rankodd - In progress thread

Hey guys! Finally getting around to my first update. Seeing as I'm co-host for the party, I've been a little remiss ;) I've been busy though, and I've just finished designing what I'd like to build.

This layout is my very first model railroad. I'm building it as a test layout before moving on to a larger, more permanent setup.

Chibi-machi (Little Town)

Based on a densely built up, older section of a city.

Approx 2' by 3'. The track is Tomix finetrack with 140mm curves, and motive power comes from a pair of Tomytec mules. Structures will be Tomytec, Greenmax, and scratch-built. The station that is the focus of this party is a Greenmax #27 "Small Station" and Greenmax #28 One-sided platforms, and was inspired by some of Gmat's photographs. I've got a bunch of LEDs, a microcontroller, and schematics for CaptOblivious's LED controller, so I"m looking forward to a lot of lighting and detailing :)

I had originally planned on a more interesting track layout, but my Mules do *not* like going up grades, and the grades would have to be pretty steep on something this small. So, in the interests of fitting all the scenery details I want I've restricted things to a single roundy-round with a passing siding. In exchange, I get to fit in a tunnel, two small train bridges and a larger pedestrian and vehicle bridge. I've attached the track layout (with preliminary building placement), and a rough sketch of the track and terrain.

I look forward to seeing how the party turns out - I just hope I have enough time to build something up for it myself.