Obviously no one took the time to watch the Northlandz segment of the free DVD.
They’re looking at a huge expansion in the near future.
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In case nobody noticed, I suspect that that reported $9 million were donations from New Jersey based manufacturers. When I visited Northlands, the door to the control room was open. I saw rows and rows of MRC powerpacks. If you assume that the track is also Atlas. MRC, Atlas, Mantua. These all are, or were, based in New Jersey.
I agree with the sentiment expressed here. This place would not warrant a second visit from me. On ther other hand, If I am ever in San Diego again, I would want make a return visit to the model railroad club in Balboa Park .
$13.75 for adults to get in, might be a little steep after looking at the pictures of it on there website.
I think you have to understand what it was built for - Public entertainment! It has nothing to do with scale model railroading. It is hard to make a comparison to what you or I want to do. A few years ago, some freinds visited and looked at my model railroad. The usual comments/questions were:
o - Why is it ‘slow’, can it go faster?(and these are adults).
o - Why do I have stub end spurs(should I not have the tracks connected on each end)?
o - We know of this guy who has operating log loaders/giraffe car/etc…
o - Are you going to add more ‘loops’ so you can run more trains?
These were all fair questions: The visitors are thinking in a different ‘box’, and they are looking at this as entertainment. After all was said and done, they loved to see the layout. What ‘we’ have to understand is that ‘our world’ is far different than what their expectations are. A few of these ‘visitors’ have been over later and start to grasp what I am doing, but it takes time fo this stuff to ‘soak in’!
Jim
Gee, this is a tough crowd. [:)] Although I’ve only seen the layout via TV (HD), put me down as one who likes it. I enjoy seeing lots of trains running at the same time.
How else would you do it and still maintain a minimal operating staff? I suppose if you have a Disney type skills and a budget to match you could come up with a computer controlled layout would be fun for the public to watch.
I’ve been to open houses on operational type layouts when they had only one train at a time running around. If you don’t have enough people there to run it, it can be awfully boring.
Bill
I’ll back up Elliot’s comments about the HO layout at the Museum of Science and industry in Chicago; I’ve been there and it’s great… For those of you who say you don’t like the toyish look, the MS&I’s layout is nothing like that. While the trains may be going in a loop, it’s one big loop, it doesn’t really double back on itself, and there are sidings represented, with non-moving trains in them. Things like a lumber mill, flood coal loader, intermodule port, ect. And the scenery is really good. This layout is much more realistic than Northlandz, or at least it looks better than the pictures I’ve seen of Northlandz.
Noah
I stopped at Northlandz on the way back from the 2003 PCRRHS convention in Connecticut . Yeah, some of the scenery was a bit crude…but we must remember that it’s aimed at a different type of “audience.” The average viewer sometimes doesn’t appreciate the 'fine details" that we’re used to.
Thanks Noah!
Jim, you have a perfect grasp of the situation. Northlandz wasn’t built for model railroaders. It was built for the general public, who know little or nothing of our hobby. Can we do better? Would we do better? Of course, but in it’s own special way, Northlandz promotes our hobby.
If even one child comes away with a lasting impresion about trains, we all win.
The display that I built was not exactly what I wanted, it was what I knew I could sell. Though as a business it ultimately failed, as a concept it was highly successful, attracting well over 100,000 people the first year.
Now that I’m working in my basement, with no pressure to produce, I can do what I want.
No offense to Stuckarmchairing, because on a modeling level I agree with him, but when you understand the
Isn’t Nortlanz just a big layout that goes round and round. Similar to about 90% of the home layouts shown in most of the model magazines and Videos/DVDs and talked about here on the forums.
If the home layout owners like roundy rounds then Northlanz is right at the top of the list!
BOB H – Clarion, PA
I would love to visit. I also like House on the Rock and his collections. I don’t see Northlandz as a joke but as one person’s attempt at large. I love the bridges. I love the tongue in cheek. We all play with trains, and he is big and expensive. Three story mountains impress me. As a rich man’s toys go, it is a good one. We went to see the model of “The Chinees warriers” and the Forbidden City near Houston. It was impressive if you took it for what it is. I do think I make better trees than he does.
