Wrightsville Port: N-Scale Waterfront Layout

[nimo]

Well, this is not a new layout I started to build - I started with this back in Nov 2010, but since i am relatively new here in this forum, I thought I would start a new thread! The progress is not as fast as I like to be, but I am just keeping a comfortable timeline target anyway. That does frustrate me sometime, well to be honest, most of the time, but hey - you've just got 24 hours in a day, after a point of time, you have nothing much to do than just accepting it!

This is a freelance layout, design primarily based on Ian Rice's Coal Port, MD layout in HO. I have changed the original plan to a great extent, the details you can find in my blog.

I cannot really start from the very beginning, so if you need to know the whole story, you need to browse through my blog or for a quick tour, my facebook page.

I would start giving up0dates in this thread going forward... till then -Happy Modeling.

P.S. for some photos: visit my facebook album

[Michael Whiteman]

Your layout is coming along very well. I really like your overall concept a lot. I have one of those CAFE signs stored away and after seeing yours it makes me anxious to get my cafe built. The windows on your look great as does the fire escape. Thanks for sharing these pics!

[baronjutter]

Woah looks great. What the source on your ships and cranes??

[hobbes1310]

Looking very good. Read your blog a couple of months ago, and always thought that the overall work was very top notch

[nimo]

Thanks for the great feedback guys. Good to be here.

Your layout is coming along very well. I really like your overall concept a lot. I have one of those CAFE signs stored away and after seeing yours it makes me anxious to get my cafe built. The windows on your look great as does the fire escape. Thanks for sharing these pics!

Yep! those signs are indeed fascinating. I am planning to put one or two more when the town is complete and the night scene is set (and when the dollar value dips a bit compared to rupee! :P). The night scene, as I imagine it will have no external lights, only lights in the buldings and roads - with that background these miniature neons are going to steal the show!

Woah looks great. What the source on your ships and cranes??

100% scratchbuilt from cardboard. All ships are modeled after prototypes that I generally fish out in http://www.maritimesales.com/. They give pretty decent dimension values of the prototypes, I convert them to 1:160 scale, sometimes draw a rough sketch and start building!

[PW&NJ]

I was wondering when you'd get around to signing up here. Lookin' even better all the time! Welcome aboard.

[nimo]

I was wondering when you'd get around to signing up here. Lookin' even better all the time! Welcome aboard.

Hey... thanks buddy... I know... I'm late - no excuse... but I will make it up for it - promise!

[PW&NJ]

Hey... thanks buddy... I know... I'm late - no excuse... but I will make it up for it - promise!

Now that you've added the photos, consider it made up for! FANTASTIC!

[nimo]

LOL! Yes, the Geep is a nice loco, but I was complimenting you on the ship!

The night shots are quite good as well!

Ooops! My bad... well, I would take that as a double... thanks again...

Now that you've added the photos, consider it made up for! FANTASTIC!

Thanks... you know, that was pretty easy...

[nimo]

OK - for person who loves pictures (good or bad) this thread looks too dull... I gotta put some pics! What about a layout tour over next few days?

I would start from the East (well with respect to 'real' world it actually aligns to West, but what the heck!). The lighthouse, The trestle to the 'to-be-built' coal discharge portal, the concrete bridge right in front of the lighthouse and the tiny tunnel, and my pride and joy - Oil Tanker Sirius:

[TwinDad]

Hey, those are some great shots. I really like that freighter.

[aussie]

I love the attention to detail such as the high water marks on the docks. It's the little things like that which may not poke you in the eye at first but they draw you in and make you go "Okay, that's cool."

ps Tendulkar isn't a patch on The Don.

[baronjutter]

I'd have to see it in person, but you've almost got me sold on using paper for some elements. I've always been very anti-paper, thinking it would feel flat and fake and cheap. But in your photos it looks really good! I might do some tests and see what sort of surfaces look ok printed and which I'll stick with physical effects.

[nimo]

Hey... thanks everybody...

