05-26-2010, 07:33 PM
Gary! It took me a couple of nights (and an afternoon) to read all the way through from the beginning, checking and reading each link along the way, studying each "fo-toe"and taking in the details, digesting differing philosophies of layout design and suggestions of industries to be included ... and I have come to a conclusion: Gary S. knows what he is doing! 
It came to me on page 28 or 29 when there was a flood of suggestions regarding industries to include in the new areas. Some suggestions, the more general ones which spoke more to arrangement of track and structures to address scenery concerns and disguising what you expressed you considered a scenic liability - to "make it disappear," were thoughtful, workable solutions to troubling problems. Other suggestions, although similarly well-intended and just as workable scenic-wise, may be an awkward fit for your layout. Now, please! Let's no one get in a huff! You guys have all been a lot closer to this than I have, seeing it develop on more or less a day-to-day basis, seeing it as it happened and reacting to it in the moment. All well and good!
My input, however, comes from an intense three day study of this building program, initially from the viewpoint of design and subsequent construction and then as an attempt to understand what you, Gary, are trying to portray with your layout. Although many of us may have suggestions for industries that would fit a general industrial area, unless we have an understanding of the industries of Texas, and more specifically the industries of the outer "industrial parks" of Houston, our well-meant suggestions, although interesting industries in general, are not a fit for "close-in" industrial Houston. But hopefully they got your mental juices flowing (even juicier than they were) about industry in your neck of the woods of Houston. :!: 
I am looking forward, now that I'm all up to speed on what has happened so far, to continuing to follow your progress as you work your way around the room ("That boy can really work a room!" ta-da-bum ... tssssss!)
Seriously though, I'm so impressed with the 1:1 scale building that I can't wait to watch how you will fill it up in the next episode of ... "Switching Freight in Houston in One Eighty-Seventh Scale!" :hey:
It came to me on page 28 or 29 when there was a flood of suggestions regarding industries to include in the new areas. Some suggestions, the more general ones which spoke more to arrangement of track and structures to address scenery concerns and disguising what you expressed you considered a scenic liability - to "make it disappear," were thoughtful, workable solutions to troubling problems. Other suggestions, although similarly well-intended and just as workable scenic-wise, may be an awkward fit for your layout. Now, please! Let's no one get in a huff! You guys have all been a lot closer to this than I have, seeing it develop on more or less a day-to-day basis, seeing it as it happened and reacting to it in the moment. All well and good!
My input, however, comes from an intense three day study of this building program, initially from the viewpoint of design and subsequent construction and then as an attempt to understand what you, Gary, are trying to portray with your layout. Although many of us may have suggestions for industries that would fit a general industrial area, unless we have an understanding of the industries of Texas, and more specifically the industries of the outer "industrial parks" of Houston, our well-meant suggestions, although interesting industries in general, are not a fit for "close-in" industrial Houston. But hopefully they got your mental juices flowing (even juicier than they were) about industry in your neck of the woods of Houston.
:!: I am looking forward, now that I'm all up to speed on what has happened so far, to continuing to follow your progress as you work your way around the room ("That boy can really work a room!" ta-da-bum ... tssssss!)
Seriously though, I'm so impressed with the 1:1 scale building that I can't wait to watch how you will fill it up in the next episode of ... "Switching Freight in Houston in One Eighty-Seventh Scale!" :hey:
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln