Brainstorms & Daydreams

Drew1125

Active Member
I ran into a friend of mine a few weeks ago at the hobby shop, & we got to talking...I had told him about the small N scale layout I had built...
He told me if I wanted to, they had room at the next NMRA swap meet/trainshow (Spring 2003) for a small display layout, if I wanted to put something together.
I think we were both thinking along the lines of a basic oval-type plan, with some out-of-the-box-type kits & trains. We were just tossing the idea around, & none of this is carved in stone.
I hadn't really given it too much more thought, until several days ago, when I kit-bashed a little wood sided gondola, & this started the ol' wheels turning, so to speak...
I thought it might be cool to have a few of these gons hauling coal out of a pre-war mining operation on its own short line to a junction with a main line RR.
This, of course, got me to thinking about the aforementioned display layout, & I thought, why not make this a theme?
Why not go with the simple oval-type plan...put a backdrop through the middle of it, as a scenic divider, & have one side of the layout represent a mining operation, & the other side represent a mainline junction, & a town that's grown up around it?
I 've been out in the garage, looking for a piece of plywood to use as a base...I found a piece about 32"x66", that I thought might be a good size for a portable N scale tabletop layout.
I've included a picture of a mock-up I did on the playwood, just to see what might fit, & what won't...I laid out some pieces of track, some structures, & pieces of kits, to kind of give me an idea how to lay out the "town" side. The board sitting at a diagonal, represents where the backdrop will be.
The final scenery will be built up on foam, so I can have scenic features above, & below track level.
Like I said, I'm not totally commited to this yet...(maybe I oughta be commited! :D)...I'll keep ya posted!
 

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Tyson Rayles

Active Member
Sounds and looks like a winner to me. With the board being 32" wide you can have fairly wide curves so most any kind of equipment will look good. The divider down the middle is a excellent way to go. Keep us posted please! :cool:
 

TR-Flyer

Member
Hi Charlie:
I think it's a neat idea. Have you ever been involved in running a module at a show?

I saw a neat idea at the Charlotte GATS in September. An HO group had a loop at the end of their table. They used a backboard on each module for their background scenery. But the entire endtable with the 180 turnaround was a mountain. One side of the mountain had a coal mining operation. Full coalcars would come out of the tunnel and head down the track, and empty cars would be backed into the tunnel and loading area. Around on the other side of the "Mountain" was a power station and the full coal trains would back into the receiving house, and empties would then pull out. Of course, what was going on was the trains would just switch sides of the module by going through an unseen tunnel through the mountain. Was a neat idea and allowed for "continuous" oeration during the show without complex switching operations. It's hard to talk to the public and do complex operations at the same time.

Our club thought this was a neat idea and some of the members are cooking up similar operations that could take advantage of this concpt.

Have fun,
Ted
 

Drew1125

Active Member
Tyson & Ted,
Rhanks for the feedback!
I've never had anything of my own featured at a show before...
The layout will be operational in the most basic sense...there will be an interchange/jct track, & very basic switching possibilities at the mine, & in the town.
I am, at this point, intending to leave out any complicated trackwork, not only because of budgetaty, & time constraints, but also I want to have as much scenery as possible, & I simply don't think there will be much call for it on a display setup like this.
I'm going with a 12" minimum radius...this isn't too sharp for the equipment I'll be running, & the curves will be broken up visually by view-blocks.
My biggest reservation with choosing this particular theme is (gasp) N scale steam...:eek: My past experience with it has been bad...
I've heard some good reports on the Bachman 2-8-0, & that loco would be perfect for this situation...& at this point, everything kind of hinges on that.:eek:
I an kind of fired up about trying this, though...I've really been itching to try something new!
 

shamus

Registered Member
Hi Charlie, looks like you are going to have some fun at the NMRA soon. show us the plan when you have it drawn, love to see it.
Shamus
 
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