Oh no! I'm Having THOSE Kinds of Thoughts Again!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Do the A&R, on a door, and when you tire of it, just hope Brian's pickup is fixed... seriously, use the small layout format to do something small, like the A&R.

Keep the other stuff though. The juice will look good on the shelf I just corked in the basement.

And when you get bored with the A&R, you still have everything to pick back up.

[sirenwerks]

Another thought, too...  Life's too damn short for regrets.  If you want to model more than one line at once, do it!  You have the advantage of modeling a region where the scenery is pretty generic...  Piney, rolling hills could be anywhere from Virginia to Georgia.  One day you could be A&R, the next SOU...  and then maybe ACL or SAL.  Or NS, or CSX, or D&S, etc.

I like Dave's idea. I just waffled myself, and am now looking at the CGW, Milwaukee and Soo (with some GN & C&NW thrown in for color and good measure). My last family reunion north of Milwaukee and all those cursed Modutrak pics and videos gave me the Midwest bug and I've been thinking about generic Midwestern scenes where I can either run all three (interchangeably); or in a scenario that includes junctions and trackage rights so all three operate simultaneously, in a meaningful way. Of course, the entrance of some Monon, M&StL, and Rock Island can't be ruled out as the bug gets worse... At least I'm sticking to the same era.

[Packer]

2) No passenger trains, unless I run a foobie excursion train.

They had motor cars at one point. Dunno if that'd qualify as a passenger train for you though.

5) Will I lose interest in only having three locomotives on the modeled road?  I hope that I can come to terms with my need for something new and fresh from time to time.  Heck, Allen McClelland ran his V&O locos and rolling stock for decades!

They had an F3, GP18, and CF7 too, so you could have 5 or 6.

6) No caboose available- not even a foobie (all the more reason to model the 1980s to present, but I prefer a caboose to punctuate the end of the train).
Might be able to make a correct one.

Nah, you need to do Conrail.

Read pro Number 1

[snip]The pros:

1) The Aberdeen & Rockfish has not been modeled to death. [/snip]

like conrail  ;D

[GaryHinshaw]

Some inspiration: AR 400 outside the shop,

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=341974&nseq=0

-gfh

[One of One-Sixty]

As a fellow Waffler, I say do it.  I took my 5 yrs to finally settle on one railroad as well as time period, and with me doing a proto-freelance of the PRR in modern times (PRR model to death, but not a modern one ) I could use basically anything out there, but I am sticking with a few locos (SD80MAC, SD70I/MAC), passenger trains (JR N'EX re-badged as a Pennsy train) and rolling stock to run a couple of well cars, some stuff to fullfill the need of Keystone Liberty Brewery, and a few other cars.

and In the meantime I will continue to acquire buildings, rolling stock and other stuff for the future bigger layout.  In the meantime what I have and will be getting fits the bill for now.

CAROLINA BY-PRODUCTS Valley Proteins - animal fat producer 

  So thats what they call it now?  I must be healthy as a horse after all the "proteins" I take in.

[davefoxx]

Do the A&R, on a door, and when you tire of it, just hope Brian's pickup is fixed... seriously, use the small layout format to do something small, like the A&R.

Keep the other stuff though. The juice will look good on the shelf I just corked in the basement.

And when you get bored with the A&R, you still have everything to pick back up.

That's my thinking exactly, Ed.  Smaller scale railroading should better fit a smaller layout.  I'm thinking that I would pick a maximum of two LDEs, to have some switching opportunities but also to have some railfanning.  I'm also hoping there's at least one good scenic element along the line that I can model.  By not cramming so much on the door, though, the layout should seem more realistic and credible.  This will be the first time that I have really made an attempt at modeling something that is not a Class 1 railroad.  It should be fun to model a backwoods railroad: small rails, little ballast, rolling right-of-way profile, etc.

By the way, the Juice will look even better highballing and making all of your other trains get out of the way on the mainline.  ;D

[davefoxx]

I like Dave's idea. I just waffled myself, and am now looking at the CGW, Milwaukee and Soo (with some GN & C&NW thrown in for color and good measure). My last family reunion north of Milwaukee and all those cursed Modutrak pics and videos gave me the Midwest bug and I've been thinking about generic Midwestern scenes where I can either run all three (interchangeably); or in a scenario that includes junctions and trackage rights so all three operate simultaneously, in a meaningful way. Of course, the entrance of some Monon, M&StL, and Rock Island can't be ruled out as the bug gets worse... At least I'm sticking to the same era.

