PRR/CR Middle Division Industry - What to Replace my Coal Mine With?

[Bob Bufkin]

Dave
I agree with Lee, leave it as it is.  It defintely smacks of central PA.  Also agree that a small industry that takes only a few cars is what's needed.  Keep us the great work.
Bob

[Dave V]

Do you need a picture of the water tower Dave? The one near the station?

If you've got one, sure!  I can kitbash the Walthers tower to look close.

Lee said: "Keep the steep slope.  It might look funky in person, but in photos it smacks of central PA."

I agree to a point.  However, leaving the mountain significantly reduces the space for an industry...  It also doesn't lend itself to Super Tress.

Then again, I've been trying to figure out how this door might survive into the "big one" and much like Ed K I'm realizing that it may be a futile endeavor.  The Enola Yard section, OTOH, with only a little modification, could form the basis of a "big one."

[wm3798]

It's a matter of scale, really Dave.  It's a small layout, your key limiting factor.  If you pull the mountain in favor of a larger industry, you'll lose some of the geographic identification that makes the theme of your layout so obvious (and effective).

I agree that something other than a coal mine is needed, but there's no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Also, on your layout, where the focal point is the town and the railroad, I contend that Super Trees might overwhelm some of your excellent detail.  On Ed's, the focal point is the season, almost more than it is the railroad, so the models of the trees themselves are more critical to the theme of the layout.  On yours, I think adding a bunch of highly detailed trees will cause your mountains to appear too small, and they'll distract from the charm of the layout more than add to it.

As nice as these trees may look up close, I think in clusters they loose their effectiveness, unless they make up the core of the layout, as with Ed's effort.  For a traveling layout such as yours, too, I think they'll make it unnecessarily fragile and high maintenance.

Big (appearing) mountains and small industries will be the most effective route to maintaining the theme and quality of your layout.

Just one man's opinion.
Lee

[Dave V]

Thanks, Lee!  Very interesting insight!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lee makes a really good point. One of the things that your layout has that really does say where it is is the verticality of some of it. Yes, the mountain might look strange right up close, but it performs its job of a background quite nicely.

Incidentally, have you ever thought about making some "bolt on" or freestanding styrofoam mountains that can be placed off in the distance in the room. I feel like that'd be a neat trick for some photography. Especially since they could then move and fill in the background of most shots.

[DKS]

For a traveling layout such as yours, too, I think they'll make it unnecessarily fragile and high maintenance.

I think Lee nailed it. And especially with the above: the supertrees are superdelicate. They're right for another kind of layout; I think what you've got on yours works, not only for general appearance, but also for durability. I'd leave that hill alone, and concentrate on an appropriately small industry to replace the coal mine. If you really want to improve the appearance of the hill, then maybe make it just a bit lower--a smaller industry will allow you to do this without losing the visual barrier. Also, I might put just a token bit of slope on the opposite side of the main: move the shelter down the tracks a bit toward the bridge, and put just a little rise along the main where it was. Might help with some of the slight "oddness" factor it creates.

Kinda like this:
 

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

It might be as early as today, possibly. Because we are taking a trip over to that area. It might be too dark though, I can get you a pic as late as next week though.

[C855B]

The highly-vegitated sheer slope is not that far off to me, relative to at least one prototype location I know of - just west of Chattanooga on the joint trackage. Just substitute granite outcroppings for the retaining wall and you pretty much have it.

[Dave V]

Dave, that looks really good!!!

Another thought...  This siding that runs off to the left, currently serving no other purpose than as a DCC programming track, could be the Kovalchic Salvage Co.



Just needs the chain link fence, a crane, some scrap piles, and maybe an office...  What's cool is a scrap yard can take open load gons and not have to be fully represented on the layout surface.

[DKS]

You could also have a competing fuel (coal and/or oil) and/or lumber business. Nothing wrong with having two of the same industry on the same layout--the town where I grew up had two lumber yards within a few blocks of each other, both with coal trestles.

[Dave V]

You could also have a competing fuel (coal and/or oil) and/or lumber business. Nothing wrong with having two of the same industry on the same layout--the town where I grew up had two lumber yards within a few blocks of each other, both with coal trestles.

Ah, yes Dave, but I have a bunch of great gons with scrap loads that need an excuse to be delivered somewhere!

[wm3798]

That's exactly how I did my little scrap yard.


It occupies a corner about 4" x 8"  in the foreground of this view:


I still have to add some fencing and what not.
Lee