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Brickstarrunner

New, Interesting Way to Do your Scenery on the R.R.

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traintech1.jpg

While searching Youtube, I came across a video. Its a normal train layout, toww loops and a few trains running, but the interesting thing is that the landscape is NOT made of LEGO.

It shows that you can have alot more freedom when you do this. for example:

-you can get more details, such as grass or trees or cracks in the cliff instead of studs

-You can have running water in a more natural looking enviorment (Once again, going back to the Brickster's topic on water)

-You can make your asphalt road actualy look like asphalt

-DIRT ROADS :tongue:

-Roads can now do many things (go slantways, crossways, and upways without the restriction of a baseplate)

-less bricks are involved, so that means more $$$ (Or Euros if you are non-American) to be spent on LEGO.

Its simple to do this. i spend alot of time model railroading, so i find alot of videos on how to do model railroading stuff.

(Supplies can be bought here. If you are in the model railroading hobby, you must surely know of Woodland Scenics. Good, quality model railroading supplies. I am not advertising though, ok :tongue: )

(I will make a seperate topic, but I will tease you with how to make a road)

ROADWAYS

WAY 1: Good for people who want flat land

For this one, you will need

woodland Scenics Vinyl Turf

(Scroll down the product page) #RG5151 - Road Kit with instructional video on how to use road kit on vinyl turf.

STEPS:

1. Take out vinyl turf and road making kit

2. follow instructional video (if not, I THINK there are instructions that come with the kit)

I will be using real, official roads. i will be using both US and Stud system for people expanding their already LEGO roads

3. MAKING ROAD: Make the road 6.3 inches wide or 20 studs wide

4. scrape off all the turf in your marked area

5. color the road black with the paint and paintbrush included in the kit

6. mark the dividing lines 0.3 - 0.4 inches or 1 stud thick

7. MAKING SIDEWALK: Make the sidewalk 2 inches wide or 6 studs wide

8. copy steps 4 and 5

9. add details with a pin or toothpick

10. if you want the road to look like it has been repaired recently, mix the black paint with glue. using a thick toothpick, dip it into the mix and spread across the road, creating a tar effect

11. If you dont like a black road, either use the sidewalk color or use a mix of a little black and some white

12. add your cars, minifigures, and other what-not to the street and road.

Hope I opened your mind to a new and innovative way of doing your scenery

This is Brickstarrunner, signing out!

Edited by TheBrickster

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While searching Youtube, I came across a video. Its a normal train layout, toww loops and a few trains running, but the interesting thing is that the landscape is NOT made of LEGO.

Personally I do not see the point of this. Why bother to make your trains from Lego, if the scenery is not made from Lego. It may be very expensive do to the whole Lego scenery and trains, but if you want a Hornby Train Set Up, make this your hobby aswell, still play with Lego, but for me I would not mix them.

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I also got my inspiration from those old catalogs where they placed their model in a non-lego enviorment, such as on top of a paper mache mountain. Also, LEGOLAND inspired me. The way they mixed LEGO with the realistic setting of the outdoors was great.

However, its your opinion, and I shall respect that.

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Isn't the best thing about Lego that after building you can take everything apart and make something else using the exact same pieces?

Try that with paper mache... :sadnew:

By the way, Brickstarrunner, you made a spelling mistake in your signature. Nothing too bad, but it really stands out because of the oversizedness of the sig. :wink:

:classic:

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Each to their own, but I'm missing the point here. For me the challenge in using Lego for a model railroad is in trying to get as close as possible to the real thing within the limitations of the available pieces. If I wanted to do exact scale modelling I would be using different materials.

And yes, the typo in the over-sized sig kinda stands out...

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Each to their own, but I'm missing the point here. For me the challenge in using Lego for a model railroad is in trying to get as close as possible to the real thing within the limitations of the available pieces. If I wanted to do exact scale modelling I would be using different materials.

And yes, the typo in the over-sized sig kinda stands out...

I decided to stick to LEGO scenery. Painting and sprinkling grass is both too messy and too permanent.

I build to scale, to a limited extent. The limit is no modding of bricks for purely scale reasons.

8mm:1ft scale is my ideal. Most UK prototype vehicles begin 8-wide and gravitate towards the scale. I might end up with some being 9-wide as models are updated (that's the great thing about LEGO). I have a book with 4mm scale drawings of UK main line diesel locos. Knowing your prototype is essential.

If I did US vehicles I would start 10-wide as a real boxcar is 10'5" wide. I'll have to see if Toy Story minifig legs make minifigs the right height for 8mm scale.

The exception is steam engine rods, which are too wide for the scale. I prefer to make them work, even the valve gear ones, which is more than OO gauge engines have.

For scenery I like to try to do it real, rather than cartoon-styled. I use RAIL magazine as my main UK track scenery inspiration because it shows the modern UK railway with all the track furniture. I got this far in doing scenery - still signs and more foliage to add, along with more variation in trackbed colouring, but a modular layout looking like the real UK railway as far as possible, and facilitating realistic operation of trains. Slopes are limited to 1 in 30 with 0.5 plate/track piece changes in the slope.

The outer circuit of the 16ft x 12ft layout is now able to run trains! It's taken me 4.5 years to get this far! I'll have to take a video soon, but there are lots of boxes obscuring the view. The slopes are a challenge to trains but a 4-motor 9V train (double headed or equivalent) is OK with heavy coaches or trucks, taking 1.3 amps on an uphill curve at 7.5V (scale speed ~30mph up the hill, ~60mph down the hill). A PF hybrid loco is OK climbing the hill under moderate load but only with as much train load as a single 2-motor 9V loco could pull.

Mark

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