The City Edge is an HO scale model railroad created and built by Vic Smith. The city section of the layout is 25′ (length) by 3′ (depth). The city is made up of multiple model kits, including kitbashed, custom and scratchbuilt structures that have all been recreated and casted in very durable black urethane. The strength of the urethane provided the durability needed to withstand the multiple hand and spray paint applications, along with several sessions of saturating alcohol staining procedures to achieve the gritty weathered brick and mortar appearance. The streets are made from Woodland Scenic “Smooth-it” paving plaster poured at 1/4″ on top of 1/2″ homosote insulation board. The sidewalks are made from a wide variety of plastic with the whole street scene then painted with several coats of concrete and asphalt colored paint. After all expansion joints and stress cracks were scribed into the streets and sidewalks, the layout took several grimy black alcohol washes which provided the beat-up weathered and worn appearance of the street.
There are more than 500 individual lights, including LED and incandescent bulbs to light up the signs, streets and building interiors. The bridge scene consists of three 225 ft (scale) double track spans made in brass and imported by Overland Models. The layout in controlled by Digitrax DCC Command center for control of all locomotives. This is Vic’s 3rd home layout and started creating it in 1996.
