Buildings and streets and water...

... Oh, my!

Latest plan with details starting to flesh out the scenery.

click for enlarged view

Of particular note is the center peninsula with 14th Street running almost the entire length terminating in the viaduct that climbs the hillside to West Hoboken. Instead of having a backdrop that divides the scene, I am opting for a scene that divides the scene. (Buildings are only placeholders at the moment, more specific prototype footprints to come.) This will provide some good urban density to the layout which will give context to the bustle of the industrial railroading. The goal is to capture how the railroad is sandwiched between the Hudson River and a dense urban fabric. The track has been pulled toward the aisles on both sides to accommodate a wider street (Faller car system?!).

Some minor evolution at the end of the peninsula with the domino at the Bethlehem piers shrinking to 18 inch depth. This has already been implemented and provides better reach to tracks as well as more room in the aisle. The minimum aisle width is now 4'-2". What isn't showing is a closet in the Erie pier area (bottom right) that leaves about an 18 inch clearance between it and the peninsula at the moment. I've tricked myself into thinking the closet is going away, but doubts are creeping into the picture...

At the moment there is some spatial distortion taking place with the street grid - we'll see if it remains. The streets above the HBS yard are the same streets that cross the peninsula at 14th Street as 14th actually runs above the yard in real life. The industries above the yard are in the alley in the block between 14th and 15th Streets. A modeling compromise that seems OK at the moment.

A couple of strong personal ties to the history of Hoboken will be a part of the layout. I've added a baseball field to represent Elysian Field and the birth of The Game, and Hamilton and Burr (an ancestor of mine) will be dueling somewhere around there as well.

I've also got some room for big ship models.

Next steps on the plan will be to tighten up the streets (it's a little hard to manipulate shapes in Rail Modeler), check buildings and track more closely against maps and images, and make out a shopping list for track.

Next bit of constructing will be on the 149th to complete its transformation to a lightweight layout so the room can become a guest room again. I've only got a couple of more weeks of concerted work time before I get crazy busy again for the next nine months.