How are so few people modeling this?

[learmoia]

Curves that scale down to as small as a 9" radius in HO scale!..
Or a 5.25" radius in N scale

[learmoia]

I meant to put this in Prototype.. so if an Admin could move it, that would be appreciated..

Thanks.

[dem34]

Curves that scale down to as small as a 9" radius in HO scale!..
Or a 5.25" radius in N scale

The usual reasons people will start doing a Tourist op type layout then quickly abandon it. The scenery is pretty, the track work is novel. But then your operational variety is point to point a short way. Your Rolling stock is one or two coaches/bench gons. Unless your super in love with the specific prototype it can get a little bland very quickly.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The usual reasons people will start doing a Tourist op type layout then quickly abandon it. The scenery is pretty, the track work is novel. But then your operational variety is point to point a short way. Your Rolling stock is one or two coaches/bench gons. Unless your super in love with the specific prototype it can get a little bland very quickly.

Yep. It's one of the reasons I keep having that idea "wouldn't it be fun to model a tourist railroad" and then realize that it'd be fun to model, but incredibly boring to own.

That's why my tourist road modeling is all modular...

[Dave V]

Your best bet for a tourist operation--if you want variety--is do something where there's also a freight operation. Like:

1) The Strasburg RR
2) The Sierra RR
3) The Black River & Western RR
4) The Everett RR
5) The Gettysburg RR
6) The San Luis & Rio Grande RR (tourist trains were operated under the name Rio Grande Scenic)
7) The Reading & Northern RR (tourist division known as the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern)
And many, many others...

So yeah, there's precedent. And, if you're freelancing, you can always toss in a tourist operation...but use caution and look at what the real railroads do. The Strasburg is a rare beast with its 19th-century passenger equipment. Beat-up heavyweights or transition-era commuter coaches are more probable (or, like on the old Bel-Del, they have a Chinese 2-8-0 pulling former Long Island Rail Road commuter coaches that were in commuter service into the early 1990s).

Our own @DKS had a tourist operation side-gig on his freelanced White River & Northern RR.