Posts: 701
Threads: 27
Joined: Mar 2010
It's two days so I crossed two things off the list:
1.Modern-day Southern Pacific in Oregon
2.Transition-Era Western Pacific in California
3.Milwaukee Road either Modern or Transition Era
4.Early transition-era somewhere along the east-coast
5.Modern-day Santa Fe in Arizona
Justin Miller
Modeling the Lebanon Industrial Railway (LIRY)
Posts: 4,161
Threads: 174
Joined: Dec 2008
Alright! I can see why deciding on a theme has been a challenge. You are literally all over the map with your interests! 
Ralph
Posts: 3,732
Threads: 44
Joined: Dec 2008
Choices 2 and 3 lend themselves well to majestic mountain scenery while 4 would make a great urban "canyon" layout. Seems like now you should be able to cross either #4 off and pick between 2 and 3 or cross them off the list and go with #4.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Some things to consider:
Urban scenery takes longer and costs more (all those building kits and details and people and vechicles and....) but has a ton of eye candy.
Rural scenery is quicker and cheaper (the only thing that takes any real time is tree building) but has it's own eye appeal as well.
Do you like the "busy" look or the "relaxed" look?
Mike
Sent from my pocket calculator using two tin cans and a string
Posts: 3,262
Threads: 115
Joined: Dec 2008
Mike,Don't forget Bill Denton's Milwaukee Road "Kingsbury Branch" is in a urban setting and in that light Milwaukee Road would work.
Larry
Engineman
Summerset Ry
Make Safety your first thought, Not your last! Safety First!
Posts: 1,049
Threads: 45
Joined: Dec 2008
Tyson Rayles Wrote:Choices 2 and 3 lend themselves well to majestic mountain scenery while 4 would make a great urban "canyon" layout. Seems like now you should be able to cross either #4 off and pick between 2 and 3 or cross them off the list and go with #4.
Nah. Part of the challenge is that Justin is not actually comparing themes. He is just listing railroads (SP, WP, MILW, BNSF, "random eastern"), regions (Oregon, California, "anywhere between Chicago and Seattle", Arizona or "anywhere along the east coast"), and rough eras (modern and transition).
Some possible themes:
Switching freight cars for local industries in a small town
Switching freight cars for local urban industries
Engine terminal
Car repair facility (could also be a museum setup - moving stuff to be restored into the workshop).
Another option would have been to go to some kind of layout where it would have been natural for continuously running traffic to go back and forth without turning - say trams, interurbans, railcars, subways, DMU commuter trains or some such thing. Either a point along the way, with both ends being hidden, and a timer deciding how long until the train returns, or a terminal or junction, where the car arrives from staging, unloads, reloads and leaves.
Or maybe some kind of intra-plant type of movements - say within a steel mill. Moving cars around dockside in a harbor. Or moving between a gravel pit and a transloading point of some kind, to be dumped, before returning to the place they came from to be reloaded.
Lots and lots and lots of possible themes. Within most of the railroads and eras he is listing. Well, probably not any harbors in Arizona. So if he wants harbors, I guess Arizona is out :-)
Smile,
Stein
Posts: 4,161
Threads: 174
Joined: Dec 2008
[quote="steinjr"]
Nah. Part of the challenge is that Justin is not actually comparing themes. He is just listing railroads (SP, WP, MILW, BNSF, "random eastern"), regions (Oregon, California, "anywhere between Chicago and Seattle", Arizona or "anywhere along the east coast"), and rough eras (modern and transition)./quote]
Well yeah, I guess you're right. but he is starting to narrow down his preferences. It was easy for me. I always wanted to model the Penn Central and hadn't thought of other roads.
Posts: 56
Threads: 0
Joined: Apr 2011
Ralph,
you seem to miss the point. Building the Penn Central is impossible. It ranges too from race tracks along the Hudson, NYC barge switching, the famous 4 track mains through Horse Shoe curves, and numerous small branches. Even if you had a huge warehouse it would have been to much. Not to mention the run through Albany or the coal and steel region around Pittsburg.
Justin,
Narrowing down the choice to model-able small pieces is the game. You mentioned the Milwaukie road, an other poster immediately thought about mountains and probably electrics too, while I might have been thinking about the Beer Line or Kingsbury Road.
And it might even be possible that you love researching RR's, love dreaming about modeling them, but confronted with wood, plastics and glue, you might be not in heaven.
Stein,
I had some issues with drawings on photobucket too. Bitmap files were no longer accepted, jpeg were without any problems.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Paul
Posts: 4,161
Threads: 174
Joined: Dec 2008
paulus_jas Wrote:Ralph,
you seem to miss the point. Building the Penn Central is impossible. It ranges too from race tracks along the Hudson, NYC barge switching, the famous 4 track mains through Horse Shoe curves, and numerous small branches. Even if you had a huge warehouse it would have been to much. Not to mention the run through Albany or the coal and steel region around Pittsburg.
