few narrow streets (and maybe one wider one where the platforms go) as it moves along the track.

Photo 5: an end-on view showing the tram tracks.

Photo 6: The viaduct station from one end.

Photo 7: The viaduct station from the other end. This shows the Woodland Scenics track-bed atop the viaduct, which has now been painted gray (using artists acrylic paint, which does a very good job of flexing with the foam).

Photo 8: and a side view, showing a tram waiting at the terminal.

[Bernard]

Ken - Really nice work. I was toying with the idea of an automated double Tram line but never had the materials to do it, maybe in the future. I saw this type of automation at large train shows and it's impressive, at this point do you know how you plan to do it? I know Tomix makes an automation system for 2 trains.

[KenS]

...at this point do you know how you plan to do it? I know Tomix makes an automation system for 2 trains.

I don't.  I've looked at the Tomix system, to the extent I can without reading Japanese (I have a Tomix catalog that shows the patterns it supports) and it doesn't look like it would support my track pattern.

The Tomix system seems to be able to alternate two (or three) trains from a yard over a back-and-forth route, but it doesn't appear to be able to run two in opposite directions simultaneously and share a stub terminal at the ends.

[Darren Jeffries]

I read somewhere that there is a way to makeshift a magnetic polarity switch. I'll find the article later and post it here for you.

Edit: Cant find the article.... sods law.

But the basic principle was this: Magnet on the front of the train. Magnet closes a reed switch which in turn starts the timed polarity switch. after the allotted time has elapsed, the polarity switch reverts back to its native position. The reed switch obviously resets the second the magnet moves away from it.

All these bits are cheap enough to buy and assemble, if you were in the UK i would recommend Maplin, but any electronics store should do.

[KenS]

Thanks. That's something to think about. I'd been considering something more complex, but a timed polarity switch might be all I need.

[KenS]

Just a quick note: I've adopted the method described by Jeff for making elevated stations as the way to handle the poorly supported ends of my "Urban Station" viaduct platform. The end result (photo 2) turned out pretty well (thanks for the idea, Jeff).

I've also been working to complete the upper level curves (photo 2) around the "unsceniced" end section, which will eventually be hidden behind a viewblock.

There's a posting on my site, with links to other pages with more photos if you're curious, but these are really the best ones.

[KenS]

I've been thinking about the other bank of my large river, which is still pink foam at present.  This is the one where a hillside will conceal the subway tracks as they curve from underneath the "Riverside Station" to underneath the elevated viaduct station of the "Urban Station" scene.  This hill needs to have roads on it too, as the "commercial avenue" that runs through the Urban Station scene crosses the river on a bridge to the "village" area.

So I started mocking up roads with some white posterboard marked with a black pen to show lane widths and markings.  The commercial avenue uses a relatively narrow (for a Tokyo highway) lane width of 2.5m, or 17mm in N), while the expressway (I'll get to that in a moment), uses the 3.5m lanes (23 mm) of the newest Tokyo highways (including the Bayshore). Side streets use much narrower lanes (although I haven't found any specific numbers; I doubt there's any standard).

I mentioned an expressway.  One of the scenic elements I want here is an elevated highway running along the riverbank, similar to Metropolitan Expressway No. 6 along the Sumida.  In the photos you can see the posterboard mock-up of this.

While I was at it, I decided I wanted a better temporary bridge than the cardboard one I'd been using, which tended to drape across the supports; fine for a mockup, but I wanted something I could leave in place until I built a real one.  I hit on the idea of using gray-faced foamcore with lines drawn using a paint marker (similar to the Floquil markers for coloring rails). This worked out pretty well, and I'm thinking of making a similar temporary expressway to help me verify the appearance and placement of supports before I build the hillside below it.

Photo 1: an overview of the mocked-up highways.  The bridge in the foreground brings the "commercial avenue" across the river, where it climbs up the hillside, then turns left under the expressway, runs across the hilltop, then drops down to the urban scene on the left rear.  At the top right, there's a smaller road diverging from it across the commuter tracks.

