Ever since i got back into slots i wanted to do some scenery on my layout.The paper buildings that came with the tracks was'nt going to cut it.I dont plan on doing as much scenery and detail as some of you have done.There have been alot of slot tracks posted lately with some absolutley beautiful landscape & scenery.I picked up a few reproduction buildings on ebay that you would see at a real race track.I have two MM bleachers/grandstands coming with a bunch of HO scale people to add to the layout plus a start/finish line building.I want to do the HO scale train grass mat & a few tree's next.As i mainly run light bender magnet cars-i dont want a whole lot of scenery that can be destroyed by flying cars.Heres a few pics as it stands now.I expect my other buildings & people to be in by the end of the week.I think then i'll tear the track down and do the grass mat & tree's.Anyone have any suggestions on the manufacturer of the best grass mat and applying techniques.:)

The grass mats always seem to get a crease in them after they are down for awhile.They also make it look like it's a perfect lawn.You can get a mixture of different color grass at a train store.You could even leave the track down when you do it. Tom

I'm with Tom.... I much prefer the loose bagged kind you apply over adhesive or fresh wet paint (like salt and pepper). That said, there are a couple mfg's that make a better grade of grass mat. I think we all think of the old school type with more or less a paper backing and what seems like dyed sawdust stuck (sort of) to it... when we think grass mat. That stuff is messy and the "grass" seems to get everywhere. These 2 mfg's sell a "better" version of grass mat as well as the loose turf mixes. You should try to see it in person before you buy it though. Although it's reportedly better than the old school mat... I have not seen it and you may not even like it either. If anyone makes a good one though... it'd be from these 2 suppliers. nd

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/default.asp

http://www.woodlandscenics.com/

A great source of all things scenic is Dave Frary and his books and videos,

http://www.mrscenery.com/

One thing that would add a great deal of interest to your particular layout would be a scenic backdrop along the back wall. You could get a sheet of plywood, MDF, or masonite and adhere a scenic backdrop poster that you purchase to it, or paint your own on the board. You could make it reversible, with one scene on one side and a different scene on the other, and periodically flip it. There are plenty of sources of pre-printed backdrops online like this (http://backdrops4models.com/indexbd4m.htm) and I'm sure others will pipe in with recommended sources. Search for "model railroad backdrop background" and you should get a lot of sources.

Hi guys,
Rider good luck with your landscaping effort and I think others have offered the right direction in grass. I second AFXToo on the backdrop point. Even the simplest of layouts can be greatly enhanced with a backdrop in photos. This was a basic layout a club member did with nothing but green cardboard as an inlay, a few randow buildings and a backdrop I made for him. With the right lighting and the backdrop you can create a sense of realism without too much effort. Further, you can play with macro settings on your camera to enhance the 'depth of field' effect. -Scott

http://www.planetofspeed.net/PhotoPost/data/2/2P1010144.JPG

If you are worried about the loose turf getting all over the place and coming up after you have layed it down, Woodland Scenics makes a product called "Scenic Cement". This cement is used to glue it to the surface. Let it dry for 24 hrs., vacuum off any residual turf and then spray the enitre area of turf again with the scenic cement. It will seal and protect the turf so it doesn't flake off. It goes on milky in color, but dries clear. Here's a picture of an area where all the landscaping ,except the track and signs, was sprayed with the cement. Actually all of my landscaping was sprayed with this stuff including the rock formations. Cover the track. It won't riun it, but it takes a lot of work to get it off. It requires a little more work and time, but I think the results are worth it. Hope this helps.

You can also make the backdrop 3 dimensional by adding building facades, fencing, and even scenic greenery that melds with the foreground scenery. Anything that covers up that basement wall will have a big impact in terms of making your virtual slot world come to life. It's a major anchor point for the living diorama you are creating.

Thanks for your input guys.AFXToo i had thought about a backdrop before but never really checked into whats available.I knew the train guys use them alot for there layouts.The grass seems as though it will be a pain the butt.The way the table sits now it is very easy to keep clean.:)

Nice track. The blimp is an excellent touch.

the cool thing about the vinyl backed grass mat is that you can make hillocks so it doesn't look like a "lawn". take newsprint and bundle it in your hill shape with adhesive tape and tape it in place under the mat where you want your hills. carefully and patiently use a heat gun or hair dryer to shape the mat over the newsprint hill. it looks good. maybe practice on a scrap piece before committing with your full sheet. won't work with paper backed grass......of course.

More progress on the track.I decided against the "grass mat"-instead i painted the table top around the track with green latex paint.Next i will add a few tree's and alot more people for the granstands & bleachers.

It's shaping up nicely, the green infield looks really good and makes the track stand out even better.:thumbsup:

Very nice track and layout, I agree i like the green infield and also those overhead led lights above the track is that lap counters? looks great, Shon

Heres a few more pics.I added a wall around the infeild section made of balsa wood strips then painted red.I have 70 mini people now and placed an order for 30 more plus trees last night from Tower Hobbies.Its hard to beleive the cost of these mini people.I think the trees will really add to the layout.The LED lights on the track bridges are just for show.I am running reed switches for the lap counting system.More to come!!!:)

A few more pics!!!:)

looking good,
i'm starting to realize the effort involved in building a track!
Riderz,how are the reed switches placed for the cars to trigger them?
and how much throw do the switches have?

