The customer approached us with a really small challenge: build a layout on a 2 foot square platform that was interesting visually, allowed two trains to run continuously, and let him change between mountain top and small village. Oh, it was also HO scale! He provided the platform and we had to come up with something cool. Thankfully, although it was HO scale, it was narrow gauge, running on N scale track.
This is what we created…
Pretty much everything on this little gem is custom: the tunnel arcades and bridges are all scratch built from styrene plastic.
The water is a combination of Vallejo Still Water for the flat parts and Woodland Scenics Water Effects and Wave Effects for the falls and rapids.
The exposed rock is mostly carved Scultamold following our usual practice except that the base is foam instead of Shaper Sheet because we needed precision. The rock face in the tunnels and along the trim edge however, is made using a Chooch Rock Face flexible sheet.
The grass is simple short static grass. The customer wanted a clean ‘European’ look so he could dress it up later.
Note that the top part of the mountain is removable! There is a street grid underneath so he can post a small village. the buildings all had to be removable to make this work, so they are not ‘set’ into the ground like we usually do.
The track plan is simple with two separate levels but with the complex scenery plan, it is still visually interesting.
And he can store it in the bottom of his apartment closet when not in use!