Photo 2: Here the smaller road crosses the commuter tracks, then parallels them past some houses, before dropping down, crossing the small river, and ducking under the Shinkansen/Rapid tracks.

Photo 3: marking the temporary foam-core bridge with paint markers.

Photo 4: the "finished" bridge (I really need to add sides). The borders of it are sidewalks, although that isn't really clear from just looking at it.

Photo 5: and the bridge in place.

[Bernard]

Ken - Your work on the design of the roads it great, this is something I have trouble with. I like what you did in the last photo of the bridge in place.

Just one question, instead of having the that one viaduct that crosses over the railroad bridges, is it possible (or is there room for it) to go under the RR bridges and become part of the terrain?   

[KenS]

Just one question, instead of having the that one viaduct that crosses over the railroad bridges, is it possible (or is there room for it) to go under the RR bridges and become part of the terrain?   

While it might be possible, I'd have to have it run right on the edge of the river, or within it, as the subway (and its hill) take up the rest of the space. And I dislike that for two reasons. First, it would make the river narrower (or look narrower) and I've already compressed the Sumida quite a bit for space reasons, so I don't want to make it smaller.

Secondly, a low-level expressway isn't really prototypical for the area I'm using as my focus: the lower stretch of the Sumida river and the southern part of Sumida ward along the Sobu line, where Metropolitan Expressway No. 6 and No. 7 are both elevated (one above the riverbank, the other above the Onigagawa canal/river).  Also, the C1 "inner circular" route south of Ochanomizu (my other focal area) runs above a waterway leading to the Imperial palace. Even the C2 "outer circular" is elevated as it runs along the Arakawa river. It woud be prototypical for other expressways (e.g., route 1 further north on the Sumida), but most of the expressways (as distinct from highways, which do tend to be ground level) were late construction, and seem to have been forced to re-use open space by going above waterways, parks and other roads.

There is likely also a flooding issue behind the use of elevated expressways; the parts of Tokyo nearest the bay are protected from typhoon storm surges by a series of dikes and floodgates. Building over the river needs to be high enough to clear those, and that's where most road/rail bridges are, so going below them outside the dikes would expose the road to flooding.

See the Wikimedia photos for the Metropolitan Expressway for some examples:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Metropolitan_Expressway_%28Tokyo%29

Plus, I like the "layered" look of roads, train bridges, and expressways. It seems to capture the complexity of Tokyo's urban environment.

[KenS]

Well, I made the temporary foamcore expressway. The dimensions were largely done by looking at a Google Earth view of the expressway along the Sumida (Metropolitan Expressway No. 6), and figuring out proportions relative to the lane width, which I assumed to be 3.25m (which one reference source I found said is typical of Tokyo expressways, although newer ones use 3.5m).

I'm pretty happy with the results, and it's really helping me to visualize the scene, which is important in determining how I want to shape the hillside and road across it.  If you're curious, I have a bit more info and links to some larger version of the photos that show more detail in a posting on my site.

Photo 1: (photo credit: dshack on Flickr), this is the look I'm going for, the white concrete and red girders running alongside the river above the embankment.

Photo 2: The "finished" bridge, still a bit rough and I need to add sidewalls and make it level (tape the sections together). I'm also going to lower it an inch or so, as it came out higher than necessary (intentionally; it's easier to remove height from the supports than add it).

Photo 3: and another view (note: all the tracing paper is so I can mark placement of the supports, track, bridges, etc, and use the paper as a pattern for carving foam later).

Photo 4: this is a side view. The pink foam below shows the eventual height of the hillside (two inches). This isn't a normal viewing angle, as the camera is looking "through" the backdrop behind the four-track curve (I took the backdrop off to simplify this work).

Photo 5: this shows how I built it. Atop the supports went two layers of foamcore 8cm wide to represent the girders. These rest atop the vertical supports.  Above that I used posterboard to get the size and shape of the 10cm wide top correct, then took that and used it as a pattern to cut the foamcore.  At the back, you can see the first finished section resting atop the "girders".