Hey, those are some great shots. I really like that freighter.

That loco is indeed a beauty! That's Life-Like proto GP38-2 is the smoothest running loco I have - used it extensively for last 3 years, first time I opened its hood was last Sunday! No sound, extremely slow speed even with my WWII era Bachmann dc controller!

I love the attention to detail such as the high water marks on the docks. It's the little things like that which may not poke you in the eye at first but they draw you in and make you go "Okay, that's cool."

ps Tendulkar isn't a patch on The Don.

Yep! the credit for the watermark actually goes to Scalescene.com - it's a paper kit from them. I had to modify them before printing, but they are brilliant anyway.

By the way, too bad Tendulkar and The Don were born too far apart - a face-off would have been interesting to test out your theory! :P

I'd have to see it in person, but you've almost got me sold on using paper for some elements. I've always been very anti-paper, thinking it would feel flat and fake and cheap. But in your photos it looks really good! I might do some tests and see what sort of surfaces look ok printed and which I'll stick with physical effects.

I am actually all paper and cardboard! Leaving aside the benchwork, over 90% of this layout is paper! All the ships, the dock, buildings, cranes... even the hills are paper mache!

The scalescene.com is actually a wonderful source for paper kits - I would recommend that you download their free stuff and try it out. the above pictures are not actually of good quality to understand the level of details you see in these kits. In the dock kit, you will see the water mark, rust, dirt... The surface has authentic and prototypical aging and weathering, even tire marks!

[aussie]

Too bad Tendulkar and The Don were born too far apart - a face-off would have been interesting to test out your theory! :P

Sachin has already conceded. He came out for Bradman years ago saying he was his idol. For a nasty piece of work off the pitch he was amazing on it.

[nimo]

Sachin has already conceded. He came out for Bradman years ago saying he was his idol. For a nasty piece of work off the pitch he was amazing on it.

diferent time my friend... different time, different circumstances... who knows what Bradman could have done in today's world of 20-20 (for the record, I HATE it)? I think they both are great kings from two different worlds, and will remain so for ever...

[nimo]

OK... to continue with the tour, here are some photos of the main loading/unloaing dock for general freight. This section has three holding spurs - two parallel to the dock edge, one a little inside - mainly for the long term storage facility (to be built). Freighthouses and warehouses are yet to be built. you can see the small carge ship Severus with it's hold nearly full and loading in progress. This section has two large cranes to handle heavy stuff.








Now on a different note, here are some night time shots with just a few lights that I could install so far:

[nimo]

And here are a couple more night shots taken with my Wife's Samsung Galaxy phone:

[TwinDad]

LOL! Yes, the Geep is a nice loco, but I was complimenting you on the ship!

The night shots are quite good as well!

[nimo]

All right - I am back from the (unwilling) break! In the last 2 and a half month, since my last post, it has been a tough time, deaths in the family, work pressure, itty-bitty issues cropping up here and there... I had also broken my beautiful Life Like GP 38-2 when I dropped it accidentally while cleaning it, breaking one truck completely, and causing severe damage to the shell and the railings. Thankfully, Wealthers obliged with a complete new truck assembly, though it did cost $20 for the tiny piece, and the loco is running as smooth as new, and I could successfully perform the 'plastic surgery' (literally!) to restore its looks.

But hey, with all this, I still managed to make some significant progress and reached an important milestone for the project - I have concealed all the tracks in 'concrete' and finished the top surface of the concrete dock. It was a large surface to cover, and with this, a major task came to an end - a task that I started over 1 year back, and was halted due to several other reasons, but mostly because I was lazy!

Now you can find the detailed description of what I have done in my blog. And for a quick review, here are a few shots post that development:

DSCF4136.JPG DSCF4150.JPG DSCF4156.JPG DSCF4164.JPG DSCF4160.JPG DSCF4161.JPG DSCF4168.JPG DSCF4169.JPG DSCF4170.JPGDSCF4165.JPG