Modeling Series Spaces To Places Spaces to Places IV | Town development, part 2

Spaces to Places IV | Town development, part 2

By Gerry Leone | April 4, 2023

| Last updated on October 9, 2024


Our host makes a template for an ideal railroad town

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The new town of Westcott has moved from concept to construction. Watch as host Gerry Leone shares how he initiated the development by laying out the town on a sheet styrene template. Learn helpful tips for arranging city streets, structures, and even rail-served industries. Plus, you’ll also glean insights for working with styrene or similar sheet material you can use to establish a foundation for a large, urban footprint on any layout!

Want to watch from the start of this project effort? Link to “Spaces to Places III” …only on Trains.com!

12 thoughts on “Spaces to Places IV | Town development, part 2

  1. Get a lot of different ideas, even from the comments! All my streets run parallel to the RR tracks in the towns. Since I model one of the small towns near when I grew up, (Hopewell, Kansas) nearly all the streets are dirt. The only paved street is the paved road through town. I went back for my 60th class reunion (actually 62nd) last year and even some of the paved roads are now dirt. The other half of my layout is Colorado which also has many small towns with dirt streets. And not very many small towns have sidewalks. So I model everything with dirt streets.

  2. Another great segment Gerry, and love vanity license plate on your Suburu. I too am curious to see how the Palight accepts various scenery adhesives and paints. Mark, Gerry got the Palight from Gillette Signworks in Elk River, MN.

  3. Gerry – another great episode. Now you can add City Planner to your extensive resume!
    Couple of questions – you mention about paint not being a problem with the Palight – does that apply to both enamel and acrylics?
    You mentioned you have to use the plumbers glue – but what about if you apply scenery to the surface of the Palight – what glue will you be using for that?
    Thanks again

    1. Artie — I don’t know that I said that paint wouldn’t be a problem; what the printshop guys told me was that it holds paint better than styrene. As it is, I didn’t test either acrylics or enamels — I used plain old Home Depot latex. I did notice it would scratch a little. As for glue and scenery, I just used diluted white glue to hold stuff down. I’m sure it won’t hold that well were I to flex the Palite, but I’m not planning to do that. Don’t forget: extruded foam doesn’t hold white glue all that well, either, and we still use it!

  4. Another great episode Gerry! Since the styrene that we use for modeling is thin and can be rolled, another good source for it is online. I like to use 0.060 thick styrene for city blocks. When I recently looked locally, it was nearly $300 for a 4 x 8 sheet (and I live in a very large metro area). Online, I was able to get a 40″ x 72″ sheet for $50, including shipping. The sheet is slightly smaller than the 4 x 8, but I can buy six of them for the cost of one slightly larger sheet available locally.

  5. A couple of thoughts on having the building at an odd angle to the rest of the town being right angle streets. Where I live now there’s a section of several businesses in a row that are about 30 degrees to the streets front and back. Because the streets parallel the mainline and the spurs came out at an angle, the buildings the spurs served are at an angle to the street. Second thought, where I grew up all the streets are right angles, but there is one block of buildings where the backside runs at an angle to match the spur serving them.

    1. Jim — Yup, I know there are all sorts of configurations for streets in the real world, but you don’t see those irregularities when you’re standing on the ground. My problem was/is that I’m always looking at the town from about a 500-scale-foot elevation, so the irregularities really stand out and they’re jarring to the eye. So, for me, better to compromise the one industry spur and have the town look “right.”

  6. Gerry, Did you mention who you got the sheet of plastic from?

    Obviously you have done a lot of thinking on the street layout. I might have laid it out and, without much thought. Nice to see how your brain works, however.

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