Hey Zook-Heres some pics of reed switches mounted in the track.They are mounted as close to the power rail as i could get them.You can see the two tiny blades in the glass tubes that are actaully the switch.The distance between the two blades that make contact is microscopic.:)

thanks riderz...
so what actually triggers the switch,the physical weight of the car through the pick up shoe?
i was thinking of putting mine through the slot.

The Magnets in the cars make the reeds work. Thats why they don't work well with G-jets,thnderstorms, and P-jets because there is not enough magnet force for the speed the cars go. they work ok if they are set up properly with most any other cars though.

Here's a link to an excellent article on lap counter triggers from HO World -- including reed switches. It has a lot of info on the pluses and minuses of each kind of lap counter trigger -- reed switch, dead strip, and LEDs. Steve talks about the issues with reed switches and the different kind of cars...

Comparing Lap Counting Triggers (http://howorld.fsmra.com/archives/howto/lap_counter_activator_strips/comparison.html)

The article was written by Steve Medanic, who knows his stuff.

-- Bill

alright thanks ....highjack over...:thumbsup:

Heres a few new pics of the progress.My trees & people came in today.I have four more buildings coming from ebay purchases.According to the wife this project is financially over.No More-she says.:rolleyes:

That's looking really good, Z.

Wow, nice transformation.

If you run into problems with trees shedding too much or dropping chunks after car strikes, get some "Aqua Net, Extra Super Hold, #3, unscented" hair spray (purple can) and saturate the foliage with it and let dry. It'll lock the foliage down pretty good.

Another trick with trees is to make them break-away. Find some magnetic stubby nails or screws with big heads, like roofing nails, drill and and mount them flush with the table surface. Then glue or melt one of those little neo magnets into the bottom of the tree trunk. This will hold the tree in place and if you have a big rowdy race, you can pluck them all from the table and store them (on the refrigerator if you'd like) or at least know that they will flop over harmlessly if hit by a hand or car. Works for billboards and other scenic items too when you have a track that will see a little heavy action every now and then.

Thanks for the tips AFXToo.I received my other buildings this evening.As far as i'm concerned this project is complete(wifes orders).I dont want to clutter it up too much.If i do anything else it will be a few street lights.And maybe some more mini people.The grandstand/bleechers are'nt full yet.:thumbsup:

Every race track needs an ambulance on hand.Scored this one off ebay for cheap.:)

A little feedback on redd switches laptiming :

It's what I use on my own track, I placed it in a not too fast straight section, and there is no problem to detect magnet less/weak magnet cars (tjets, tyco 440x2 without magnet, xtractions).

I placed these in a (I think) singular manner :

1) i didn't not placed them parallel to the track surface. Parallel setting had caused some bad detections on big magnet cars , son I placed them in the other way ("perpendiculaire", I don't know the english word), like on figure 1 (the black strip represents the track slot) :

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l8/slotdem/dessous.gif



I "peeled" off some plastic under the track, along the steel contact wire, and glued the reed switch on it :

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l8/slotdem/dscf0241.jpg


http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l8/slotdem/dscf0243.jpg




The idea is to use not only the car magnet to count the laps, but the magnetic field IN the track wire caused by the car magnet. So the detection period is longer. It's quite like dead strip laptiming : if it's too short, it doesn't work properly.

A little scheme to understand :

in figure one, reed switch is placed simply under the track (or like on riderz track) only the car magnet (motor or traction magnet) is detected. The dection time is short, causing possibly false detections (= the reed switch don't have the time to close).


http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l8/slotdem/auto.gif



in figure 2, the reed switch is placed directly against the track contact wire : so the magnet effect is more durable and long. The idea is to not detect the car magnet, but the magnet effect created in the steel contact wire in the track :


http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l8/slotdem/rail.gif


By the way, this is my method, not THE ideal method.But at home, it works great !

I understood if you installed them to pull upwards they will eventually bend with heavy magnet cars. I used the nail trick between the ralis and haven't had any false detections. It's easy to keep track when there's on one or two people on a four lane track.:)

really looking good! :thumbsup::thumbsup: rr

Hey dementher-I mounted my reed switches with the blades parallel to the power rails as in your illustration #1.I've read many articles & posts about reed switch mounting and the majority suggest this way.On my system they work well with every chassis except the Tomy SG+ chassis.I think the problem stems from the narrow traction magnets the SG+ chassis uses.As you can see in my previous post-the reeds are mounted as close to the power rails as i could get them.Plus i made slots in the track surface with my trusty Dremel tool to get them as close as possible to the track surface & traction magnets of the passing cars.Initially i started with the infrared emitters & sensors supplied with the LapTimer2000 package from Greg Braun.They did not count every lap with lots of miscounts.I then switched over to the "matched" set of emitters & sensors from Radio Shack as many suggested.Same thing-way too many miscounts.As a last resort i went with the Miniatronics reed switches with much better results-other than the issues running the Tomy Super G+ cars.Some day i'll invest in the total TrackMate system!!!:)
Thanks for the compliments "roadrner"!!!!

what a cool layout!