[Bernard]

Ken - That first photo says it all for me, I now see where you design comes from. The layout is coming together and the line work on your roads is first rate!  (want to do mine?? I tried using model tape for center lines only to have the adhesive loosen) What are you using to do your detailed line work?

[CaptOblivious]

I walked under part of this expressway every day on the way to the subway station on my last visit to Tokyo. Sucker is high up there. Very tall.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artificial-science/436177537/

[KenS]

Bernard: for the lines, I used a metal ruler and an extra-fine paint marker I found at a local store, which makes about a 1mm line. The particular ones I'm using (Decocolor, made by the Uchida company) have a warning that they contain xylene, like the old Floquil lacquer paints; highly toxic stuff.  But in the quantity being used, probably not a serious risk.   That said, the one I was using last night leaked and I wound up with paint all over my fingers.  I'll be wearing gloves next time, and this isn't something a child should use (they do make kid-friendly paint markers. but I don't know how fine-tipped those are).

Because it's paint, not ink, it dries slowly, and I have to be carefull not to touch the lines while adding others or it will smear. There's also a bit of technique (which I'm still learning) to getting the pen to dispense enough paint to make a solid line, without dispensing too much and causing a mess.

The big problem with this method is that it doesn't make curves, unless I can do them freehand (and my drawing skills are really weak, so I'm doubtful I can do that reliably).  You'll note that the present expressway is a set of straight segments that meet at angles. The eventual "real" one will have curves, and I'll need to do something a little different for that.

CaptO: yeah, it would have to be to clear both the floodwall (7m from water level) and a train bridge, but it's so big that from a distance it really doesn't look that high.  Capturing that impression is the hard part of modeling something like this in a scene as compressed as this is.  I really need a 10-foot long river to make it look right. 

[dmustu]

The more I see this layout develop the more I like it! Keep up the good work.

[Mudkip Orange]

The first thing I notice looking at this is you have a full extra "level" between the expressway grade and the tops of the truss bridges.

Are you leaving this open for future ramps/interchanges?

[KenS]

Mudkip: No. I briefly thought of having a ramp down to the urban area, but it would have taken away space I want to use for buildings, and I just thought it would be too cluttered. Ramps are fairly far apart on the prototype, so a long stretch without ramps won't look wrong.

I am going to lower the expressway slightly, but the gap I can close isn't as large as it seems, as the bridges on the urban side are a half-inch higher than the bridges on the "Riverside Station" side due to the grade around the curve that lifts the track in the viaduct station high enough to clear the subway.

The space directly under the expressway is mainly the river embankment.  The part that isn't the road leading to the bridge across the river will be a paved walkway along the riverbank.  The hilltop behind the expressway will be about half roadway, leading down to the urban area, and half a small park with some cherry trees, patterned after Sumida Park.

[KenS]

Not a lot of recent progress (life outside of trains has been busy), but I did manage to lower and "finish" the temporary expressway with some construction paper sides, roughly cut out the foam I'll be using under it (shaping remains to be done), and buy a couple of tall buildings to go atop the hill, giving me more scenery there rather than just a flat chunk of pink foam (and helping to offset the height of the expressway).

I've added a post to my site that links to a page about the construction of the expressway, as well as some related material.

Over the next couple of weeks I expect to finish shaping this foam, and get it painted to match the other bank of the river (i.e., a base coat of green and not much else) so I'll have basic scenery and can turn my attention to the long-overdue work on the Riverside Station scene. Something tells me that's going to be in June.

Photo 1: This is the mock-up of the hillside with park (left), buildings (rear), and the "commercial avenue" winding its way past the buildings and down to the bridge. Above it all the expressway (now with red and gray sides) runs along the riverbank.

Photo 2: A slightly different perspective.

Photo 3: Here's a side-on view. In this, you can clearly see the trench where the subway will run (eventually it will have a cover and the park and part of the avenue will extend above it).

