I finally went back to working on my Coffee table layout. I had taken time off to build Artesania Latina’s “HMS Surprise” and OcCre’s “Rocket”.

New! Coffee Table Train Layout IV;    • Coffee Table Train Layout IV Z - Scale  

First I replaced the paper buildings with Wily E Coyote’s ACME Factory. (Quality suppliers of anvils, catapults, and earthquake pills). Found some vehicles on Ebay including a transport. The load is a scratch built rocket and catapult for the Arizona coyote market. Signs were made on my printer for the roads and crossings by shrinking real pictures. Next I installed the signals and street lights. Finally found a railway station I liked. (https://www.ebay.ca/usr/custom_z_scales) The tire garage was also an Ebay find. The buildings and such came from (https://www.ebay.ca/usr/outland_model.... I added details to the buildings, 1/16 panzer parts, tank barrel for smokestack, then painted them to add a soot covered industrial look. My tug boat, barge and coal crane are scratch built. The water tower, docks and piers are scratch built in real wood as is the swing bridge, tunnel entrance. Finally I added a forest in the hiking trail park area as well as greening a few other spots.

At the end of the film I added some stills to show the construction. The table is made with Douglas fir and Western Red Cedar. The outside fir is laminated with recycled cedar fence rails cut to an 1/8th inch and glued to the fir. If you look carefully I left some of the screw holes for a bit of wabi sabi. The cedar top is full size 2 x 8’ as are the ends. The inside was stained dark walnut to match my floors. The entire unit was coated with oil based urethane. The layout is built on foam insulation.

The tracks and controller are Rokuhan; https://www.rokuhan.com/english/
Filmed with a iPhone 13 pro. Music from YouTube.
Now it’s time to get some trains.