Last week we discussed the importance of self awareness in hitting the target of a successful design. Ultimately “success” is defined by a layout that actually gets built (or mostly so) and provides the level of enjoyment the owner wants. It needs to target the areas of the hobby that the builder actually derives the most satisfaction […]
Category: Model Railroad Design
Hitting the Target of Design Success, Part 1
What aspect of my ‘dream layout’ project is going to serve up, on a silver platter no less, the degree of satisfaction I hope to achieve? Seems to be such an obvious question. So basic, and yet very few of us ask it, probably because we really don’t know the answer, As a result we […]
LAJ – August 30th
Scene composition/design continues this weekend with the selection of the central scene to be used for the background structure. In this case it’s the industry at 4861 East 48th Street. It’s not rail served and doesn’t need to be. I selected it because of it’s interesting roof line and subtle but complex coloration. The only […]
Foreground Composition
One of the great planning fall backs is, when stuck, just copy the prototype. I’d been struggling with one aspect of composing the foreground structures. Specifically, if I put a row of foreground structures end to end on 50th street it would be difficult to see the background structures. The solution? Remove every other foreground […]
Damn
Damn. The last thing I wanted to do was have to modify the bench work. After a few days of rationalization I swallowed the bitter pill, realized I hadn’t made it deep enough, and added an extension which adds three inches to the depth. In the continual quest to be more effective in our […]