That's funny Paul! No, of course I'm not suggesting that I model the entire Penn Central system and all of its various components. I model The Penn Central as far as having chosen it as my preferred railroad which then led me to select scenery and industry that fit with that line, my preference being the American Northeast location. Justin mentioned several different railroads in different locations all over the United States. It seems to me that the first decision to make when considering building a layout might be which railroad will run on it. That decision will affect all subsequent choices regarding scenery, track complexity, size and type of industries, operations, etc.
Ralph
Posts: 1,049
Threads: 45
Joined: Dec 2008
Ralph Wrote:It seems to me that the first decision to make when considering building a layout might be which railroad will run on it.
Not necessarily. If you look at Reinhard's excellent railroad, you will have noted that the same track plan can represent different railroads in different eras, with buildings and cars swapped out for other buildings and cars.
But I of course totally agrees that it is smart to at least have a rough idea about what kind of place and what kind of railroading you want to model. So far, Justin has concentrated on "industry park" type of settings - which could just as well have been on the Southern Pacific in a city in Oregon, or on The Standard Railroad of the World (or on it's successors) somewhere on the east coast, or on the BNSF in Arizona - it is the same kind of railroading.
Smile,
Stein
Posts: 56
Threads: 0
Joined: Apr 2011
Hi gentlemen,
the most important point however is that just mentioning some larger systems as Justin did, does not explain anything to why he was not satisfied with his choices.
Mentioning some more or just one in the end, will not help him either. IMHO a trackplan even comes second, if building and running (or switching) does not give him the pleasure he is after he will never succeed. Being on the road is the fun, not the place where you are heading for. Justin might want to start again, hopefully for him he will enjoy the build this time.
He could be like David Barrow, only building the tracks and an indication of the scenery. Nothing wrong with that. But Justin should find why his fun is over after a short time of building.
Smile
Paul
Posts: 5,263
Threads: 195
Joined: Apr 2009
Justin, might be a very different approach can be helpful. What kind of RR company, operation or location do you have a positive emotional relationship to? Is there a RR you watched as little boy with your father? Have you been deeply impressed by the crowded operation in a big city? Do you remember beautiful colored engines passing by the home your aunt at the country side? Is there a city you like very much and may want to live?.....
My "emotional" RR story is very short. My very first business trip to the US was to Chicago. You never forget the first love/city  The LA area was chosen by pure technical aspects due to the very busy trackage in Vernon first. That did change gradually when I discovered the South West Forum with lots of photos of all kind of RR operation in that area. They became the screen saver and wall paper (change every minute) on my PC. So I am looking 10 hours per day at LA RR photos. That builds up emotions. My intentional trip this year to LA and meeting two RR fans left of course an emotional binding to LA. I have been there, it became "my LA" now ;-)
Reinhard
Posts: 701
Threads: 27
Joined: Mar 2010
Well, the railroad I connect with most would be Southern Pacific, but my favorite railroad would have to be the New Haven, I guess now that I think about it, my favorite location would be somewhere in New England.
For what type of railroad ops I want to model, I would want to model either local switching at the end of a branchline or switching in a semi-urban enviroment.
Justin Miller
Modeling the Lebanon Industrial Railway (LIRY)
Posts: 2,458
Threads: 57
Joined: Dec 2008
Seems to me you've answered your own questions....You have a favorite road, and its region of operations....So pick a suitable city/town in that region, and GO FOR IT...!!!
Leave the kid-in-the-candy-store syndrome behind and get down to business....
Unless, of course, your REAL interest is not committing to anything...
Gus (LC&P).
Posts: 3,732
Threads: 44
Joined: Dec 2008
Steamtrains Wrote:Unless, of course, your REAL interest is not committing to anything...
Yeah, I'm afraid Justin might be suffering from "analysis paralysis"!
Mike
Sent from my pocket calculator using two tin cans and a string
Posts: 1,049
Threads: 45
Joined: Dec 2008
Justin --
As the dad of a teenager, it sometimes get very tempting of offer you "fatherly" life advice on the value of perseverance and such things, but I'll try to stay away from those subject s :-)
Going back to your latest idea - the New Haven in New England. Are you sure that this is what you really want? Or would you like a little more time to think about why (and if) the New Haven would be better than the SP, the WP, the Milwaukee or the BNSF for you? What is it about it that makes you feel more enthusiastic about this railroad than about the railroads you have already listed?
How big do you want to make this layout? Be realistic this time. Have you looked for scenes you would like to model?
Smile,
Stein
|
