11-07-2010, 06:33 PM
Been dreaming about scenery changes for Pinto, as mentioned above in the previous recent posts. Also did a little switching in the new 'configuration', without the grade crossing through town as drawn on the previous photo. I had thought keeping the street unblocked would be a nice addition/challenge for switching Pinto. In fact, it was too much of a challenge and made the trackage seem cramped and unrealistically shortened. A longer passenger station platform will look nice, I think, and the Freight Station and Produce shed across the track will still have a street access, just not between them - which had the effect of shoving them against the track and end of layout.
All of this is, of course, in my head (and sketched in pencil on the layout surface). I'm just visualizing the structures and scenery as I shunt cars around the tracks. And it may not mean much to someone reading along here without a nice diagram or photo. Sorry about that. Even so, I'm sharing it as progress just because it's all part of the planning process. I think this work will pay off later for op sessions. Gauging the level of challenge for a particular switch job is important.
This is also fresh in the front of my mind after the two op sessions I attended yesterday. I spent the morning switching cars at a paper mill on a great N scale layout and the afternoon running various switch jobs on an HO layout. I won't go into the details here, but both settings were tremendous learning experiences. The morning layout was more enjoyable than the afternoon for reasons I'm getting at in this post. It is clear that the first person spent a great deal of time thinking ahead and planning out car spots, train lengths, operator arm reach, etc. while the second probably did not, or may not have actually spent as much time playing out the operating scenarios.
OR it could be that the directions just weren't as clear. That's a factor I'm also considering. Are the car spots obvious? Will labels work? What about structure signage? Diagrams? Etc. I'm pretty sure the structures and scenery themselves will turn out just fine, as I have a good artistic sense for these elements. All this operating I've been doing recently has got me thinking about the functionality of the scene as well.
Thanks for reading,
Galen
All of this is, of course, in my head (and sketched in pencil on the layout surface). I'm just visualizing the structures and scenery as I shunt cars around the tracks. And it may not mean much to someone reading along here without a nice diagram or photo. Sorry about that. Even so, I'm sharing it as progress just because it's all part of the planning process. I think this work will pay off later for op sessions. Gauging the level of challenge for a particular switch job is important.
This is also fresh in the front of my mind after the two op sessions I attended yesterday. I spent the morning switching cars at a paper mill on a great N scale layout and the afternoon running various switch jobs on an HO layout. I won't go into the details here, but both settings were tremendous learning experiences. The morning layout was more enjoyable than the afternoon for reasons I'm getting at in this post. It is clear that the first person spent a great deal of time thinking ahead and planning out car spots, train lengths, operator arm reach, etc. while the second probably did not, or may not have actually spent as much time playing out the operating scenarios.
OR it could be that the directions just weren't as clear. That's a factor I'm also considering. Are the car spots obvious? Will labels work? What about structure signage? Diagrams? Etc. I'm pretty sure the structures and scenery themselves will turn out just fine, as I have a good artistic sense for these elements. All this operating I've been doing recently has got me thinking about the functionality of the scene as well.
Thanks for reading,
Galen
I may not be a rivet counter, but I sure do like rivets!