N Scale Hi Rail - Retro Hollow Core Door Layout

[Point353]

The real estate developers are working their dark magic.

If this is supposed to represent Thurmond, then the buildings should be closer to the tracks.

[wm3798]

Thurmond has been done to great effect by @Kentuckian .  I'm going more for Thomas, West Virginia.




Here's what I've worked on instead of actual work this morning...





A few details like awnings, downspouts, perhaps a fire escape... and of course signage and people on the sidewalks, it should be a pretty vibrant scene!

I can flip these renderings into a 2-D format so I can paste the facades up onto my foamcore mock up so it will look like something while I work on scratch building the 5 structures...  Just what I needed.  Another project!

Lee

[wm3798]

Printed out a mock up to play with.


I think this will work just fine.

Now to start gathering materials.
Lee

[nkalanaga]

And, in the first picture, on the far left, is part of the Miners and Merchants Bank, from whom I borrowed the name for my mining town's bank - 40 years ago.  I found the name in a banker's directory at work.

[OldEastRR]

The buildings are built on a slope. Cool! I liked the hairpin curve uphill road a lot, tho. This area would do nice as a halfway elevation between the lower level and the upper. Like I said before, use a chunk of 1" foam to fill the entire half-moon shaped area,, then cut away and shape the slope and the building foundations  plus sidewalk or road, if there is one.  The half-elevation  provides a nice transition. The steep two inch drop off between levels all around the layout is monotonous, but I don't know if that's meant to be part of the retro look.

[Point353]

I'm going more for Thomas, West Virginia.

Any plans to model the footbridge and baggage elevator?

[Point353]

And, in the first picture, on the far left, is part of the Miners and Merchants Bank, from whom I borrowed the name for my mining town's bank - 40 years ago.  I found the name in a banker's directory at work.

Here it is back in the day:

[Point353]

Same view in an earlier era:

[wm3798]

Any plans to model the footbridge and baggage elevator?

I'm going for overall Appalachian Town ethos.  Going for the flavor, not the individual ingredients. 
Thomas would make a great set of modules though.  Calling @PiperguyUMD !

[wm3798]

Looks like I'm bringing  some baggage to  this relationship...

[nkalanaga]

Point353:  Thank you!  I was wondering if the main building was original, or a later construction designed to "blend in" with the older buildings.  Obviously the same building!

[CRL]

😅

[wm3798]

Did some actual layout engineering...



I wanted a water column as part of my station platform.  Since I run a lot of steam, and I like to take pictures, I wanted it to be posable.


So I took the Walther's water column and drilled out the bottom and mounted it to the base with a MT coupler screw.


So now I can swing it out of the way when it's time to JFRTM!
Lee

[wm3798]

A few more refinements to the base drawing for the new block in Paw Paw.


I'm starting to resize the windows to match what I have in stock, and messing around with some colors.  I've reprinted this and mocked it up in the layout.

The next step will be to do the individual buildings as paper mockups (all four sides of each) to get it ready for the first assembly of the foundations.



It's almost like I know what I'm doing!
Lee

[CRL]

Have you paid off the appropriate politicians and bureaucrats to get the zoning changes & setback waivers approved?