[KenS]

I ran into a slight problem with my subway tunnel that derailed me (pardon the pun) for about a week.  First, my "two inch" foam was 1.75 inches thick, and second I'd somehow failed to account for the thickness of the tunnel roof (see photo 1).  After dithering about for most of a week, I decided that the solution was to raise the foam the missing quarter-inch on a sheet of gatorboard, and to use fairly thick sheet styrene as the roof, giving me more clearance above the pantograph (about a quarter inch, or 5 mm, plenty of room to cover unforeseen sags or track bumps).

I'm somewhat annoyed at myself over this: I had bought three lengths of 2-inch foam, and apparently they're three different thicknesses.  I measured one, which was almost exactly two inches, and used most of it up on the curve around the village area, and various scraps that went to other uses. Then I promptly carved the most height-critical bit of scenery out of the thinnest one (1 3/4"; the third piece was 1 7/8" thick) without thinking to check it's thickness.  I should know by now that measurements for construction materials are only approximate.

Having solved that problem, I went back to fiddling about with building and road placement, and decided I wanted some more houses flanking the track leading from the hilltop to the Riverside Station (photo 2). The street in front is two lanes, but the back one is one of those "barely wider than a car" side roads so common in Tokyo.

I've also been working on the expressway a bit; there's not much to show yet, but you can see some quarter-inch threaded rod sticking up where the supports go in photo 5 below.  That's going to be the structure that holds up the roadway, and one-inch PVC pipe will be placed around it to represent the concrete pillar. For now, the road surface will still be the foam-core one, but it may rest atop the plywood base that the rods will hold up (I went with plywood rather than hardboard for stiffness, as the supports are fairly far apart). The eventual road surface will be styrene, glued to the plywood after painting and having guardrails, sidewalls, lamp posts, and other details affixed (all of that's a long ways in the future through, hence the temporary foamcore roadway).

Today I took a break from the layout construction, as my recent Hobby Search order arrived.  It included some more of the new Kato station platforms (20-107) I'm using for my Shinkansen platform, plus the 8-car expansion set to bring my Series 500 to a full 16-car set.

And while the Shinkansen track isn't complete (there's 8 feet missing on the Riverside scene, because I haven't built the roof to the subway tunnel there yet), there was enough to run it back and forth a bit, which I promptly did. The train is long enough that one end is just leaving the urban station, as the other approaches the bridge leading to the missing track above the subway. And despite the limited range of motion, it looks really, really good, running around that curve.

After all these months of work, that was a bit of a payoff. Now I really can't wait to finish the loops and run some trains seriously.

Photo 1: height test, with foam raised to 2" on a sheet of gatorboard, but pantograph still dangerously close.

Photo 2: the revised approach, with 2mm (0.080 inch) plastic as the roof (in the final version it will be slightly inset, so the surface is level with the foam.

Photo 3 & 4: S500 in the Urban Station. The two cab doors are just on the platform, so I got the length right. 

Photo 5: S500 on the curve.

[KenS]

It's been a while since the last update.  Work on the "hilltop" area of the River Crossing scene has continued, with the foam now shaped and painted (but not yet glued down; I've decided to do some basic scenery on the workbench before doing that), and the 2mm styrene "roof" of the subway tunnel cut to shape (but not yet painted).  I also cleaned up the edge of the embankment along both sides of the river, filling gaps with Foam Putty, and then adding plastic window screen embedded in Flex Paste to make a "stone block" texture (as I'd done to a couple of short test sections several months ago).  It's still incomplete, but looking better.

I've begun turning my attention to the last unstarted bit of scenery, the Riverside Station scene. But as part of that, I'm also working to get the subway tracks into their final form, with insulated blocks and feeders every four feet or so (one train length). My intent is to have trains running on the subway by next weekend, and I made a good bit of progress on that this weekend, so it might actually happen.

While doing this, I pulled up all the existing Subway tracks (most had been partially pulled up during construction anyway) and cleaned them, picking up an incredible amount of grime from six months of exposure to dust from the layout construction (or just dust, period, it's not the cleanest cellar in the world).  This is convincing me I'm going to need some kind of dust cover over the layout when it's not in use.

