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| Rural scenes such as this one could make up what one would see if the WRD is rebuilt. |
I have been thinking of this for sometime now. The layout has been completed, remodeled and extended over the past 15 years. I have noticed a lot of the areas are beginning to showing their age, especially the areas that have not had any updating since about 2004. I really took a good hard look at it last winter after visiting and seeing how aged the NEB&W was. Also my modeling has really improved a lot since the layout was first started such as my scratch-building of structures.
Matthieu Lachance post
Thinking out Loud on Hedley Junction kind of hit a cord with what I have been thinking. I like the WRD but now being point to point really is not what I want. I am not that focused on switching...I did that for much of my 33 years on the CN. I actually like just bringing trains out of staging and running a loop or two around the layout then tuck them away. If I rebuild and keep it really generic I could actually run any era or any of my favourite railroads (which I have a lot) around. Generic for me would be familiar but not exact scenes from out East that could be Vermont, New Hampshire, Mass., Maine, Eastern Ontario of Quebec. I would model mainly farm scenes, mills, maybe a milk platforms or creamery and smaller railroad structures...mainly lots of open area with minimal structures. The layout would be just the backdrop for the main feature...the trains.
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| Open area that emulate New England or eastern Canada would be the theme. The layout will be the backdrop for the main feature the trains. Many layouts are more about the structures and bridges...is that really what one wants. This scene still exists on the WRD but the trees and ground foam has really faded. I think most of the trees were made in 2003...I spent the whole winter just making trees for the layout. This winter they will be almost 17 years old. |
I always have wanted a waterfront scene. I have been planning to build a diorama. Could it maybe replace my Bellows Falls scene. It would be at an end of a branch that any switching I want to do would happen with smaller engines and a location for all of my structures could rest.
I am only in the thinking stages but this might be the direction the WRD will go in the next year. Being a small area it would not take me long to get it up and running and looking better than ever with fresh new scenery with many new structures I have stored on shelves...George Dutka
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| This scene could be expanded into a larger bridge. I would consider a wooden trestle similar to the Rouses Point structure, but shorter somewhere also. |
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| No engine facilities will be found along the line although rural stations might be out along the line. |
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| My diamonds have been a sore spot on the layout. At times engines run flawlessly but lately my sound fleet have been stalling on occasion, so diamonds would be eliminated. Minimal main line switches will be the norm. |
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| There will not be a duck-under as was once seen here in use. I will take a closer look at the drop-in section Don Janes came up with. |
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| Scenes such as this one could be built into a diorama or sold off. |
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| Trains from any era will look right running over the main line for any era...maybe no ball signals this time. |
I could never quite understand the conventional wisdom in the hobby that you somehow have to "pick a prototype" and "pick an era", when the imagination doesn't work that way. In some ways, this goes to the fascination we see in layouts like John Allen's or George Sellios's, which appeal much more directly to the imagination, compared with the tedium behind some efforts to create a museum-like project.
ReplyDeleteI like fluid prototypes and a track plan that encourages that. My gnat-like attention span has caused me to trade in Winnipeg for Vancouver, Vancouver for Vermont, Vermont for Kingston in similar but different eras.
ReplyDeleteWhatever keeps the juices flowing and gets you doing what you really, really want to do, deep down, George!
Eric
Thanks Eric for your thoughts...change is good...George
DeleteGeorge, As you know I've admired your layout for years. But if you feel it's fully amortized and you're ready for some new modeling challenges (and fun!) I say go for it - I'll be following along!
ReplyDeleteMarty
Thanks Marty...kind of looking forward to something different...George
DeleteJust catching back up on your blog and caught this entry. Last weekend, my best friend of 35 years came out for a long weekend visit from NY to my home in Indiana. We spent three days discussing railroads, model railroads, and layout planning while doing an in depth tour of the former PRR/Grand Rapids & Indiana line across four counties. We've both reached a place in our lives and model railroading interest where we want a branchline/secondary main and/or shortline as a major focus with plenty of switching.......BUT....we're not willing to give up some mainline action. We both feel that for us, the best compromise is a section of mainline that is basically a loop with half of it a double ended staging yard and a junction with the branch/secondary/shortline. For me, this is probably a mid-70s Penn Central mainline through a fictitious eastern Ohio town/small city with an industrial branch off the mainline. It combines a degree of somewhat prototypical operations without sacrificing the ability to just go down to the layout for 15 or 30 minutes after a long day at work and enjoy a beverage while watching a couple of trains orbit. I've been stalled for years trying to plan a perfect operations oriented point to point prototype layout. I'm finally accepting that a lot of times, I simply want to watch trains run as opposed to scheduling a big operating session with a bunch of people. But I also want the layout to LOOK realistic with structures based on real structures throughout Ohio and Indiana. Anyway, all that to say I completely understand where you're at.
ReplyDeleteHi Jason seems like you have the same line of thinking as I do...good luck with your layout and let me know how it all goes...you will be seeing how mine transpire over the next year or two...George
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