This just in from the Ain’t It Cool Department. I’ve been doing this for days but I thought it would be cool to talk about it on here a bit and get some photos of what I am doing on here.

I’m making a N-scale model railroad layout. No kidding! See photo evidence below.

I designed the track with some help from the good people at Trainland Hobbies and a pre-made layout in an Atlas N-Scale guidebook. I modified it to create an inner and outer loop complete with yards and switches and such, and there will even be a few homages to my family in there. The layout measures a good 4×6′ and will sit against the wall in my kitchen.

The line will be called the Brewer & Stephens Railroad as a nod to my dad’s last name and my mother’s maiden name. It will run around a small town known as Friendship that will comprise a mainly industrial population as most of them work in the local lumber mill. Friendship will have a gas station, high school, blinking light at an intersection, train depot, mom and pop stores, you name it. It’ll have a rural Oregonian feel to it as a nod to my growing up in northwestern Oregon.

The homages to my family include:

- Sybil Park, a shady grove of trees of vibrant fall colors. I’ll include a big hill and also a small sports complex in it, hopefully. The park will hug the inner loop and comprise 1/4 of the town’s space. Autumn is my mom’s favorite season so the park is fitting for that reason.

- Jason Bridge, which will carry the railroad over the inner loop on its way to the local train depot. My brother always wanted to build bridges as a kid and I figured this would be the perfect way to include him in the layout.

- Jerry Wood Products, the local lumber mill that sustains the town. It will be situated on the far east corner of the layout, and two lines terminate at the mill exclusively for lumber and plywood delivery. My dad worked at a mill and sustained our family for twenty-four years until leaving in 2004, and the lumber mill here will be a perfect nod to that fact. Oh, and I’ll include miniature barkdust too.

- As for me, well I’m the architect, so enough said there. I’m not going to John Q. Hammons-ize the place and put my name all over it though.

As the photo above shows, I have been marking angles and length of track using Atlas N-scale track templates, and this took me three days (to the tune of four hours each day). I would mark the lines with pencil, measure the angles, and if the angle was correct, fill it in with a permanent marker to show the plan being finalized. I messed up on angles more than once so I had to trust my tape measure and the templates.

Working on a layout like this is extremely time-consuming, if not for just the planning stage. You have to take into account the angles, eliminate S-curves as much as possible (I had to re-draw the entire inner loop today because I had a nasty one) and visualize what it will look like once finished. It’s not for the faint of heart because so much foresight and patience is required. Not that I’m the most patient person but I really wanted to try this out so I’m going at it with a full head of steam.

Tools of the trade include Sharpie markers in different colors, a mechanical pencil, the track templates, the Atlas guide, and of course, my trusty iPhone.

This whole thing is gonna be fun, and I’ll take more photos and blog more later as I get started on this project in the coming weeks.