01-29-2009, 12:07 AM
MountainMan Wrote:Incidentally, if you read the article, then you know that virtually no information was provided on actual construction. Frankly, I doubt a professional would want to openly publish his methods and techniques when he's trying to make a living, but who knows? Maybe they're just waiting in the wings, pining for the opportunity.
I did read the article before I commented. Actually - I originally did read the article before you posted your initial comment, and then went back to re-read it before I commented. It is a funny habit I have - I try not to comment on stuff unless I have at least an inkling about what it is about.
It was a short article. Roughly two pages of text organized in 5 sections, with two more pages containing 5 pictures, a track plan and three fact boxes ("layout at a glance", "modeling realistic snow" and "meet the owner").
It was clearly indicated in the article that the layout building had been done by custom builders - it was mentioned in a sentence in the first section, and in the fourth section, as well as in the "modeling realistic snow" fact box. You would have to be somewhat visually challenged if you feel that the article left you with the impression that the owner had made the claim that he had built everything himself.
Main focus was on showing a winter layout, covered with snow, and perhaps surprisingly the article was called "Steaming through the winter wonderland".
The short article showed pics and gave a little information about the creation of the winter scenes. Not as much information as I would have liked to see about *how* things were done, but one of the techniques was briefly described how the snow had been made (building up drifts on the ground and on roofs with Sculptamold, sprinkled when still wet with WS lightweight Hydrocal and then WS Soft Flake Snow).
MountainMan Wrote:As I said earlier, the primary problem I have with the entire concept is that someone who knows absolutely nothing about trains at all can hire someone to construct an award winning mega-layout using such an approach. Is that really "model railroading"? Is that where we want this hobby of ours to go? That was the thrust of my original question, and the answers so far have ranged from "H*** no!" to"Heck, yes!"
Nice piece of rhetoric, but an 8x9 foot H0 scale layout is hardly an "award winning mega-layout", is it ?
Article also mentioned that the owner previously (while living in Texas) had built a Lionel layout that filled a two car garage. It also mentioned that he after a relocation from Texas to the Midwest had just made do with temporary Christmastime Lionel layouts, but had wanted a more permanent H0 scale winter scene layout, had made a rough sketch and established what he wanted, and hired a company of custom builders to build it.
As I mentioned above it was clearly indicated in the article that the owner had not built it himself, but that the concept (or vision, if you like) was his, while the actual building had been done by Raildreams.
So - what we have here does not seem to be a billionaire who commissioned someone to build an award winning mega-layout, and then tried to claim that he had built it himself.
Instead, it would appear that this is someone who has built a layout previously, but for some reason not known to me or you (I assume ?) this time around chose to have the layout built by custom builders.
Maybe this particular person (Bill Nelson) enjoys running trains more than he enjoys building layouts, or maybe he has a severe shortage of available time or maybe he feels he couldn't get his winter landscapes right or whatever. Don't know, don't care. None of my business.
Was it a great article in my opinion? Nope. "Winter wonderland" is not my kind of dream layout.
I noted in passing that the track plan, not totally unlike John Allen's original small Gorre and Daphetid layout, was based on mainly being viewed from one side (the front), that it had a couple of visible staging tracks at front, two loops (upper and lower) where trains could run simultaneously on auto pilot, and that you would have to either back in from the outer/lower loop to the inner/upper loop or back out again. It is clearly a layout intended more for display running more than e.g. a layout intended for switching.
Pictures showed nice snow covered scenes with what seemed to me like reasonable small town buildings for a 1940s North Eastern US look and feel. Engines and rolling stock seemed well done - NYC and PRR steam engines.
I felt that the article was too skimpy on details of how planning and construction had been done, as well as about how the layout was being operated (if that is the right word). But it wasn't really a how-to article - it was more like an extended "trackside scenes", ie maybe inspirational for others who might want to make a winter scene layout.
Since I am not planning a steam era winter scene layout, it didn't really have all that much to hit me directly in my center of hobby interest. I made a mental note of the track plan and the sculptamold/lightweight hydrocal/soft flake snow combo, and moved on to read other articles.
But the article wasn't exactly about "someone who knows absolutely nothing about trains" and "hire someone to construct an award winning mega-layout" either, was it ?
As for the "is this where we want this hobby of ours to go?", I have no illusions about being able to control how other modelers do things on their layouts.
Neither have I any desire to even try to dictate to others how they should do their layout.
I look at how others do things, and ask questions to learn how they do things. Some of the things I learn, I try on my own layout. But when it comes to how I do things on my own layout, I make my own decisions on how to proceed.
When I feel competent enough on a subject to give advice, I give advice to others if they ask for advice. But I am also clear on the fact that your layout is yours, not mine. You do what you like to produce a layout that is to your liking. It does not have to be to my liking if you like it.
YMMV, but I have found that none of us speak for "the hobby" or "all modelers". I speak for me, you speak for you. Anyone else can speak for themselves. Pretty simple system, isn't it ?
Grin,
Stein