It would seem like a good idea if not just to break up the geometry.
On some small layouts you see a focus on one side (usually the deep side) with
the
unscenicked staging relegated to the narrow area behind the backdrop. I recall
Andy Sperandeo designing
such a layout for an N scale layout that was 3.5x10' a few years back. What
caught my eye
in the design was the use of only one large industry (I think it was Notexpo, or
something like that)
with a ton of wide open scenery all around. It looked like it really captured
the area and would have
made an excellent layout for operation and photography. I don't remember the
exact location, but I think the artist's
rendering had some KCS units going through it.
OTOH, there was a MR project more recently (relatively speaking), that had a
deep front town scene
for switching with a scenicked staging area behind a hill. I think it was the
Red Wing Division of the
Soo. It seems to me that this increases the enjoyment across the board, so to
speak, by offering more
photographic and operating possibilities, although Andy's would have been fun to
photograph and operate
as well! I believe it was designed to have the back against the wall to save on
space
I remember one layout in MR had an operating fall scene on one side and a scenic
winter scene on the other.
Now that's an effective use of a backdrop/divider!
Jeff
Some more thoughts on this subject:
I was thinking the other day regarding the backdrop up the center. It's
distance from the front edge of the layout could vary. This would allow a
deep scene on one side versus a shallow one on the other - a city area on
one side v. a mainline run between towns, etc. on the other, for example.
Another idea I used years ago when playing around with designs for a never
built N-scale layout - on one side have your city area. Run the mainline
near the end beneath a large, Union-type station or higher section of the
city. Underneath this, and out of site, would be your turnback curve
which also goes through the backdrop unseen and exits into a rural, or
whatever scene on the other side. I think the layout size was something
like four by twelve or sixteen feet.
Paul Kossart - Peru, Illinois, USA .
NMRA, BRHS, La Salle & Bureau County Model Railroad Club
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Modeling the CB&Q & Illiniwek River Branch in HO ~ Circa late 1960's.
"Serving Agriculture and Industry in the Illiniwek River Valley since 1904."
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