Video Tour of my Layout

[Dave V]

Some of you folks have seen this on other boards, but for those who haven't, here's a video tour of my N scale PRR I made a few months ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veEvKHFGd5s

[up1950s]

Looks great Dave . The audio makes me feel like a 40's or 50's movie is about start . 

[wm3798]

Love the music.  The video should reveal that the layout is only 3 x 6'8 at the end...  Great looking work.
Lee

[Ryan87]

There's a wood frame building under the signals at East Mifflin, what is it? (prototype wise that is)

[Dave V]

There's a wood frame building under the signals at East Mifflin, what is it? (prototype wise that is)

That's a PRR Class B passenger waiting shelter.

[tom mann]

Nice production, Dave.

-->But the trains are moving too fast!! ;D ;D

[Dave V]

Well, now that you mention it... ;D

[SAH]

Very well done Dave.

Steve

[Dave V]

Thanks guys!

You know, it really is amazing how from 2 feet away the trains look like they're going at scale speeds.  But the video really makes them look like they're bullet trains!  In particular, the first scene in which the GP9s appear, the train looks like a TGV!

Maybe I'll redo it one of these days.  Nonetheless, it's an easy way to take a tour of a very small layout.

I also owe some of you a video of the new M1 4-8-2 kitbash.

[John]

I really think that the youtube compression process speeds them up .. I posted a number of videos that look ok on the computer, and on the tube they are running at Taladega speeds

[Norm P]

I'll be honest, I didn't think they looked near as fast as some others I've seen, and definitely not as fast as the one dumbass made it sound in the comments.  At any rate, I thought it was an excellent choice of music to accompany the video.  I would have never thought of the Simpsons soundtrack as a source for appropriate music.

From start to finish I loved the video in every respect.  I sent it to a few family members with the note that I'd like my door layout to look half that good someday.  Hard to believe that's only a 36X80 space.

Norm

[bsoplinger]

In one way I had to chuckle, seeing the same seen from one direction being called the "xxx junction" then the exact same buildings, rail, etc but from the other direction and now its "yyyy town." I'm sure you understand what I mean here.

OTOH, its pretty impressive how you managed to get 2 very different looks depending on viewing direction of the same bits of building, rail, etc.

I don't have the mental acuity (skill?) to do something like that so I'm curious just how much time and effort went into the design of the layout to get just that sort of thing, a very different look when gazing one direction or the other.

[Dave V]

In one way I had to chuckle, seeing the same seen from one direction being called the "xxx junction" then the exact same buildings, rail, etc but from the other direction and now its "yyyy town." I'm sure you understand what I mean here.

OTOH, its pretty impressive how you managed to get 2 very different looks depending on viewing direction of the same bits of building, rail, etc.

I don't have the mental acuity (skill?) to do something like that so I'm curious just how much time and effort went into the design of the layout to get just that sort of thing, a very different look when gazing one direction or the other.

Just think about scenes as a photographer does...  I had several scenes in mind, but very little space in which to put them.  So I block them the way you'd block a movie scene; it only works, though, when you're right up close to the layout.  Step back and the illusion is destroyed.

Some tricks include tree lines, narrow ridges, large structures, etc. to block scenes.  Also, the way the track flows on the stone bridge side (Jack's Run) sort of forces you to look in one direction or the other.  That setup is due to Lou Sassi's original design; not mine.

As for the issue of the same scene having different names from different angles, that's not quite true.

The Pennsy named each of its interlocking plants, often times with some portion of the name of a nearby town or geographic feature.  For example, I named the interlocking plant at Lewisport LEW (just as the real Lewistown, PA had LEWIS Interlocking).  Although most interlockings on the Pennsy had one or two syllable names by the 20s, some still maintained their telegraph letters.  Hence, East Mifflin on my layout is home to M Interlocking, just as Lewisport hosts LEW Interlocking.