Father/Son pizza layout - The Whistle Post

TrainNut · #1 (**permalink**) 12-19-2006, 04:21 PM

Well, my four year old has shown great competency at operating some of my older N scale equipment on a simple Kato track loop. Butttttt, it was getting a little boring so good ol' dad got this crazy idea to spruce it up a little. We started out with a 2'4" square, heavy duty picture frame that I had laying around in the garage, brought it inside, threw the circle of track on and hooooahhhh, it fit! Off we went from there. After we layed down the inital couple layers of foam and scribbled some roads and a creek on it, he got out all of his Micro Machine cars and played on it like that for hours. Sooo, I figured if that's how it's going to be, we might as well incorporate that feature. It is now Micro Machine friendly. We have nice wide roads, and plenty of garages so each car has a home. It's now more or less finished and he plays with it quite a bit. He fluctuates between pushing the trains around and running them electrically. I took some of the older locomotives and removed the gearing so that he could push them around. Check it out!!!!!!

In this first shot, you can see my son applying the first layer of glue for the first layer of foam onto the old picture frame.

In this shot, you can see it is starting to take shape and the foam has been shaped a little as well.

Now it is time to apply some plaster cloth, some wall joint compound, roads and rock castings.

& slobbering on a little paint makes a big difference.

As trains will always derail inside the tunnel, we made the top of the mountain removable. Later, he decided that it would be neat to have a diesel horn sound except the thing was so darn annoying and loud that I buried the speaker part inside the mountain! Ahhhhh, much better!

An overhead view. We used automotive pinstriping tape for the centerlines of the roads. It's a little thick but works okay.

Suddenly the trees and bushes have sprouted up and the cloud burst has put some water in the creek!

It's amazing what a little natural sunlight will do. Here you can see a corner of our cow pasture and maintenance shed.

Off in the distance you can see the garages that we disguised as mine entrances.

This isn't the greatest of shots but it does show off the N scale guardrail alongside the highway going up the side of the hill.

Trainman1965 · #2 (**permalink**) 12-19-2006, 05:25 PM

Now trainnut that is the way to get them in the hobbie. Nice to see father and son working on things togather. Keep up the great work.

TallDude · #3 (**permalink**) 12-19-2006, 07:24 PM

Trainut, you do realize that since both you and your son have seperate layouts, you will need to have TWO DCC systems, one for him and one for you, to be fair.

Nice work by the way! I hope he has some 4 wheel drive vehicles for the mountain raoad.

His layout has to be the envy of every kid in the neighborhood.

TrainNut · #4 (**permalink**) 12-19-2006, 08:51 PM

You wouldn't believe it!!!... He controls up to 4 trains at a time on that single oval. He uses the old tried and true 5dc system

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Boss Boomer · #5 (**permalink**) 12-19-2006, 09:32 PM

THAT...is very cool...both the fact of that neat lay-out AND that you and yer boy are having fun with small trains! Man! Yer son is gonna grow up remembering just how cool his dad was building that train lay-out with him! He will remember that his entire life!

You done good, Pard! You done real good! Two thumbs up for you!

2-8-2 · #6 (**permalink**) 12-19-2006, 09:43 PM

That's pretty cool!

Nazgul · #7 (**permalink**) 12-20-2006, 08:46 PM

TN
that is the best pizza layout I 've ever seen! It has everything....mountains, roads, crossings, tunnel, industry, and even water! AWESOME JOB!!!

lyates · #8 (**permalink**) 12-20-2006, 10:17 PM

TrainNut that is an awesome layout you are to be congradulatedfor the forethought that went into the building of that layout. That is the best pizza layout I have ever seen and it is as busy as most layouts 4 times it's size.Great job and I know that your son will cherish it and the thoughts that he got to help build it for the rest of his life.

TrainNut · #9 (**permalink**) 12-21-2006, 01:40 AM

One of the things my son wanted was lots of garages for his micro machines. So, we incorporated that thought. Here is a before and after shot of the garages up on top of the hill. We built them from round toothpicks and matchsticks. The insides of the "garages" have been painted black so as not to stand out and the wood structure parts were painted brown. The big fault line on the right side is where the removeable section slides out to reveal the tunnel inside/below.