Just Suppose...

[MountainMan]

Just suppose that your "industry along the rails" is a tourist railroad associated within a particular area and includes a theme park, such as a tourist railroad in an old logging area that includes a park, museum, facilities, etc. What does your "industry" look like then?

What if your "industry were the Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado?

Wouldn't the entire "industry" be more or less self-contained, and an entire layout at the same time?

[Sumpter250]

Just suppose that your "industry along the rails" is a tourist railroad associated within a particular area and includes a theme park, such as a tourist railroad in an old logging area that includes a park, museum, facilities, etc. What does your "industry" look like then?
What if your "industry were the Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado?
Wouldn't the entire "industry" be more or less self-contained, and an entire layout at the same time?

Yes, in fact, my Railroad, is a "working Museum", that subcontracts Less-Than-carload-loads, from the Northeastern roads, and transports them in Steam Era rolling stock, pulled by restored steam loco's, in exchange for track-age rights.
"tourist" comes in, in the fact that the "Cindys Harbor" has Photo platforms built at several spectacular scenic locations ( mostly located on interconnecting short runs of right-of way between the larger railroads ),that, for a small fee, let rail fans get some pretty neat photos of "Steam Freight".
Golden, Colorado ?....no, more like "Out East" ( Eastern Long Island), and "Down East" ( Maine, and New England area )
"Looks like" ? .......Looks a lot like a successful, wholly owned subsidiary, of a thriving Eastern Ship building and Dry Dock Company.

[MasonJar]

Well, it could go either way...

At the Smith's Falls Railway Museum, the museum's entire trackage is cut off from the rest of the world. Only way for locos or rolling stock to get in or out now is by truck. So it is self-contained in that sense.

On the other hand, at the Museum of Science and Tech in Ottawa, the entire " industry" is about 500m of track on which you can ride up and down in a passenger car or caboose. However, there is still a rail connection to the outside world, and (theoretically) there could be interchange. They have in the past received rolling stock by rail, and CPR1201 which used to run excursion service in the Ottawa Valley got parked in the loco barn (hopefully not permanently). It is possible too that they might receive supplies, replacement parts and so on by rail.


Andrew

[nachoman]

I wonder if anyone ever attempted to make their layout a scale model of the Golden museum. Looking at it in google earth, it would scale to about an 8x11 HO scale layout. A continuous loop in that case would be prototypical.

[BR60103]

I think the Great Western Society museum at Didcot, England, is located in the middle of a junction (on the line between London and Oxford) and has rail connection.
(just checked with <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.192.com/places/search/">http://www.192.com/places/search/</a><!-- m --> and they are located inside a loop -- old engine facilities or yard).

[MountainMan]

I wonder if anyone ever attempted to make their layout a scale model of the Golden museum. Looking at it in google earth, it would scale to about an 8x11 HO scale layout. A continuous loop in that case would be prototypical.

Exactly, with a connecting track out to the real world to allow stuff to be moved in or out as needed. There is even an outdoor model train layout inside the Golden RR Museum!

Railroads that cover considerable distance, such as the Cumbres and Toltec and the Durango and Silverton, are cases in point for tourist railroads that would make up an entire layout.

[Russ Bellinis]

The Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, Ca currently has a loop track inside the museum grounds where they run trolleys when the museum is open. They also have a track outside the museum that currently runs almost to the Perris train station. The old train station has been restored and houses the Perris Historical Society, and is going to be the terminus for a new commuter branch from Riverside up the hills parallel to the "San Jac" (old San Jacinto branch.) The museum has built a pocket track at the station and is building tracks to the station. When completed people who want could ride the commuter train in from Los Angeles and switch trains in Riverside to come up to Perris, then buy a ticket to the museum and ride a train in from the Perris depot to the museum. That will be about a 5 mile run from the Perris station to the Museum entrance. They have an ex-Santa Fe Fp45 that they use to pull a passenger train out on the "mainline." On the third weekend of every month they will begin running a steam excursion behind a 2-6-2 prairie type once they have finished her overhaul.

[MountainMan]

I don't know if it's the same elsewhere, but a lot more excursion railroads seem to be popping up all over the place. Pretty much any one of them would make a decent layout.