Updates, Observations, & Daydreams

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Drew1125

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Jan 28, 2001
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Well, my huge (13"x60") N scale empire is reaching a level of completion that I have never attained with any previous effort.
It would be easy to attribute this to the extremely small size, & while this is no doubt partly true, I feel that a lot of the credit must go directly to The Gauge, & all the fine people here who have helped me in so many ways they may not even realize.
I feel that Shamus, Catt, Tyson, Rory, Robin, & so many others have helped me in a direct way, or given me inspiration, & encouragement to keep working at it, & making it better.
I'm now to a point where I'm starting to get a little wanderlust...do I go on & start that HO dream layout that I've been daydreaming about for years? Do I expand the K&I? Or do I go full throttle at my daughter's little project? Do I just keep adding details to the 4 Sisters Branch? Whatever it is, I know I'll be bouncing all my crazy ideas off the membership here, & seeing what flies, & what doesn't.
Speaking of ideas, & crazy things...we just had a thread here on the silly questions we get asked sometimes...so my wife comes in the other night while I'm working on the layout...BTW, she may not have any interest in modeling, but she loves the fact that I have all the kids' names incorporated into the layout...anyway she says, "What's the name of your city your building there?"
"Gosh," I say, "I never got around to naming it."
So I started thinking...It's not a real city...I've tried to copy lots of things I've seen in different cities...a lot of it is just paper buildings glued to the backdrop...hmmm...copy...paper...How about Carbon City? I know it may not be that original...but you guys let me know what you think...I'm open to any other suggestions, as usual, too.
Well, I guess I'll stop rambling for now, & go to bed... :)
 

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It looks superb charlie.
Carbon City or Carbondale sounds good to me.
Next stage is to get that HO pike up and running for the little helper/owner! :D . While you're doing that you can think about little people for the N empire (just to bring it to life). eg. Workmen in the scrap yard with the gas torches. Advert posters on the walls. Factory names too not to mention lighting. (I'm having a good belly laugh here coz you did ask didn't you?)
What?, NO GAUGE IND's boxes??? tut tut tut, you'll have to put that right too!
Don't forget you have an extension to build onto it yet!
Aren't you lucky I'm not your boss?? :D

Now get the beers in and we'll discuss this further :)

Errol
 
Charlie, you had said at one time you were thinking about putting a staging yard on one side of it and on the other side of the staging yard putting in a rural scene. I guess that would be one thing I'd consider but then I'm an N-Scaler so Im always gonna favor anything that doesn't involve switching to the Horrible & Oversized scale :D :p :D . As far as the city goes how's Xerox City sound :D :rolleyes: :D.
 
BTW, I would jump on that project for your daughter first. For one thing you need to keep the little one interested in trains and you can get a taste of what it's like to model in a scale where it takes 5 feet to make a u-turn! :p What ever you decide you know there is 479 other members here to climb all over you when you screw up!:D :D :D Whoops, er I mean help you.:rolleyes:
 
How about Boxton, Box City, Diorama Town :), or Charlieville! Or, how about Charleston? Maybe Charleston, Kentucky... Is there such a place?

Wow, I never thought of myself as inspiring anyone. I've gotten so much from so many here myself! I'm glad that I made some kind of contribution to your wonderful layout. It's been fun seeing it evolve. I see now that there's one more picture to add to the animation! :)

Like some say, you can never run out of things to do with your layout--adding little details, making changes and so on. But if you're ready to say "it's done," then I'm with Errol: get hoppin' on that HO layout! Maybe you'll get the HO-sess out of your system! :)

-Rory
 
Charlie,
Carbon City sounds great, since you have all of your kids names on the lay-out if or maybe you could incorpart your wifes name into the city, Just think of the brownie points:D :)

How can your lay-out be almost complete? I'm with Tyson on this cause I've never seen a complete lay-out before. And think off the room that oversized gauge would take up.
 
Charlie,name the darn town after the wife.If not her first name ,how about using her maiden name?
 
Thanks again for the feedback guys...
Every now & then, you need to send up that message..."earth to Charlie...come in Charlie..." :D
I think I'm going to hold off on any major projects...
School's out soon, & I think this summer is going to be primarily devoted to the Harry Potter thing.
I will keep adding details to the Four Sisters Branch...that could go on indefinitely...RI541, you misunderstood what I said...I would NEVER claim to have a layout that was "almost complete"! :eek: What I meant to say was that it had reached a "level of detail" that I have never attained before. And Errol, I DO have quite a few figures on the layout, & all the industries have the names on them...but you're right, posters & billboards need to be included.
BTW-Someone mentioned to me a while back that a grain elevator would be something to include on any layout...so last night, I started scratchbuilding one to fit a space behind Leigh Foods. (I'll post some pics as soon as I can)
Tyson, you're absolutely right about the staging...It was a feature I built into the layout, & I need to finish it...I'm already having fun operating this thing, & that will make things even better! I think I'm just going to have a lenth of plywood with a single Atlas turnout, & several rerailers, for staging two trains at a time. This will give me lots of leeway to simulate branchline service, mainline interchange, spotting loads, & hauling empties back to staging. Not too bad for 5 square feet! (well, 6, with staging)
I'm still considering K&I expansion. This is a ways off, but now I'm thinking seriously of a continuous running mainline division, with a junction to the 4 Sisters Branch.
And as always that dream of a turn-of-the-century short line in HO will continue to plague me. :)
 
Charlie my boy, thats a sweet looking layout. Harry Potter seems about right for the summer project, keep those photo coming.
 
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