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[MIHS85]

Hi everyone,

I usually dabble in Z scale but have just finished a small T gauge layout which I wanted to share with you. I call it the Cascade Loop after the beautiful Cascade Mountains up in the Pacific Northwest of the US.

Here are a few shots (showing once more that a macro lens can be quite unforgiving...):

Cascade 1.jpg (313.63 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

Cascade 2.JPG (293.94 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

Cascade 3.JPG (200.15 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

Cascade 4.JPG (265.06 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

Cascade 5.JPG (296.77 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

Cascade 6.JPG (276.69 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

The layout was inspired by this N scale layout from an old Arnold Rapido track plan collection from the 1960s. As the Tgauge choice for (continental) European rolling stock is rather limited (to say the least), I decided to transport the scenery into an American setting. My plan is, however, to now start building the whole thing in Z scale and clone it as closely as possible after this image.

Cascade 7b.JPG (323.18 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

Source: Arnold Rapido track-layouts 0020, 3rd ed. 1966,
reproduced with the kind permission of Hornby Hobbies (owners of the Rapido brand)

Cascade 7a.JPG (214.83 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

Whilst the orginal Arnold N scale track plan forsees a 75 x 57 cm baseboard, the T gauge version has a footprint of 30 x 20 cm, i.e. the size of an A4 sheet. So it's quite tiny...

Cheers,

Chris

Cascade 9.JPG (171.62 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

[zdrada69]

Tasty layout (and beer)

[mattd10]

Super layout!

[MIHS85]

@zdrada69 and mattd10: Thanks!

Below some photos from the built. Track, vehicles, figures, utility poles, etched brass railings, spruce trees and tunnel portals are all from Tgauge.com. Same for all of the rolling stock except for the EMD F7 A/B units. I got the shells for these from Shapeways (Jesse's T-Scale Models), painted them and applied some self-made inkjet decals. The buildings are N scale cardstock models from scalemodelplans.com which I scaled down to T gauge size. The stone bridge was kitbashed from a tunnel portal kit and the road bridge and steel girder bridge were scratch built from polystyrene profiles.

Cascade built 1.JPG (179.98 KiB) Viewed 1473 times

Cascade built 2.JPG (171.87 KiB) Viewed 1473 times

Cascade built 3.JPG (195.7 KiB) Viewed 1473 times

Cascade built 4.JPG (169.1 KiB) Viewed 1473 times

Cascade built 5.JPG (216.71 KiB) Viewed 1473 times

Cascade built 6.JPG (227.38 KiB) Viewed 1473 times

Cascade built 7.JPG (209.58 KiB) Viewed 1473 times

[gbtrains]

that looks very well made.
well done.

[Nutter]

That is really good, which track sections did you use?
Like the fact that you have provided work in progress pictures.

Another download site for US buildings is Clever Models

In Z least you have MTL locos and rolling stock. Have sitting in my other gauges box 2 F7 locos one Santa Fe red Warbonnet and one Great Northern that have been DCC fitted. Marklin Santa Fe coach set plus swiss stuff.

[MIHS85]

Thanks to both of you!

Mike, also thanks for pointing me to the Clever Models site. Didn't know that one before.

As for the track sections, I used the 70mm radius fine track set from Tgauge.com. That comes with two 60mm straights which I used on the backside of the layout (going over the steel bridge). The problem was getting some extra straights for in front of the station and the siding. I inquired with Tgauge.com if they would sell me three extra 60mm straights, but they did not have any available at the time. So I just used one regular 60mm plastic trackbed section for next to the station, a 12mm regular straight for the siding, cut the point also to a length of 60mm, and hid the plastic track by elevating the ground around the tracks with paper-faced foamboard sheets (a fantastic material!). The fine scale track sections were brought up to the same level with cork and polystyrene sheets. You'll get the idea if you have a closer look at the first photo from my built.

As regards locos, yes, I still find that to be a limitation in t gauge. It is already a bit of a problem in Zscale, but for Tgauge the choice is very small (and yes, a steam loco would be really nice!).

Below a comparison of the Cascade Loop with my Z scale micro layout. That's also tiny (50x30 cm, 120 mm Rokuhan curves), but it looks quite big next to T.

Cascade 11.JPG (243.55 KiB) Viewed 1444 times

[MMBUFBerlin]

Hello Chris,

it's smaller! (-;

Finkenstein 1 and 2

Finkenstein1vs2.jpg (723.22 KiB) Viewed 1438 times

Finkenstein 2 with background

Finkenstein2mHK.jpg (476.16 KiB) Viewed 1438 times

Finkenstein 2 in the box

Finkenstein2_Box.jpg (129.81 KiB) Viewed 1438 times

... But only suitable for two-axle vehicles.

Kind regards
Uwe

[Nutter]

Is that the GP9 i spy on the picture with the beer? How does it cope with the tight radius curve?

[mattinair]

WOW(!) .....