I am interested in the small layouts that are showing up in MR. I am
trying to figure out how to get CPR's Nelson yard, or at least a
representation, into a room 8'10" x 9'4".
Given that the yard looks like this: (Now for some bad ASCII art)
LAKE
various warehouses
mostly on south (town) side
___________ East
_-
_-
| diesel shop about here> _ -
| ladder starts about here> _ -
| West _ -
-_ _ -
-_ _ - <the longest straight part
-________ -
\ ^ladder
\______ coach yard, two track freight house, team track,
\_____ coal dealer, 3 fuel oil dealers
& 1 propane (LP gas) dealer
Somehow I'll need to bend this into a U-shape without messing it up
too much. I do have a good drawing of the track plan so I've got
something to work with. I've downloaded Atlas RightTrack but haven't
taken the time to play with it much. At some point there may be
enough money for 3rd Planit or CadRail but I'd rather buy a few more
decoders.
I don't think that I want an "Empire" as I don't think I have the
time, energy or focus to do it right. Besides, there's an empire a
few blocks away if I want to see long trains run. The owner used 3+
boxes of Atlas flex, so there's lots of track.
--- In small-layout-design@y..., Paul/Celine Kossart <kozys@t...>
wrote:
At 03:01 AM 3/10/01, jonp@b... wrote:
...I have not been paying a lot of attention to the hobby press in
the
last year or two, but within the issues of MR and MRP that I have
picked up in the last three months, there does seem to be a lot of
press on smaller layouts lately.
Anyone else notice this too?
Yes I've noticed it and it saddens me. The model RR mags were
always a
place where you could see these huge layouts and have something to
aspire
to some day. How many people or kids coming up dream about someday
having
a small room or closet to build their "Empire" in? I realize that
the
trend is towards smaller living spaces and many houses don't have
basements; the mags are just responding to this reality. But I
think
that's sad. Personally, I prefer seeing layouts that are bigger
than life,
but maybe someday...who knows, that dream layout could become a
reality for
me. Kind of like equating a trip to the local, traveling carnival
to a
Disney theme park vacation. Having only space for a small layout
may be
better than nothing, but to me it's would always be just a
compromise as I
lament what could have been.
FWIW,
Paul Kossart - Peru, Illinois, USA
BRHS, La Salle & Bureau County Model Railroad Club
Modeling the Fictional CB&Q Illiniwek River Branch in HO in the
1960's...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Serving Agriculture and Industry in the Illiniwek River Valley
since 1904."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
