Micro Layouts Progress Update

Scenery and lighting developments on my two HO scale 4 square feet switching layouts.

Box Street Lighting

Recently I added lighting over my HO scale Box Street micro switching layout. To do this I added LED lights, a switch and power supply (in this case a 9 volt battery) under the baseboard for the Pier 39 layout which sits above it. When the room the layout it is in is darker than usual and the layout lights are on, it frames the layout rather nicely.

The switch that turns the lighting on and off is attached under the frame for the Pier 39 layout, which keeps it hidden from general view and doesn’t detract from the scenery on the layout. Depending on how the 9 volt battery works out, I might wire the LED lights into a 12 volt power supply.

Pier 39 Scenery Changes

Over the last few weeks, I have also done a fair bit of work on my HO scale Pier 39 micro switching layout. Before I started this batch of changes, the track was un-ballasted, and there was very little scenery done. But now, most of the scenery is done including most of the ballasting, and some of the scenery elements help hide things like the track alignment bolt that keeps the transfer table aligned.

One thing I did try, as a bit of an experiment, was to paint the Atlas point motors a medium grey color to try and make them less obvious. I’m not sure it quite had the desired effect, but at least they aren’t a very obvious shiny black any more.

I am planning to add an aggregate transfer area on the team tracks lead track, as another place for hoppers and gondollas with aggregate to be spotted. I think this will add some extra operating interest.