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| Fields outside Wheelerville on Mike Hauk's S&NY |
The Model Railroad as a Three-Dimensional Painting
In planning my new layout, my focus on benchwork, electrical planning, and operations are the issues I have been posting and thinking about. Prepping for and giving my clinic on backdrops; seeing Neil Schorr's clinic, Capturing the Commonwealth; and visiting Mike Hauk's Susquehanna & New York all led me to reevaluate an unstated primary goal for my model railroad. Working towards creating the 4th Subdivision as a three-dimensional artwork is a (if not the) major interest, priority, and goal for me as I start construction. To reiterate a "learning point" from last fall's simple shelf: the visual appearance, presentation, and the role of backdrops on my railroad are all important to me and my "vision" of what I am trying to achieve. In my mind, Mike's S&NY is a model railroad to emulate in terms of a model railroad as three-dimensional artwork.
Operational Goals
While striving for the 4th Subdivision to be aesthetically pleasing and hopefully achieving a realistic appearance, my model railroad is not designed as a static display. Operations somewhere along the continuum between game play and recreating prototypical railroad jobs is important to me. But, what kind of operations should I strive for when I fall towards the novice end on the operator's spectrum? Some of my experiences at the AWMM helped with getting closer to an answer to that question.
The experience of touring several (but not all) of the model railroads helped me to prioritize a bit. Both Brad White and Ray Brown are planning/building large, multi-deck railroads designed to prototypically represent the trains of a PRR line and a portion of the BLE respectively. I am not that much of a die-hard operator. Ed Cronin's single deck BLE railroad combines scenery with operations in an enjoyable manner, but again, the operational focus is on movement of trains in a prototypical manner. All three of their railroads' operational focus is on the movement of trains and bringing the entire railroad to life with multiple operators required for that experience. While I can appreciate their goals, modeling skills, and smooth running trains, a large, train-focused model railroad is not my goal. A smaller branch line with an emphasis on switching and commodity/industry relationships continues to be what I am attracted to, although I will continue to maintain the caveat of future flexibility.
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| The assistant yardmaster in the hat, and Jason, the yardmaster on the right Photo by Lee Farnsworth |
Another feature of the AWMM was an operations session at Dale Desser's railroad on Saturday night after the activities at the Ambassador Center. Even though I was somewhat anxious about fitting in with more experienced operators, serving as assistant yardmaster was not only fun but also one of the events of the AWMM that most helped me reinforce some of my notions for planning the 4th Subdivision. Jason, the yardmaster, was great to work with, and although I didn't have much prior experience, I really enjoyed the yard work! Again, the notion of having the option of both switching and classifying cars right from the start mentioned in Byron Henderson's, Fun Ops on a Small Layout post is another priority reinforced by the opportunity to operate on Dale's railroad at the AWMM. I had several other takeaways from that ops session. One was that although I see some definite plusses in using JMRI Operations Pro, the printouts (manifest/switchlists) are not correct for my railroad's time period, and I want to be able to utilize going down the rabbit hole of researching the industries and their suppliers on my railroad. Another takeaway is that I do not want duck unders, crawl unders, or pop-up access, nor do I want trains disappearing for extended times on their way to staging. While I am planning to have staging hidden from the main layout space, I want to have easy access by walking around a corner or into another alcove of the basement.
Coming away from last weekend's trip to the AWMM, I think that I am clearer about my goals for myself and for my railroad, the 4th Subdivision.
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