Track planning blues

[sailormatlac]

This problem reminds me a little of a problem Bob Brown had in early issues of The Gazette: he was trying to model Phillips, ME on the Sandy River c 1900. He was either modeling everything exactly to scale or carefully compressed: at the end, he was unhappy with things and realized it was because (in my interpretation of his remarks) he was building a museum exhibit, not a model railroad. That helped me to break away from the museum exhibit mentality myself. I wound up with an idea closer to Jim Vail, a Gazette columnist, whose layout is a series of scenes, some prototypical (like the West Side Lumber Tuolomne mill), others fanciful (Cumbres Pass set somewhere in the California Coast Range).

If I were planning an ISL or shelf-style layout, I'd be thinking in terms of doing something like what Reinhard has done here, scenery and structures that can easily be changed to suit changing preferences. I used to be heavily Northeastern US- New England until I moved to California; now in my old age I'm appreciating the Frisco and the L&N. . . the "experts" say you have to pick a prototype. Phooey!

Yep, that museum exhibit feeling. Exactly. Picking up a propotype isn't a bad thing, it's there to be used as some guide, some inspiration. How far you want to take it is a matter of personnal taste. But we are all the same, limiting ourselves to one road or era is kind of foolish. In an impossible dream, I would probably model the entire North American spanning almost 2 century of railroad history! ;-)

BTW, I gave some thoughts about Cookshire Junction during lunch. That place is a forgotten gem in term of railroading. The junction gives plenty of options for train movements, car type, industries and roadnames. Just as you pointed out, Reinhard thought us to get versatile with a layout and still achieving high level of enjoyment and "prototypicalness"!!!

I'll probably post something about Cookshire turned into an ISL where two railroads interchange. A way to keep variety in operation.

Matt