Reach for the sky!

High rise model railroading, 2 HO scale micro layouts in 4 square feet using a bookshelf

Since my last blog post, I have been enjoying operating my 3 micro layouts, but have also been busy with minimising layout space. To that end, I built a bookshelf specifically to house the two 4×1 feet HO scale micro model railroad layouts – Box Street and Pier 39. This means that instead of requiring 8×1 feet for the two layouts to be set up, they now require just a little over 4×1 feet – the bookshelf is slightly wider than 4 feet wide to allow the 4×1 feet layouts inside it. I still have the sky blue backscene to add behind the layouts, but you get the general idea from the photo below.

As you can see from the above photo, I have also added fascia to the front of the layouts. This fascia was recycled from the previous layouts, as was most of the trackage and buildings.

I have also done some scenery work on the Box Street micro layout. As it’s only 4×1 feet4 in size, a little scenery work goes a long way, and doesn’t take long to do.

There is still some more scenery work to do on the Box Street layout, including…

• Ballasting the spur which serves the flour and grains industry.
• A bridge or similar scenic effect to help hide the sector plate on the left hand side of the layout.
• People and foliage.

The Pier 39 layout hasn’t had much scenery work done it, but I am hoping to get some more scenery done on it soon too.