Waiting during switching

[FCIN]

Right there is a topic heading and one that should get modelers to think outside the old worn switching layout design box and away from anything that resembles a time saver..

I think that over the past couple of years, the Time Saver/switching puzzle idea as a basis for layout design is slowly beginning to fade. You need only look at some of the outstanding layout designs that have been posted on Big Blue and see the work done by the folks building them; the recent books published by Lance Mindheim and a few others and you can see the trend changing.

But at the same time there are so many "layout designers" that continue to perpetuate those concepts, that it will never really go away. I would always recommend that anyone thinking of building a switching layout read this article before they start building that layout based on the Time Saver: http://www.housatonicrr.com/timesaver.htm. Then I would recommend that folks get on a nice civil forum like Big Blue and look at the Layouts, Industries Along The Rails and Strictly Rail Operations sections for inspiration and information. Then visit a few web sites where the layouts (freelance or otherwise) are based on prototype operations and finally, spend some time looking at various real locations on Google/Bing maps before actually designing their own layout.

More than anything, it's a matter of getting the word out, and asking questions, like faraway has done. Some really interesting discussions can result from threads like this one.