04-27-2012, 09:16 AM
Naturally, many of us are familiar with Chris's work -- he's an accomplished and very creative modeler, and I'm a little puzzled that HE's asking US for advice!!! To some extent, I can't disagree with the folks who'd just say to take the Alaska layout or Haston, place on shelf brackets, turn on power, and voila! On the other hand, the impression I have is that UK style exhibition layouts actually aren't meant to be permanent. As Chris implies here, even Alaska or Haston just sits in storage and only runs when it goes to a gym or armory for an exhibition -- and then, as Chris has said on the Alaska thread here (I think), there are so many distractions with the attendees/punters and old friends and acquaintances stopping by or asking questions that all he really gets around to with those layouts is moving equipment more or less at random. That's fine for what those layouts are meant to do, but I think there's a strong implication that even the most successful exhibition layout for a particular UK function may not be as satisfying in a permanent home environment -- or at least that's the (potentially mistaken) impression I have.
I got to thinking about the suggestion I made of two Inglenooks in a bipolar configuration, and I remembered a shelf layout I started when I was in graduate school in the 1970s. This was long before Carl Arendt showed up, but I think it was based mainly on Chuck Yungkurth's Gum Stump & Snowshoe, with some refinements from a track plan in MR by a guy named (I think) E.S.Seeley. His idea was that a layout like this would be sort of a mini-DM&IR, hauling ore from the pits to a port. In any case, it has the advantage of having an operating plan:
This is a schematic, and you can reposition tracks, add a spur here or there or whatever, but I think it could be done in 10 feet by 15 inches.
I got to thinking about the suggestion I made of two Inglenooks in a bipolar configuration, and I remembered a shelf layout I started when I was in graduate school in the 1970s. This was long before Carl Arendt showed up, but I think it was based mainly on Chuck Yungkurth's Gum Stump & Snowshoe, with some refinements from a track plan in MR by a guy named (I think) E.S.Seeley. His idea was that a layout like this would be sort of a mini-DM&IR, hauling ore from the pits to a port. In any case, it has the advantage of having an operating plan:
This is a schematic, and you can reposition tracks, add a spur here or there or whatever, but I think it could be done in 10 feet by 15 inches.