With the snow coming down outside here in Maryland, I thought it would be a good day to take a shot on the LAJ layout (iPhone 6 and Helicon Focus). In this view, you’re looking east down the Horn Lead from a rooftop perspective. The building on the far right is 4722 Everett Avenue. The structures were built using the photo laminate method described in this month’s issue of MR (February 2025). I took the base images on a railfan trip about ten years ago.
To get a real-life view of this location scroll to the 5:00 mark of THIS video.
FYI, my inside sources tell me that Rapido will be releasing their new CF-7 in a LAJ paint scheme around April of this year.
A backside view of some structures on my LAJ layout. Although no longer rail-served, it’s clear they were at some point.
The end game for most prototype and proto freelance modelers is to try to capture the essence of a place in miniature. A major part of that quest is the elements we ultimately select. Equally important, and less obvious, are those we choose to pass on. The element selection decisions we make will determine if we feel like we’re “there” when we look at our layouts. Only you can decide if you’ve hit the mark or not.
It’s pretty tricky. Even if we only select structures that actually exist, we can still subconsciously fall into cherry-picking and end up with something that looks contrived.
Cherry-picking being defined as selecting only the “cool stuff” or only incorporating structures that have spurs.
Case in point…. ongoing, viable industries that no longer take rail service. The spur may be there but it’s clearly never going to be used again. The turnout may have been removed. Maybe the track is totally gone but you see the telltale signs of rail service via loading doors. It’s such a signature look of the modern world that including non-rail-served industries on your layout goes a long way toward improving plausibility.
This is one of several composition strategies that I discuss in my upcoming industry planning book which, fingers crossed, will be available in a week or so.
Having a “quick launch” during the early stages of layout construction goes a long way towards maintaining enthusiasm and morale. I had the bench work for The Downtown Spur completed in a few weeks. The foam base took several days. For the track, I spent a few days lightly gluing down some temporary Atlas code 83. I plopped down a few mockups and within a month I had my concept in front of me. At that point, I throttled back and spent the next 15 years working at a leisurely pace.
Pacing, how quickly (or slowly) things progress on our layouts, plays a more important role than you might think with respect to our hobby satisfaction.
At one extreme, and probably the most common, is where critical mass is never achieved and the project stagnates. Years are spent trying to find the perfect design. Then, bench work drags on and on. Very little track gets laid. Eventually, a person loses interest and becomes demoralized.
You don’t hear as much about the other extreme, working too quickly. If you whip through a project and declare it “mission accomplished” in record time you may run into a situation where the quality of the finished models isn’t as good as it could be (i.e. sloppy work). You’ve essentially worked yourself out of a job. This particularly relates to small and mid-sized layouts. You blast through like a marathon sprinter, pat yourself on the back for reaching the finish line, and then what? Seriously, what are you going to do now, just look at it? Speaking for myself, and what I’ve noticed with my friends, is that interest quickly fades once a layout is stick-a-fork-in-it “done”.
The sweet spot, the middle ground, is somewhere in the middle. Think of it as an aircraft on its journey. They go full thrust to get off the ground and then throttle back and “cruise”. Once you get twenty or thirty percent or so of the scenery and structures done, it’s time to slow down and savor the assembly process for the remainder of the “trip”. Take your time. Do your best work.
During the early stages, you want to get your bench work down relatively quickly. Don’t rush but take don’t take forever either. Same for the plywood sub-roadbed. Next, get at least enough track and wiring finished to do some back-and-forth running and switching. Whip up some mockups if you want to get a sense of how things will look. Mockups can be very effective at taking the “get ‘er done” pressure off. At that point, it’s time to take your foot off of the gas. The satisfaction from this hobby is the process itself. Take your time. Strive for high-quality and neatly executed work. It doesn’t need to be OCD, one square inch at a time, flawless but don’t rush and sloppily slap things together either. Enjoy the ride.
Thanks to Justin Schlottman for writing, “Hi Lance,
I wanted to share something in regards to your article about the main line having a car dropped to be unloaded. The East Penn Rail Road ( Former Norther Lancaster Railroad) has a customer where the unloading occurs on the main line as well. It’s a feed mill in Stevens, PA. Stevens Feed Mill Inc. The unloading pit is right on the main line. I’m not sure if they receive rail cars anymore but after seeing your article figured it may be worth pointing out”.
