Jersey City Industrial Railroad Micro-Layout

[Dave Schneider]

You'd never be able to make another bacon explosion and deliver it to my office in time for lunch.

  Well played.

But come on man....you appear to work right next door to a 7-11! The worlds largest junk food vending machine.

Best wishes, Dave

[Philip H]

Well played.

But come on man....you appear to work right next door to a 7-11! The worlds largest junk food vending machine.

Best wishes, Dave

Except he's hooked on WaWa for some obscure reason (which needs to make an appearance on DKS' new layout).

[packers#1]

Ed, you'll be glad to know that I've decided to go dual era. One of the easiest ways to get me to do something is to say it can't be done or it won't work.

So you're saying you're part redneck? 

Sorry, had to; anyways, looking forward to seeing this challenge be defeated flawlessy

[DKS]

You'd never be able to make another bacon explosion and deliver it to my office in time for lunch.

You're right. But only because I'd have eaten it by the time I got there...

[robert3985]

Okay...I've got it figured out...and the challenge goes away...build the layout so that it can be flipped over...like a pancake.  One side is one era, the other...another.  DKS's designs are small enough this wouldn't be a big problem.  Solves all of the problems...but takes the challenge away.  However, no unrestricted viewing, no era "leaks"...you could build both sides exactly the same, except for things that would be different for different eras...but you'd still have to change the trains.

Another way to do it would be to make a doughnut...it'd be one era when looked at from the outside, and another era when looked at from the doughnut hole.  When looking at the doughnut from the outside, a lightweight 4-sided (or cylindrical) skyboard would be inserted into the hole to block views of buildings or whatever on the opposite side of the layout which would be decorated for a different era.

When operating from the inside, the skyboard would be removed...or one placed all around the outside fascia, with the backdrop visible from the inside doughnut hole only.

With the doughnut hole, you'd still get era "leaks", but you wouldn't have to change trains if your track plan was basically circular...each side of your cars would be a different era...the constantly inward facing sides one era, the constantly outward facing side the other era.  Hell...you could even do different roads and locales!

Furthermore, you could have some industrial switching with the industries for the respective era only visible from either the inside or outside...but not both.  That way, your switching operations would be exclusive to the inside, and to the outside...so your cars and motive power would not need to be different on either side!

The doughnut is definitely more challenging.  The era-flip is too simple.

Just thinkin'.....

[Chris333]

No matter how flat you make a pancake, it always has 2 sides.

Dr. Phil

[VonRyan]

I keep liking this concept more and more.

I also am constantly reminded that I have yet to start my layout that helped to inspire this gift from the heavens.
At least it'll give me much inspiration. Like looking at back issues of MR that have the G&D in them...


-Cody F.

[PAL_Houston]

Okay...I've got it figured out...and the challenge goes away...build the layout so that it can be flipped over...like a pancake.  ...

Another way to do it would be to make a doughnut...i...

Just thinkin'.....

...mobius strip:  trains would just hang out, defying both gravity and time.

Go to it Dave! 

[peteski]

...mobius strip:  trains would just hang out, defying both gravity and time.

Go to it Dave! 

Mobius strip layout with Magna-traction. I like it!

[Alaska Railroader]

Have you ever used the tool on Google Earth where it takes you back in time at the very spot you have on the screen?  Or a series of photos of the same spot in 10 year spans? The basic larger structures are there but their details change, the vehicles and signs become newer, streets wider or even narrower.

I can picture this layout much like a painting. David could start in the late 40’s and as he moves along things start to look a little more modern than before it, like the next decade and the next until he’s in the 70’s. Nice thing about his track plan is that it has water in one corner giving a very natural break in the extreme eras. Wherever you might be looking the scenery would not have to change drastically. When he was here in Medford last year David took photos of some steam era brick structures that still stand today and not in total decay either.

This technique would also make photographing portions of the layout a bit easier if not more interesting.

I didn’t want to presume upon David and use the exact copy of his track plan so I did a quick job of converting it to curves and took the structures off leaving it to bare bones. My theory goes clockwise but it could be either way, I don’t know his plan. On the first diagram the turquoise represents the 70’s era rail line and the green the steam. The pink lines are the two bridges going off above the water. By having structures to *sort of* hide behind, the train especially the diesel, can go on a siding hidden somewhat by the older era scene.



But I also wanted to picture it from the side with a 3D look to it. I had a stock graphic that I have taken liberties with, not at all implying it is what David has in mind. The colors represent the same thing in this illustration.



Here I have thrown in a 3 set series of photos from the area around Times Square in NYC from the 30's/40's, the 50's/60's, to the 70's and maybe early 80's. I don't see a huge stretch in the imagination to have this type of blending on a smaller layout.



Karin
Not even presuming to be an a$$hat on the Railwire 

[DKS]

Karin, you've obviously had a lot of fun exercising your considerable imagination skills! The most curious aspect of your idea is that it's sort of how I'd intended my White River & Northern II to be: using a series of natural visual barriers, I had planned on it to not only shift in temporal setting, but also season. The city was set in the 80s in the spring; the industrial 'burbs the 60s in the summer; countryside in the 40s in the autumn; and the deep mountains in the 20s in the winter. No idea if I could have pulled it off, since I had to move before I got started on the scenery (much of the track was laid, however).

For this layout, I'm using a more controlled approach, with (I hope) less ambiguity and overlap. I've created a diagram showing how the eras will get split out: blue track and structure sides are 40s, green track and structure sides the 80s, and "transition" areas in aqua. These are approximate, based on studies I've been doing using mock-ups of most of the buildings; there will almost certainly be changes.



I think the transition (aqua) areas are manageable, since it will be difficult to discern the era of a building side that has no era-specific features such as signs or advertising. Lightly weedy track will likewise be hard to pin down. I also know for a fact that there will be plenty of areas where it will be virtually impossible to see from one side, such as the fronts of the buildings along the main street, and I can safely tuck era-specific vehicles in their "shadow," so to speak. Roads visible from both sides will have no vehicles (save for those times I may be photographing them).

[pwnj]

The colors here make it much easier to visualize.  You know, with the older cars, you do obviously have more flexibility on the later era side, since you can explain them away as "classic cars".  Gettin' the popcorn, this is gonna be good. 

[wm3798]

Use a monochromatic color pallet to make the 1940s side look black and white.  Tracks, buildings, rolling stock...  then you can have fun with full color on the contemporary side.  When you run, it will be like the twilight zone when the black and white train rolls through the colorful modern scenery, and the full color trains appear in the black and white.  Very mind bending.  During ops sessions, you can have everyone drop some acid to enhance the effect.

T. Leary

[DKS]

I keep liking this concept more and more.

I also am constantly reminded that I have yet to start my layout that helped to inspire this gift from the heavens.
At least it'll give me much inspiration. Like looking at back issues of MR that have the G&D in them...


-Cody F.

Yikes, I hope I can live up to your expectations! Especially when being compared to the likes of John Allen...

[robert3985]

Use a monochromatic color pallet to make the 1940s side look black and white.  Tracks, buildings, rolling stock...  then you can have fun with full color on the contemporary side.  When you run, it will be like the twilight zone when the black and white train rolls through the colorful modern scenery, and the full color trains appear in the black and white.  Very mind bending.  During ops sessions, you can have everyone drop some acid to enhance the effect.

T. Leary

OR...the monochromatic side could be Kansas in the 30's....and the Technicolor side could be an imaginary land with flying monkeys!!!....The ballast there would be bright yellow!!

Sorry...I really tried to resist...