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Gentlemen, Thanks a lot for your input- it makes for some good pondering! Ray- About those 30" curves and messing with the prototype plan... that's one of the 27 reasons I know of that makes the Alaska RR such a great prototype to model... a good portion of its curves are model-friendly small radius. The average speed on the mainline is only about 30 MPH mostly because of the tight radius! Fiverings- It's great to hear from you! I would love to work on the Alaska RR as my second career- who knows? But to the point, I agree with you that flipping scenes is not satisfying and your idea of viewing the Turnagain mainline from the East is something that I never thought of becasue looking from the West is so ingrained in my mind. When I was stationed at Elmendorf, I made MANY trips down the arm and the view of the train against the mountain side was something I always wanted to model. BUT given my situation, your suggestion is not only pratical, it would also be just as impressive. Thanks! I am building an around the walls layout- trying to keep it simple as I'll be moving again in less than two years (but when I put pencil to paper, the "simple" factor seems to be convienently ignored) <g>. So I may be stuck with a scene flip here or there, anyway. I'm already having to face several compromises as I condense desired scenes. For instance, I'm currently planning the Usibelli Tipple and Healy Yard. The only problem is I have only 6 feet to do it all (plus incorporate a "Loads in-Empties out" concept). So needless to say, I'm taking much liberty with the prototype track layout for those two areas starting with combining the two areas into one. This is but one example. I don'e even wnat to think about how I'm going to condense Anchorage into 9 feet- but hey, this is a hobby and I'm supposed to be having fun. Though I'm such a geek, this planning part IS fun for me! About some of the other solutiuons you proposed- those are good. I am already looking ahead to my dream layout when I retire and to overcome the viewing angle dilemna, I will use the "VIGNETTE" idea a lot. But the only downfall to the vignette idea is seeing one half of the train in one scene and the other half in the other scene. If the two scenes being modeled are actually 100 miles apart, this is a problem. Here's my solution: Use a "pocket" concept, where the scenes on both sides of the benchwork are "pocketed" into each other instead of running a simple scenery divider between the two sides. My vision is to seperate the vignetted scenes along one side of the aisle with a panel that is equal to the length of the scene on the other side of the benchwork. So you start by standing next to scene "A", then walk down the aisle along a flat panel which is the rear of scene "X", then come across the front of scene "B". And the rear of scene "B" is the panel adjacent to scene "X". The train transitioning from scene "A" to "B" will actuall travel between the background for scene "X" and the panel that the operator walks by. (The panel is only there to keep the aisle neat looking). This way, the same train (of average length) shouldn't be visible in tow different scenes at once. Make sense? But this is a discussion for another thread. Barry
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