Photos:

1: The current view of the expressway. It's riding a bit high, as the foam core "temporary expressway" is now sitting atop the plywood that will be the deck of the real one someday (and the plywood hasn't yet been nestled down onto the support posts as it will later. The river embankment (which looks white in this photo, but more yellow in person) and the green hillside can also be seen.

2. This is the latest mock-up of the houses and station entrance building. In the foreground, you can see how the road will duck down under the "Shinkansen/Rapid" line that runs (will run) along the front of the table.  You can also just see the edge of the plexiglass that will provide a lip to protect runaway trains from taking a four-foot plunge. The plywood deck of the expressway is also visible.

3. Another angle. Here you can see how the subway tracks disappear under the houses. Some kind of concrete box tunnel (made from styrene sheet) will eventually fill the gap, and provide a support for the track above. The foam has not yet been shaped to its final form.

4. A view down the length of the scene. On the right, the subway station tracks and platform are visible. Eventually these will be covered with a gatorboard roof, above which will go the tracks of the Shinkansen/Rapid loop. On the left are the tracks (not yet anywhere near working) of the Commuter line.

5. And finally, a view from the front of the "windows" into the subway station. You can just see the gray platform through the window.

[scott]

That's some impressive work--looks like you're making good progress.

[KenS]

That's some impressive work--looks like you're making good progress.

Thanks.

And speaking of progress, the first real train ran tonight.  But first, a bit of catchup:

I've been working on the Subway Line track for the last week and a half, cleaning, re-installing, and adding feeders and under-table wiring.  But before that, I'd done a bit of work on the banks of the big river, and photo 1 shows the now-painted foam, and the yet-to-be-painted edge of the river (screen in Flex Paste for texture, plus plastic sheet walls on the embankment).

Then I started wiring. And I didn't have a clue how much work I was letting myself in for.  I'd divided the subway line into a block in each station, two blocks at each end between the stations (more due to track topology than because I needed them), and a "warning block" at the exit end of each station, to allow train detection to stop a train when the front reaches the end of the platform (for computer-controlled trains). That's sixteen track feeders (plus a couple more duplicate feeders within a block I added where switches made it a good idea). Those connect to terminal strips under the table, using standard Kato feeder sections of track, or unijoiners with attached wiring.  The terminal strips cross-connect to two bus wire pairs under the tables, each of which is connected to a Kato DC power pack.  So I can run one train in each direction simultaneously.

What I hadn't counted on was how many connectors that was.  Each bus is local to a table (there are six tables, counting the two ends as one each).  Each bus has a set of jumpers that bridge it to the next table so the tables can easily be separated for moves.  Each bus also has a local drop terminal strip connected to the bus with a "suitcase" (insulation-displacement) connector.  In addition to the two DC busses (one of which will ultimately be used to power the switch motors, the other for a DC track loop for breaking in new trains) I also ran the three wires for the DCC bus (red, black, and ground).  All told, I used up more than 200 crimp-on spade lugs, 50 suitcase connectors, and a couple-hundred feet of various colors of wire.

I'd installed some of the bus wiring earlier, but not much, and part of that I ended up ripping out as I'd used solid-core wire, and it didn't work very well with the suitcase connectors.

Eventually I'll put a page up on my site describing all this in more detail, but I'm not getting to that this weekend.  Because the other thing I did was run my first trains, and make a video of it, and that took up my Sunday evening.

YouTube was still processing it as I write this, but the HD version is up now (and presumably they'll eventually have low-res copies also):

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/jBQdnlJBIF0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/jBQdnlJBIF0</a>

Photo 1: The riverbank

Photo 2: A track feeder wiring block

Photo 3: The Riverside Subway Station, with the station staff discussing the inspection of the line, alongside the East-i E inspection train, and a series 10000 subway train waiting to take the first run

Photo 4: The inspection train about to emerge from the tunnel

[disturbman]

You should be excited (and maybe relieved) to finally have running trains! ^^ That's a big step!

[SONIC883]

Congratulatins for the 'first Run'!