Featured in the upcoming issue of Model Railroad Planning is community member Tom Klimoski’s Georgia Northeastern Railroad. A sneak peak of this excellent layout is shown in his recently produced YouTube video. Shown below is his track plan. There are some great lessons to be learned from Tom’s efforts. A few that stand out to me […]
Category: Model Railroad Design
Scene Composition
A southbound local passes bridge E8, south of Bloomington, IN on my old N scale layout. I devoted a full thirteen feet to this ‘boring’ scene. There were no industries, no turnouts, nothing but the field and stream modeled as they actually appeared. Of all of the factors that contribute to realism, at the […]
Capturing the Essence of a “Place”
Topic: Model Railroad Design The ultimate model railroad design goal? Capturing the essential elements of a scene successfully enough that you have the sense of “being there”. It’s an elusive target because hitting it is hard to break down into a step by step, “how to” sequence. At the root of the problem is the harsh reality that […]
Fighting Gravity
Fighting gravity. In modeling terms it’s the subconscious, omnipresent, urge for order and uniformity. We can get away with it when modeling man made features such as structures, roads, and rolling stock. We can’t get away with it when comes to scenery. If we can’t overcome this innate urge, our results will indeed look like something […]
LAJ Update
It’s been a productive month on the LAJ layout. Progress being: made a visit to the actual site in Vernon, solved the lighting problem, finalized and tightened up the track plan, laid all the track (half of which is permanent), wired in the track and activated the control system. The LAJ is proto freelance. It […]