BNSF Decatur Hill

[packers#1]

Nice start! It reminds me a little bit of that old  MR project layout that was a California layout, can't recall the name right now; they had a shortline with a SP 2-6-0 and it had a town side and ran out to some kind of mine (So descriptive, right?) Anyways, looking forward to seeing the progress

[Denver Road Doug]

I don't recall that one, but admittedly I do go extended periods without checking in on MR.  If anything, it was inspired by Chuck Geiger's Front Range Subdivision here on Railwire.   This one is based on a very specific area in North Texas between Bowie and Decatur.   Bowie is the actual town side, and the graphite plant is situated on the edge of town coming into Decatur, after climbing Decatur Hill, which was a helper district on the BNSF until very recently.  (now...since about 2010 or so it seems they just run 2+2 on all trains, nullifying the need)   The actual distance is about 28 miles I think, but the hill part is only about 10 miles maybe.  But it's somewhat scenic....about as scenic as it gets around here.

[coldriver]

.   So yes, I'm a master at taking a simple layout and making it overly complicated.   But I'm learning in the process...some of it will carry forward, some ideas will get bashed in the head.

If you made it too simple you'd already be done and what's the fun in that?  And actually, after spending most of the 90's fretting about what might work or what might not, I realize that I could have made far more progress if I'd just kept trying ideas and discarding the bad ones.  As for the layout, I like it - and not just because I live in Decatur! 

[chuck geiger]

The Dawg gettin' busy