Hedley Junction

[sailormatlac]

I browswed through this thread and noticed that on this later addition there is a sense of where the trains are running through areas that are a bit isolated in the landscape. besides here there is only other layout I have seen that has included this successfully and that is Mike Confallones Allagash RY. I live in parts of Sweden where there is long distances and a lot of woods, so I enjoy this type of scenery and railfanning, though over here on the Inland line the trains are few. And the structures for this part is dead on, as many sawmills have been rebuilt and expanded so the modern Pikestuff styled buildings are every where albeit in larger scale. One of the problems that are usual in having a rural scene is keep the distances and keeping it looking like that the track and the trains are not dominating everything and the surroundings are looking like been done in less scale. This layout is underway to become something very special. Keep it up!

Thank you very much. Feels awkward to be compared to the Allagash. I must admit when I saw Mike Confalone's work, it was very familiar to what I experienced when a kid. I wanted to do this kind of layout since I started in this hobby as a kid. But when all the magazine are filled with 3-4 tracks mainline, hundreds of steam locomotives and a myriad of industries, going for something more relaxed feels liek you are doing things wrong.

Local trains, lowly settled areas, sawmill and paper mill, that's what I knew as a kid. That was normal for me. What wasn't normal was large yards and things like that. In fact, most freight-oriented railray lines in the world are in this category.

Getting the right balance is truly hard... you only achieve it when you work with the real benchwork. I'm constantly fighting against myself to stop adding tracks, but it's the only way to achieve the right look.

Matt