0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
Large or small as long as its good modeling thats all I care the HCD layouts on this forum are examples of top modeling with attention to detail and prototype and make for great train watching videos MR has to build small layouts because they dont keep most of them I think they have a contest giveaway to make space for more project layouts. But they hopefully have made this new layout well detailed and prototypical to display the true potential of N instead of toy like modeling. The Clinchfield was an awesome layout hopefully they go back and build on that modeling philosophy.
Okay, this ain't strictly scientific, but comparing my current annual salary to the 1968 median and then multiplying that by the $19.98 Atlas starter set, from back then, gets you up to $116.77 today's cost. A bit short of the $149 for the "Stallion". However... keep in mind the overwhelming improvements to quality since 1968. How many of those Atlas starter sets wound up tossed under the bed after the train managed to successfully make it 1/3 of the way around the oval... before derailing?As for this latest MRR project? Two thumbs up from me. I like smaller, more manageable layouts. I'm way to lazy (and lack the talent) for an empire. This is right up my alley. (Though I wonder if I could change the local to North Dakota/Montana? And the prototype to Great Northern? Nothing against the "Q", mind you. Just partial to the GN.)HCD's unit!!!
I don't know how many tunnels the GN had in the plains. It was rare to find a tunnel and a grain elevator in the same small town. Not unheard of, but still quite rare. I'd stick with the trees if building the layout more-or-less as designed.One scenery item one might want to consider is the highway underpass. If modelling a late 60s or newer period, that 12' 6"bridge is going to catch a lot of 13'6" truck trailers, which is what most of the 40 ft trailer models made today are. I see three options:1: Leave it. The Interstate has bypassed the town anyway, so trucks go around.2: Leave it, with a road crew busily digging up the road to increase the clearance. Good place to use your bulldozers and excavators.3: Model it with greater clearance, 14'0" or greater. Still a "Low Clearance" bridge, but modern trucks will fit.
I like the timing of the article. Right at the holiday season, when people are looking at train sets ("Train Sets" was in the top ten trending searches yesterday on Yahoo).