Trial Run

This past weekend my six-year old son Sammy helped me put together a trial assembly of the Tomix tram track. The tram track simulates trolley/tram track in a road. As in the design, my sheet of plywood is 48"x32". I ended up putting in some extra track to elongate portions.

This is the plan I worked off of. Conclusion: I need a much bigger sheet of plywood.

Further Refinements...

I'm beginning to realize that there is only so much you can fit on a 32"x48" board. I was hoping to start right away with T-TRAK modules, but I thought a small board with a continuous run on it might be a nice experiment to start with. So I'm really interested in a make-believe trolley/tram route through a southwest portion of Rochester, Minnesota.

The yellow shows the where the trolley/tram line would be in real life...if it really existed:

Here my current the any-rail layout plan (32"x48"). The blue line approximates the yellow line in the image above.

And I've managed to group the pieces better so it's easier to see the individual components I'll need:

So, based on the pieces needed, I then needed to look at the different sets that Tomix offers its Wide Tram Track with (the pieces are not really available individually, you need to get them in sets with different combinations of pieces in them). I created a Google Documents spreadsheet. On the right are 3 columns...the total individual pieces based on the total quantity of sets I would buy, the total individual pieces I need for the layout, and the last column tells me if I have enough of a given type. If it is a negative number in the last column, I have more than enough. That way I can tinker with different "Total QTY Needed" amounts to see if I can satisfy the last column and spend the least amount of money.

Yet another refinement to the layout plan...

Previously, I had come up with this layout. But I didn't like the blue tram track section to the left of the Plummer House/Pill Hill, as it is more curved in real life (well, minus the imaginary tram line).

See the frontage road kind of curves around it:

So I played around and came up with this:

Update...

I've been playing around layout software and have decided for the time being make a 48"x32" layout for now. Here are the images of where I currently am at.

Here's an aerial view of the location to be modeled:

The blue lines is where the imaginary tram lines

would go. The dotted line is a tunnel underneath Pill Hill.

Using AnyRail software, the blue (Tomix Wide Tram Track) is the tram line

that attempts to follow the imaginary lines I put in the maps above...

Here's another view, but with Pill Hill showing

where the tunnel would be.

Playing Around With Memorial Parkway

Memorial Parkway is a street in Rochester that has Japanese crab-apples in the center boulevard. They were planted probably 40 or more years ago. It's a pretty residential street, and it sits below the Plummer House (up on Pill Hill) which I plan on putting in the layout. So it would seem natural to have the train tracks curve around the base of the Plummer House , turn into tram tracks (think what trolley tracks look like on pavement) and continue towards downtown Rochester....and somehow fitting into the T-TRAK modular standard (albeit with an elongated module).

I purchased a red (TLR0601 ), green (TLR0604) and blue (TLR0606) Tomix tram from BTTrains as well as some tram track to try and get an idea of what things would look like for Memorial Parkway. Using some construction paper, I mocked up (very roughly) a block on the street. Rochester has no tram or trolley line...this is like an alternate reality where tax dollars are free.

This is sort of what the elongated module would look like...

The orange would be the Tomix tram track

And the gray track would be the Kato Unitrack

Since Plummer House sits on a hill, some of the track

would be underground and come out of tunnels...

I'll need to play around with the Tomix tram track. They have no switches, so I'll have to get the Tomix tram kit (see here) and then figure out instructions in Japanese (or something Kanji?). And I'll also have to figure out how to coexist the Kato Unitrack (for the T-TRAK module standards...at least at the connecting edges of the module) and the Tomix tram track (for my trams/trolleys).

See here also: www.japanmodelrailways.com/anleitungen/06-01-06english.pdf

This is a helpful link too: http://jtrains.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/tomix-3076-tram-track/

Some photos of the Japanese crabapples in the middle of the boulevard. Typically, they bloom for about two weeks at the end of May. In previous years they had been a much brighter, pinkish color. But as they aged, they appear more like this...not to mention the photo was taken near sunset....

I'll probably have to custom make the trees, but perhaps

this one might work?

http://www.tomytec.co.jp/diocolle/lineup/jyoukei_j/index.html

Concept for the layout...

Here is how I imagine the layout to cover Rochester, Minnesota. We don't really have a trolly/tram, but what the heck...in the orange that would be the trolley/tram line I'd model. And the black line is the freight/passenger train...trying to follow (for the most part) existing rail lines through the city.

I plan on following the N-scale T-TRAK modular model railroad standard as much as possible. I want to put the historic Plummer House on a combo "corner and straight" T-TRAK module. I'd somehow try and blend the track into street tram-like going down a portion of Memorial Parkway.

Here's a Google Map centered on the historic Plummer House. It sits on a hill which drops down onto Memorial Parkway (just below 11th street). Memorial Parkway is a boulevard with trees in the middle. The Plummer House should prove interesting to model in card stock.

Playing with Corn-Cob Water Tower Proportions

Well, this was my first attempt at a paper corn-cob water tower (that we have in Rochester). Not very pretty, I just went with a cylinder to get started with proportions. In real life the water tower is 150 feet tall...

I went with a shorter corn cob, but it still just didn't look right...the blue water tower would be 77 feet tall in real life....on the ground next to it is my first cob attempt...

I then made it with a tapered top. I think I need to flare out the legs a bit, bat at least it's starting to look like a corn cob...

Corn Cob Water Tower - Getting the Proportions Correct

Here is a link to my FIRST attempt to make a paper model in n-scale of the corn cob water tower in Rochester MN. I just made the cob a cylinder for now.

My House In Rochester

Here is a link to my first attempt at building a paper house...my house. I am using Inkscape SVG software and exported it as a PDF. It should print out in N scale. Print it out using card stock paper.

Here is a PDF of an early version of my house.

What this is for...

Hi. The goal of this blog is to act as a repository for paper model PDF files that I make of homes and buildings in Rochester, Minnesota...for my N-scale layout I hope to make of it. I plan to try and follow the T-TRAK modular standard.