Scenes

A model railroad consists of one or more scenes. As I’ve said earlier, a layout is a model of the real world (known as the prototype), and so cannot contain all the features of the real world, selections have to be made and these are scenes.

The following are scenes I wish to model:

  1. A longish stretch of track with more scenery than rail structures, possibly only interrupted with a grain silo on a small spur and farms. This will give some height to the layout and provide another industry. There is a long stretch of I-25 from Denver to Colorado Springs where a single-track railroad follows the road with a few small roads crossing the rails and the ground undulating up and down with the rails going flat through the terrain.
  2. One or more passenger stations, probably two rural stations, I like Glenwood Springs, and maybe one larger through or terminus station. The area needed to model a large city station and the surrounding city is usually prohibitive.
  3. A coal mine. Walthers has a coal terminus it is about 8×6 inches in N-scale.
  4. A paper mill. Again, Walthers has a model that allows trains to go alongside/inside the building, one of my must-haves. This building is 12×7. One thing I have thought of for the corner by the entrance is a small company town dedicated to the paper mill.
  5. Logging camp. The most important raw material for a paper mill is wood, hence the idea to have a logging camp. This is something that can be more malleable in placement and look.
  6. Grain silos. See #1 above.
  7. Canyon. The recent Model Railroader magazine Canadian Canyon project shows what can be done with this. A canyon provides a lot of visual interest in a small space and also gives the model height which can be difficult to do. The canyon ends also provide the potential for scene dividers if needed as well as hiding non-prototypical curves.
  8. Bridge. These can provide visual interest and also provide height to the layout, in particular, if there is a gorge under the bridge. Bridges often are used as movable sections of the layout in front of doors or windows.
  9. Classification yard. A yard can provide operational possibilities. I will post more about this in the future.
  10. Chemical plant. These can provide another industry with the option of variable size as well as composition; there isn’t really a typical chemical plant. Chemical supplies and products if in liquid form are typically moved via closed rail cars so there is no need to model the contents.

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