A clean slate and starting over can be very invigorating and exciting.  I'm actually feeling more motivation to do some modeling than I have in a long time.  I look forward to seeing progress on your granger layout.

[davefoxx]

They had motor cars at one point. Dunno if that'd qualify as a passenger train for you though.
They had an F3, GP18, and CF7 too, so you could have 5 or 6.

6) No caboose available- not even a foobie (all the more reason to model the 1980s to present, but I prefer a caboose to punctuate the end of the train).
Might be able to make a correct one.

Read pro Number 1
like conrail  ;D

They did have a motorcar.  Thay called it a "jitney," I believe.  But that would have been too long ago and out of the era that I would model.

Unfortunately, the F3 was traded in to EMD for the GP18, so it left the property in the 1960s.  But I have plans for the GP18.  I already own a LL GP18 (SCL), which I stuffed onto an Atlas frame.  If I can find another shell, I could paint (or have someone else do it) up the A&R GP18, but still have my SCL shell, if needed later.

As for the caboose, the decals would be the largest problem, because I could live with a foobie for a while, or at least until I have the time to build something close to the prototype.  Interestingly, the cabooses appear to be used for LCL, in addition to the crew's use, because they have a large door on the side.

[davefoxx]

Some inspiration: AR 400 outside the shop,

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=341974&nseq=0

-gfh

Gary,

Thanks!  That's HAWT.  In case you missed it, check out the sludge in the pit.

[Brakie]

Dave wrote: I may have to use Google maps, if I can't find my Atlas.
---------------------
Actually either Google or Bing maps will work.I highly recommend these maps over the Atlas.

As a suggestion use the "bird's eye view" and street level at various town locations.

The information you can pickup is priceless.

[Dave V]

So Dave, your out-and-back configuration for the Virginia layout was my inspiration to add a yard to the Juniata Division.  Will you have room to do that again?

If you do, it might be worth adding that sweet brick A&R enginehouse.  You could probably kitbash a close match pretty easily with the Walthers 2-stall enginehouse.  I've found the Enola Diesel Shop adds a little bit of operating fun but a huge increase in visual interest.  It also makes a great backdrop for roster shots.

[davefoxx]

So Dave, your out-and-back configuration for the Virginia layout was my inspiration to add a yard to the Juniata Division.  Will you have room to do that again?

If you do, it might be worth adding that sweet brick A&R enginehouse.  You could probably kitbash a close match pretty easily with the Walthers 2-stall enginehouse.  I've found the Enola Diesel Shop adds a little bit of operating fun but a huge increase in visual interest.  It also makes a great backdrop for roster shots.

Wow.  I'm flattered to have been of some inspiration to you and the Juniata Division.  I won't have room right now, but I will plan for that addition.  That yard I added to the Virginia Central exponentially added operating fun to that layout.

I would definitely want to add that enginehouse.  I always enjoyed hanging around the RF&P's Bryan Park Terminal when I was in college to railfan the locomotives being serviced and hostled, and I really like how Enola Yard and the Diesel Shop came out on your layout.

[davefoxx]

Dave wrote: I may have to use Google maps, if I can't find my Atlas.
---------------------
Actually either Google or Bing maps will work.I highly recommend these maps over the Atlas.

As a suggestion use the "bird's eye view" and street level at various town locations.

The information you can pickup is priceless.

This is true, Larry, and I will use them.  The only problem is that they cannot go into the past to show trackage as it existed years ago.  But, I don't know that this is a problem, as I haven't done any research on track plans yet.  It may turn out that the industries have been there for a long time and that issue is moot.  Thanks!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Now I'm really excited for your layout too. Get building Dave!

[cv_acr]

Thanks for the heads up, Lou!  I found this.  I'll check to see how bad a foobie it may be.  If it's not too far off, I can accept it, as I don't tend to be a rivet counter.  At least not for a box car that is on clearance at MBK!

Only the vaguest stand-in, the prototype is built by Evans:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ar1031&o=ar