What are some scenes that you have thought about modeling, but because of footprint or location wouldn’t fit with your layout.
I bring this up, because I am trying to figure out how to justify a coastal defense battery in centeral Wisconsin in 1933-1955 (ish). The only water in the layout is a small stretch of the Wisconsin River, and of course that isn’t big enough or important enough for a 12" disappearing battery.
I also realize that I don’t need a justification, but at the same time it would make the layout feel more cohesive. I also know that while I may build it as a diorama it probably won’t be built as part of the layout.
The Hanging Bridge of the Royal Gorge comes to mind. I have neither the horizontal or vertical space to do it justice, even if I was modeling Colorado.
Closer to my modeling theme and era, a working high line loading arrangement for lumber from cliff to dog hole schooner would cause me no end of excitement. I’m settling for a more pedestrian wharf loading arrangement (actually less common) so that the rail line can be more than just a logger.
A swing bridge would be a neat feature, but if built to believeable dimensions it’s much larger than more conventional lifting bridges. Again, for my region and era, the swing bridge is more prototypical but less practical as a model.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
…modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it’s always 1900…
When I was kid in the 1960’s we would be playing hockey on an outdoor hockey rink that was official size, had proper boards, lines and a total of four poles with crappy old dim lights on them. The light was barely enough to play by at night.
We would still be out there at ten or eleven at night in 20 below cold when things would start to rumble. Soon out of the cold winter mist and out of the dark those huge PGE diesels would would present themselves spittin distance from the ice surface and roar by. No one was able to just ignore them and keep playing. The game would always stop and we would watch that long freight go by.One of the engineers would hang out the window and make a referees charging call with his arms and laugh. It is something that comes up in conversation when we talk about our childhood days. A fond memory indeed.
I will try my best to fit that scene in somewhere. If I can’t do it maybe a few kids on the pond next to the tracks will have to do.[:)]
It is healthier if modelers focus more on prototype scenes that they can model. The following scene is on Seth Neumann’s layout modeling Niles Canyon. He had photos of the prototype scene. The easy way to distinguish between the photos and the model was that the photos were in black and white.
A modeler is building this bridge to be installed at the Carquinez Model Railroad Society’s layout. This isn’t the model being built: it will have shorter and many fewer bridge spans. I think the model will be something like 1/5th to 1/6th the length of the prototype. The prototype bridge crosses the eastern end of the Carquinez Strait between Martinez and Benicia. The prototype double-tracked bridge (built by the SP, now owned by the UP) still exists, but good views are blocked by highway bridges adjacent to both sides.
An interesting scene like this (on SP’s former Coast Route in California crossing State Hwy. 1) would fit on many layouts. Note the skewed-through-girder-ballasted-deck bridge, boards holding back the built-up ballast, the pipeline, a wooden trestle on its approach, the cement abutments with interesting shapes, the dirt access road, etc. (Prepare to duck – low bridge ahead. Photo taken from a double-decker bus travelling at speed.)
That’s a really cool scene that would be fairly easy to duplicate on a relatively narrow shelf. Most of the backscene is clear blue sky and the scene seen under the bridge could probably be duplicated using a blowup of the area.
Then all it would require is a GS-4 and and a 15 car “Daylight” going through it. Either that, or an AC with a reefer block.
Mark, I hope you don’t mind if I save the pic. I won’t do it unless you say it’s OK. In the meantime, this thread is booknarked.
Interesting. I went the other wy when I returned to HO after a 25 year break. I made a list of the scenes I wanted to model and then strung them together. Through creative use of wormholes and time warps it all fits, for me at least. This list included a Northern Minnesota logging camp inspired by one in the BWCA we used to visit, Sugar loaf Mountain in Winona MN, a river town on the Mississippi like Minneska, My families farm in Southern Mn including the corn field I learned to hunt in, the New Mexico Mountains we rock hounded in, Yellowstone Canyon with a huge bridge and a wooden trestle, a Malachite quarry, my version of the Superstition Mountains complete with gold mine and a roundhouse scene. I have had a good time recreating this and everytime I drive my train around its like reliving the best parts of my long life. For those who have seen my layout or the pictures, you know I have this in a rather small area.
