Adding interest to a raised G Scale project

[gscaledays]

Hi all, first post, I’d be grateful for any ideas about how to make our G Scale railway more interesting from a buildings/scenic point of view, I’ll give you a description of our railway.

it’s an elongated oval with extended sides and one siding, it measures 25ft long, by 15ft wide, it’s raised 2ft 6in on wooden fence posts into metal stanchions  with 6X2 timbers on top for the track bed, all is fine, my partner has built a large rockery in and around it with many plants, rocks and water features to make it interesting.

However, we are both a bit frustrated, the railway used to be on the ground on a gravel base, but it was too difficult to keep clean, and we ended up not using it much, we are elderly and I have bad arthritis, and we find it much easier to clean now it’s raised. But we had buildings  when it was on the ground to add more interest, but there’s nowhere to put them now, we did think about making girder bridges, or a viaduct, but was wondering how others get around this issue, any ideas appreciated.

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by gscaledays
Adding text

[sncf231e]

The plus with a raised track is the ease of operating and cleaning; the minus is that you do not have much possibility for scenery. The good thing is that all interest goes to the trains. So if you are a trainlover that should be enough. I have a raised layout without scenery in the garden and play outside for hours; just watching trains going round. I can run trains in gauges 1, O and S in any scale ( but do not know what G Scale is).

Regards

Fred 

[PaulRhB]

You could add buildings on a table or trestle of an appropriate or near height just when running it. Have a folding table with the ground on it, road or artificial grass and pop it up and then plonk on the buildings. If the table is a bit high or low a retaining wall stuck on the side with velcro would work. I used trestles for my G scale exhibition layout and they were about 2’6” tall 

You can see the trestles in the middle here. 
 

and the village at the back here was a bolt on separate bit made in two pieces sitting on the trestle. 
 

It had to be separate because of the dual identity and the German version had a flat car park and trees instead (plus an extra 6’ length)

[DCB]

17 hours ago, gscaledays said:

Hi all, first post, I’d be grateful for any ideas about how to make our G Scale railway more interesting from a buildings/scenic point of view, I’ll give you a description of our railway.

it’s an elongated oval with extended sides and one siding, it measures 25ft long, by 15ft wide, it’s raised 2ft 6in on wooden fence posts into metal stanchions  with 6X2 timbers on top for the track bed, all is fine, my partner has built a large rockery in and around it with many plants, rocks and water features to make it interesting.

It sounds as if the garden is fairly flat and level,  some folks plant hedges around the tracks,  if so buildings like station platforms and buildings can be mounted alongside the tracks at track level and the hedges can give the illusion of ground level. I have an idea Pecorama have one.  It needs a lot of skill to fit model buildings into a garden environment.    A G scale "outdoor" layout near here is based on  a massive pile of rubble with multiple levels of G scale draped around it. but to my way of thinking you need a layout with changes in level, mine has too much, my 00 layout runs across paths along walls  through a tunnel  under the garden and generally climbing at a ruling grade of 1 in 14.      I also have a elevated section 3ft up which is 12 years old and has warped like a dogs hind leg.     I remember a Railway Modeller article of some one who built a huge double track viaduct across his lawn which was subsequently  damaged by a stray cow. 

[gscaledays]

13 hours ago, sncf231e said:

The plus with a raised track is the ease of operating and cleaning; the minus is that you do not have much possibility for scenery. The good thing is that all interest goes to the trains. So if you are a trainlover that should be enough. I have a raised layout without scenery in the garden and play outside for hours; just watching trains going round. I can run trains in gauges 1, O and S in any scale ( but do not know what G Scale is).

Regards

Fred 

Thanks everyone, much appreciated, I’m tending to go with sncf on this one, but the idea of raised tables seems good, the siding I made by extending one of the track bed timbers sideways, I suppose I could do the same to make a station etc, I’ll see how it goes.

I’ve made the siding into a derelict loco dump, it’s a good use for those tourist pseudo American loco's you get given by friends because they know you like "trains" :) they’ve weathered and rusted nicely, and look great in black and white photos, very realistic if you get the right size loco.

I digress.

[Johann Marsbar]

My line is raised, but it's only 12" - 14" above ground level, which is a lot different to 2' 6".  Ive incorporated a wooden supporting framework though that allows buildings to be placed next to the tracks, or raised flowebeds to the same level of the tracks..

Will take some photos & post them over the next couple of days - assuming it isn't raining!