Am i the only one who has ever gone nuts and made a layout based on crazy fictional stuff that you just thought would look cool? i have a small Ho layout based around a Tesla power generator (a cheap plasma globe you could buy at any toy store) and an experimental missile site.the trains pull converted troopcars and ballast wagons filled with glow in the dark plastic beads and stuff. now dont get me wrong, i also have a perfectly respectable n scale pennsylvania based layout.so is there anyone else who occasionally throws realism to the wind like me? [}:)]
Nope!
It’s just YOU!!
ROFLMAO
Darrell, giggle, giggle, and quiet…for now
Well… nope. Can’t say I do.
You’re on your own there, my friend [soapbox]
No, I occasionally have a bit of madness, too. Maybe not as much as you, but still a bit of madness.
My large scale layout will not be a perfect scale model, many whimsical items will show up, and structures may be slightly out-of-scale, etc., etc., etc. I especially like the cartoon layout “The Birdwater & Raspberry”. I think it’s featured in Garden Railroader every so often (someone correct me if I’m wrong).
My HO scale layout is intended to be a scale model, very few whimsical items, structures hopefully to-scale, etc., etc., etc. Even John Allen had a bit of whimsy on his layout (OK maybe a lot of whimsy). I admit to copying his idea “The World’s Largest HO Scale Indoor Parking Lot”. It consisted of a building fitted with 2-way mirrors for windows, 2 autos inside, painted a different color on each side, and a single light. When viewed, it looked light the parking lot went on forever, an optical illusion created by the mirrors. Mine will be “Warehouse 23”, supposedly the “secret” US Gov’t warehouse where they keep crashed UFO’s, and other cover-ups. Think of the last scene in “Indiana Jones”, where they eventually store the Ark of the Covenant. Mine will be full of wooden crates, and of course the black car out front with the MIB.
Brad
I have no intention of throwing realism to the wind, but I do like to play “what if” scenarios… Your post reminded me of one. What if Tesla had not totally given up his royalties on AC power so that his wireless system could have been developed? I have the Colorado Springs (Where Tesla had his field laboratory from 1899-1900) based freelance railroad the Pikes Peak, Fossil Creek & Tesla. It is a short line railroad set in 1920 whos purpose is primarly bringing coal to power the generators of the Tesla Wireless Power company. The Colorado Springs power station provides power for parts of 9 western states, and uses a lot of coal.
Cool!what do the generators look like?
I also dabble in writing science fiction, so I frequently ‘imagineer’ railroads for wildly unlikely scenarios like ore movers on asteroids with all-but-nonexistant gravity (closed-top cars loaded through valved openings, and magnetized wheels to hold them on the rails…) Sometimes they reach the “quick sketch on the back of an envelope” stage, but not often.
Whimsy in my real-world modeling takes two forms, both involving rolling stock. On a regular basis the coal-originating Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo operates three truck articulated hoppers kitbashed from American-prototype 4-bay 70 tonners, which can only be described as having no known prototype (or acknowledged parentage!) There are also several hopper-brake vans of similar origin, as well as “could have been, but weren’t” locos, bearing TTT emblems and numbers. Less commonly, a JNR passenger train ordinarily headed by a D50 class 2-6-0 or DD51 class diesel-hydraulic will roll out of up staging behind NYC 6005 or N&W 611, much to the amazement of the local populace (who still haven’t figured out how those standard gauge locos can run on 42 inch gauge track.)
Chuck (who models 1964 Japanese railroading in 1:80 scale, 16.5mm gauge - aka HOj)
Some of you may have seen the Grim Reaper in a few of my photos. I’ve also got a mermaid who will have a home once I finish the Bay and have a place for her. Both of these are Preiser figures, by the way.
The generators will be just normal generators and inside of buildings, but the distribution towers, for lack of any other prototype, will look like the Wardenclyffe Tower. I know this was for radio, but I figured the master would have similar engineering characteristics for his power transmitters. I understand that in real life the tower was made out of wood and they were worried about repair if something rotted, so it was designed that any piece of it could be removed and replaced without having to take others off or appart.
P.S. I am working on the design for the electric locomotives. I’ve been debating something that looks like a short GG1.
Seems I remember someone around here had a dinosaur on their layout. Or did I dream that?
John Allen did.
At the Model Railroad Club in Union, NJ I found an HO scale astronaut planting an American flag on a vacant lot between two DPM commercial buildings…
I have got a Big Foot and a Giant Iguana on my layout. I used to have a pet Iguana that was a little over 5’ long, she was a big pet and I found this 5’’ Iguana and felt like it should be on the layout. Mike
Lets see, the camera shop that I managed had a superman and a dinosaur. The hobby shops in Danbury and New Milford CT both have them as well. My “Sinclair” from the 64-65 Worlds Fair will be going on my layout. As for a “plasma globe”, well that’s a first for me. I’ve sold a bunch of them in my days, but never for a train layout.
I never thought of messing around like that but you have given me an idea, I wonder what a layout on Mars would look like, martians and all (yea I know Martians aren’t real but a girl can dream can’t she?)
My son did a Mars vespine gas refinery and organics house for his HO scale module when he belonged to a modular group. He made meteor craters with a hot knife and foam, Painted everything red. Then he used clear plastic “blister packs” from donuts and stuff to make the enlosures. He put machinery and angle hair in one to simulate the vespine gas, and planted green stuff in the organics house. The scene was finished with a crashed flying saucer and a smoke unit from a G-scale locomotive mounted under (inside?) one of the craters.
That sounds great,if I had the space I might try something different but for now I’ll stick with"normal"
Of course Martians are real. And…they use hay in their stock cars.
wow! buttons to the first two people who responded, whos laughing now? (insert evil laughing sound)
though i guess i am kinda different as i went from crazy layout to prototype Isle of Man layout. still, youve given me lots of ideas, as i love making temporary layouts and a mars one or maybe a “Manhatten project” one would be awesome.thanks everyone!
corksean12,
I stand by my first assessment:
“Nope! It’s just you!” LOL
Everybody else is just pulling your leg!! ROFL
Darrell, entered laughing, exitting quiet…for now
Even so, its given me ideas.