Tyson Rayles Wrote:My other comment on urban scenery is that most layouts I've seen that were urban the whole layout was that way so it looked like the trains seem to come from nowhere and went nowhere but just run around in circles inside the city limits. In real life shippers wouldn't use trains for that they would use trucks .

Connecting with your comment on the other thread, that might be the difference. While Freight doesn't necessarily move by rail in the middle of a city, but people do. An urban layout with a subway or commuter line would look right at home with frequent service. Some lines really do run in loops around the city, though some sort of simulated push-pull would probably look better. If you only consider the freight options, then that does limit your urban modelling to some extent.

You also get routes like the New York Central's High-Line, which was for a time switching industries in the middle of Manhattan.

Besides, you don't necessarily have to do to much switching in the city. The mainlines of many of the freight railroads passing through Philadelphia don't really have to many industries on them at all, rather they have branch lines to the industrial districts. This avoids that problem all together if the freights are just "passing through". The ex B&O traveling on the east side of the Schuylkill River comes to mind.

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:Let me defend myself in pointing out that I do appreciate those untouched forests, few places are more interesting to explore! Perhaps New Jersey's Pine Barrens is the only Wilderness I'm not too wild about exploring. If the name doesn't deter you, there is all the Horseflies and the Jersey Devil.

Hmmmm, I forgot about the Jersey Devil.....even the horseflies avoid that one. The pine barrens are pretty much untouched wilderness. You would have to have your survival skills freshly honed, before venturing into the barrens. They cover, what on the east coast would be considered a vast area, with few "landmarks". ( or did, the last time I was in that area.)

I prefer to do industrial switching to any other type of operation. I fell in love with the LAJ after exploring the area around the City of Vernon just south of Los Angeles, Ca. The city is definitely urban, but so much of the city is devoted to industry that the population is probably less than 1000. According to the City of Vernon web page the city occupies 5.2 square miles with 1800 businesses employing @ 55,000 people.