New Contest Proposal--Smallville

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
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[quote user=“SpaceMouse”]

My preference here is to add a little more challenge to the contest, but it seems the more specific you become the less peopel want to participate, especially with those us who never lived or even visted the area.

I like the idea of taking a specific idea, like Fredrick and creating a layout. In fact, that’s what I did with my PRR layout (and 2 x 8 is a pretty tight space to do it.) However, I fear that only 2 or three people would take the challenge. It might attract some of the LDSIG interested, but I think they are pretty much thumbing their noses at our silly little musings.

Okay, we’ll serve this one up and where it gets whacked.

2 x 8 agricultural town no era no locational boundries HO scale (N can scale down to 13"

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2x8 agricultural town, eh? Hm…the “West Sacramento” as-yet-undesigned corner of my layout certainly fits both into the size limitations, the era, and the theme…and the Sacramento Valley is basically the Midwest of California. Sounds like I might have to throw my hat in the ring for this one!

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Suggest that the word “town” be replaced with “station” or “installation” or maybe “village”. Requiring the inclusion of a town on the module might consume to much space. On the other and it could solve the problem of hiddining the back edge. In many cases, the station was a short distance outside of the town proper. See Centerville, Pa on the maps link below

http://historical.maptech.com/getImage.cfm?fname=twnv32ne.jpg&state=PA

http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepage/index.cfm?lat=41.73611&lon=-79.76333&scale=25000&type=1&zoom=100&bpid=HIS0203033115%2C2%2C1%2C0&latlontype=DMS&searchscope=dom&CFID=1155414&CFTOKEN=82785359

The station and milk plant were on the PA RR just east of the village

The feed mill was on the PA just south of town.

See also (for aerial photo

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?wip=2&v=2&rtp=~&FORM=MSNH#JndoZXJlMT1DZW50ZXJ2aWxsZSUyYytQYSZiYj01NS43NzY1NzMwMTg2Njc3JTdlLTM0LjgwNDY4NzUlN2UxOC42NDYyNDUxNDI2NzA2JTdlLTEzMy40MTc5Njg3NQ==

To the Old Do

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On the other hand, the small town I’m living in had a large center of distribution in the center of town. And within the town, a brewery, glass factory, a tire factory, railroad service from two major railroads (and a passenger/freight station for each).

However, to get things rolling along…

2 x 8

somewhere in or about a small agricultural town

no era no locational boundries

HO scale (N can scale down to 13" x 52")

Grade and curve radius issues apply

Anything else

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Prototype has been stricken from the record. It’s just a midwest farming town local from everything I can tell.

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Nope can be an ice farm in Pt. Barrow, AK.

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I could go either way, but so far the thread has been leaning toward “part of something larger.”

That however presents the problem of: do we allow yard leads, yard tracks, interchange tracks, ends of wyes, etc. to extend off the 2 x 8 area.

To make it work both ways, we can say that the mainline, either double or single can connect to either side of the layout. Likewise, an interchange track can extend off either side of the layout, but any “interchange” must take place within the 2 x 8 boundaries.

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SM:

Sounds good to me. I’ve got an idea already.

When do we start? [:)]

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I’ve thought long and hard about this for a few days now - do I reply to KingConrail’s last post, or let it go unchallenged? It contained a number of false assumptions that I think are worth correcting, to say nothing of the way he misrepresented my position. Since KC made it personal, I’ve decided to claim my right of reply. I’ve rearranged the order of his post so I can make my points in a more logical order, but I’ve not altered the context of his words.

KingConrail wrote: …I can see now just how opinionated, and closed minded people can be.

Yes, I’m opinionated. Why else would a person post in a forum like this if not to express an opinion? You did. I offered an opinion which simply differed from yours, without impugning your character or your knowledge.

As for being “close-minded”, I say bollocks to that. Apart from exchanging opinions, I visit the forum to learn, get ideas, be inspired. My modelling interests have led me to travel overseas, learn a new language, and immerse myself in a society and culture utterly unlike my own. Not the actions of a close-minded person, I reckon.

OTOH, a person who reacts as you did to a mere difference of opinion could be regarded as close-minded, I think.

“I saw you “agreed” with someone else’s suggestion, and you “disagreed” with mine, but Mark…What is your suggestion? I’m sure Australian PROTOTYPE differs from U.S. Prototype, so I don’t expect you to be an expert on the United States Mid-West region either, but maybe you could still add something creative for Chip to mull over.”

Australian prototype doesn’t differ from the US as much as you may think, except in one very important respect which I’ll touch on later, but that’s otherwise irrelevant to this discussion. I don’t profess to be an “expert” on the US Midwest either, but I do reckon I’m fairly knowledgable on the subject. I spent 25 years modelling Midwest railroads, and in that period I devoted a lot of time and effort to

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I don’t really see much whacking. Do we have a plan then? My entry is almost ready - not too many options on a 2x8.

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I had alredy started a plan for the 6x6 space but since we’re having a 2x8 contest I’ll post it here.

Now to get started on the 2x8…

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Mark,

Unless your entire intent was to argue over none issues, I don’t see your point in posting the above reply AFTER sending me a Private Message on the same subject.

Apperantly it was more important for you to “challenge” me, as you stated in your opening sentence, than to provide a suggestion for the contest, which just goes to further my OPINONS about a growing number of persons that post on this forum.

I have replied to all the comments in your post Via Private Messege, to avoid others having to be bothered by this.

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As I was a supporter of the 6x6, I’ll comment.

NEAT! I like the layout, would be curious about operations.

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Chad, is ther any way you could make the plan bigger. I have trouble with the small size of the pic.

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Chip, I’ll E-mail it to you as an attachment. For some reason shutterfly, my photo hosting site, copresses pics and adds a border around them like a print preview. Sometimes I post pics from my yahoo account but these seem to turn to 's after a while.

Chad

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Essensially what Steve H and Mark are arguing about seems to be due to a cultural difference.

Steve H seem to feel that it is more important to be tactful and spare him the embarassment of having to publicly acknowledge that he were wrong, than it is for him to publicly acknowledge that a claim he made about prototypical practices was wrong.

Mark, on the other hand, seems to feel that it is more important to correct an erronous statement about prototypical practics for steam servicing in the US midwest in the 1950s (and explain what basis he has for claiming that the statement was erronous) than it is to spare Steve H’s feelings.

Okay - you have both made your point. Time to end this part of the debate and move on.

Stein