With my 30th birthday rapidly approaching, I took a moment to reflect on my layout’s 5 years [:O] of construction. The current layout is the longest lived and most complete of my endeavors.
When I started building 5 years ago, little did I know how my skills would increase, and my views on the how I practiced the hobby would change.
Before I wouldn’t dreamt of kitbashing or scratchbuilding. But after some prodding, I kitbashed my first structure. Now the majority of my major buildings are kitbashes of some sort. Same with scratchbuilding. After scratchbuilding a few small bridges, I had the courage to tackle my biggest project to date, the reinforced concrete viaduct over the Bourbon River valley.
I railroad for a living, so the layout wasn’t designed for operation, a la Tony Koester. After some intriguing articles in MR and threads here, however, I gave it a try. Guess what, I actually enjoyed it. That was a big reason for adding a second switching area at North Falls. A productive discussion here, lead to the design of an engine terminal that is an operational center in it’s own right, rather then simply a place to store my excess engines. A hostler to while way the hours here, and not need to venture beyond Lampson Yard.
I wasn’t too keen on DCC. The cost. The learning curve. Installing all those decoders. Then I ran on a few DCC layouts, and started changing my mind. Adding the engine terminal sealed the deal. It’s difficult to REALLY hostle engines around using DC. So as soon as the bank allows, the Bourbon River Sub, will go DCC.
At first, I had a hodge podge of equipment from different eras, and locations. As construction progressed, and my knowledge of several prototypes grew, I found myself drawn toward a more prototypical approach. Soon,