I love to visis the people with a prototype layout, but mine is prototype in a different level, my prototype is my life.
I can’t find my pictures, but Delaplane, Virginia where the NS tracks cross US17 is very neat. West of the grade crossing there is a small timber trestle (or at least was). Immediately east of the crossing was the spur to what clearly was the station, a very Virginian-looking brick structure that was now an antique shop. A few other buildings were very close to the tracks, and then disappeared behind a hill where a passing siding began. There’s a few pictures of the place online, like this one http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=206896&nseq=4
I’ve always been fascinated by O.Winston Link’s photo of a N&W Freight passing by a Drive In Movie.
Now a couple of years ago,one of the German/Swiss Manufacturers-either Vollmer or Faller had a working Drive In Theatre planned in the Walthers Catalouge,but in the next catalouge it wasn’t there!!
Of course,the price for it was about$500.00USD,so I think that made most Modelers go"Nuh Uh!!"and consequently they dropped plans for it!!
Anyway,back in December,I put a 4"portable DVD player on layaway at a local pawn shop.
One more payment and it’s mine!!!
Also,I saw a portable DVD player holder at a local Best Buy,so I plan to put the DVD Player Holder under the table,then put the DVD player in it.
Then utilize Blair Line’s Drive In Movie kit for the fence and ticket booth and either Model Power’s"Bob’s Hot Dog Stand"or FOS Scale Models Diner as the Snack Bar.
Also,two years ago,Miller Engineering/Light Works USA made a limited edition Drive In Movie Sign,so I bought it!!
You might find one on EBay or EBid or some other online auction service.
BTW:There are two Drive In Theaters within driving distance in the DFW Area:The Galaxy Drive In in Ennis and The Brazos in Granbury.
Aztec Eagle:Planning a MP/Katy themed layout in the Austin area ca.1959.Right now,just an Atlas RS3 chasing some box cars around a circle of track!!![swg]
For the OP, You could have a coastal gun installation in Wisconsin,as a training facility for the navy. A lot of that kind of stuff was done back in WWII.
As for me I’ve been wanting to get one of those aquarium dinasour skills to use as a tunnel portal. Have a bunch of engineers or archeologists standing around with maps right underneath the thing, saying, those fossils should be right around here somewhere.[:)] BILL
You know, I’ve thought about modeling the street trackage on Charles Ave, in St. Paul, MN. It was a “spaghetti bowl” of trackage serving so many industries back in the day. Most of the buildings are still in place, however, the tracks are mostly paved over, although not too well. You can still follow them if you have a “good eye” for that sort of thing. The tracks ran from Prior Ave. west to about Territorial Rd. Originaly served by Minnesota Transfer Rwy., succeeded by Mn Commercial Rwy. and now all gone. BOO HOO!
Well, one of my problems is that the country I’m modeling in the Northern Sierra Nevada of California for the most part, never saw a railroad. Here’s one of the spots, the Sierra Buttes around Sierra City. The average elevation is about 4800’, the Buttes thrust up to over 9800 feet.
QUOTE from original start of thread:" … I am trying to figure out how to justify a coastal defense battery in central Wisconsin in 1933-1955 (ish). The only water in the layout is a small stretch of the Wisconsin River, and of course that isn’t big enough or important enough for a 12" disappearing battery."
I am basing my layout on the Santa Fe in Galveston, where the Coastal Defense Battery, the notorious outlaw gambling pier nightclub, the beach and the wooden roller coaster were all on the Gulf side of the island, while the railroads ran on the bay side.
I decided to make my layout MY version of Galveston, with the beachfront features alongside the causeway entrance to the island…as if that area were somewhat more directly connected to the Gulf.
This is an old picture of a mockedup scene that shows the nightclub pier, seawall amusement district and mockup of roller coaster. I bought 100 bathing suit beach figures, and then realized there was not room for them on the beach, so I built an extension to make the bayfront and the amusement district section six inches wider, to the right of the pier.
That allowance for the beach gives me a place to model the abandoned WWII coastal defense battery, in its underground bunker, which now has a luxury hotel built over/ behind it.
Haven’t built it yet but there is a place where it fits.