For a layout that large and dramatic looking, I’m shocked they run such crappy trains on it. One would expect to see some well weathered, detailed stuff rolling over those spectacular bridges. Nope. Its like tyco, mantua, and other crap.
If they have so much cash, why not custom weather some BLI or Atlas locos and operate them? I’d be much more pleasant to watch and enhance the overall experience.
[2c]
Probably because, if the trains were weathered, the public would comment, “Geez, why doesn’t he clean those trains once in a while!” The old Lionel layouts never ran weathered engines or rolling stock, so the public would be highly unlikely to even understand what it represented on a model railroad, were it present. You can’t view something like Northlandz and evaluated it from a model railroader’s perspective.
As to those “crappy” Mantua engines running on the layout, they have all been rebuilt and remotored for thousands of hours of trouble-free operation. They are much heavier than any BLI, most Atlas, or similar “modern” locomotives, much more sure footed on the tracks and much less likely to derail. There’s a lot to be said for “old” technology if you want to keep things running! I think that quite a few Mantua’s are also used on the spectacular City Bank Christmas layout in NYC, for the same reasion.
CNJ831
Art, funny you should mention “House on the Rock”, because all the time I spent reading and responding to this topic, I was thinking of that place. It is one of the strangest collections of stuff I have ever seen. Many times while wandering through it’s maze of galleries, I got some pretty creepy vibes. Mondo Bizzaro!!! and on a grand scale.
i haven’t been , if i ever find myself in NJ with a couple of hours to kill i’d probably go for a look . seems a shame to me though that someone would spend the kind of money this must have cost , and continues to cost for maintainance and replacement parts and not build an operating model railroad . as long as it works as a tourist attraction i guess it’s doing it’s job , and we can’t really judge it as a model railroad since it was never meant to be one
As a wannabe ‘serious’ modeler I’m not impressed with Northlanz, but if my family were driving thru NJ and my 7yr-old daughter knew it was nearby, she’d be BEGGING to visit the place! Her young mind hasn’t had enough time to become jaded and critical, unlike her ol’ man…[B)]
Don’t waste your time, Bob. I went six or seven years ago and, allowing it the parody of life it really is, thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I went again last year and was every bit a s thoroughly disappointed. The longest trains are three cars, and quite a few of the loops don’t even run trains anymore. Scenery isa cracked and broken in quite a few places. Debris has fallen to all the low spots, and no one even bothers to clean it up.
Until they close down for awhile to refurb everything, it isn’t worth a fraction of what they charge.
Can we actually compare a large display layout to real trains though? Sure, when we are railfanning, part of the fun is wondering where a certain boxcar has been or where it will go. I’ll agree with you there. But you can’t do the same with a model railroad, especially displays like Northlandz. Displays are built for easy maintenace and to entertain passerbys. In this case though, anyone who wants to pay to get in. And it wasn’t built specifically for train enthusiasts, and was built
I can appreciate it for the shear mass of material and time that went into it.
Aggro-Can you imagine the cost if his locos where all Kato, Atlas or Spec. steamers or if his rolling stock was all high quality kits. If someone donated all that stuff to me, I’d sure make use of it. I know it’s not very realistic or detailed, but I sure wish I could build bridges like that.
Remember- The guys running a railroad AND a business at the same time.(wish I could make money off my trains)
Is it?
I agree with Elliot that it would promote the hobby.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the concept of whimsy, especially on the scale that it is built.
Could any of us build anything like that & as quickly?
If i remember correctly that the bridges on the layout were all made from scratch.
I went looking for the issue of MR it is in. I do have it & it’s probably under the benchwork 3 flights of stairs above me.
Norhlandz may be a joke, BUT they do advertise in MR & we shouldn’t be slamming an advertising customer of Kalmbach.
Gordon