Because of other demands on my time, I didn't do much model railroading for several years in the late aughts and early teens. Most of my old Palo Verde & Pacific/Bakersfield & Ventura H.O. layout was torn down in about 2010. From time to time I made efforts to repair the remaining section, a 30-inch by 15 foot shelf, but kept getting distracted. At one point I worked a little in HOn30 and started a small (30 x 60) layout, but didn't find it very satisfying.
A couple of years back we remodeled a bathroom and bought a mirror that came packed between two large sheets of 1 inch thick beadboard foam. Packrat that I am, I held on to the foam, thinking that if I ever built another layout, it could come in handy. More recently, my son's girlfriend bought him a framed hockey jersey that also came packed with big sheets of foam. I saved that, too.
Meanwhile, there was a shelf in my garage/train room that I had reserved for storage and display of model trains. I kept thinking I ought to put down some track, and maybe solder some wires so I could at least test run equipment.
I don't remember what the tipping point was, but in January 2022 those two ideas finally came together and I started to build a small shelf layout. A diorama, really -- there's not enough track to really call it a layout. I dithered a bit about whether to make it H.O. or On30, finally settling on the latter.
Construction is a foam base -- pink EPS foam where strength is needed, beadboard for the mountains. That's covered with Sculptamold, including Sculptamold rock castings. The basic groundcover is real sand from the Lockwood Valley, with various Woodland Scenics and other vegetation products. I handlaid the On30 track using ties cut from 1/8 square stripwood and Code 70 rail salvaged from the old H.O. layout. The ore bin and cabin are kits -- Berkshire Valley and Banta.
I've now moved on the building a 30x60 mini layout, also in On30. The cabin and ore bin will move to the mini. I haven't decided the fate of the diorama. I might replace the buildings with other O scale structures, and leave the rest alone, or I might replace the On30 track with H.O. and use some of the many H.O. buildings that I have on hand. Or I might even scrap it entirely and build a switching layout, probably H.O., in the same space.
Here are a bunch of pictures.
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