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I'm trying to decide what to include in a layout. I'm trying to use personal history and locales. Two of my sons were born in Salina, KS. I think this is UP or BNSF mainline with some switching. They here mainly to serve the grain elevators and mills. Also this is where massive coal consists come through. I think the rail equipment by the track is BNSF but the trains seem to be mostly UP. I would represent this by creating a small switching yard off of the main line, some grain elevators, and maybe if my modeling skills improve the house we lived in there. One little inside joke is for me to put a state trooper at a crossing outside his car timing the trains. A local trooper times how long the intersection is blocked and sends tickets to the railroad if the intersection is blocked for over 10 minutes. Another area for modeling is Lenexa, KS where I grew up and an area the we maybe moving to this year. This is a BNSF mainline with some industrial switching. There are some neat places to model like where the mainline runs along a creek and a highway runs over it. (K-10) in Johnson Co. I also like where K-7 crosses the Kansas river. Another area is the Argentine yards in KCK. I used to work real close to there and there are many things to model. I believe both BNSF and GE have locomotive overhaul or service facilities there. A pipe dream is look at the intermodel facility at the old Richard Gebaurer airfiled. I think I can have each area represent a time and a place in my life. I think this will give some meaning to why I chose them. Also I can realistically have at least three railroads running on my track. They would be KCS, BNSF, and UP and all the fallen flag freight cars. I saw a UP train over the holidays with a SP locomotive, Denver Rio Grande coal hoppers and some other fallen flags mixed. Ok if you've read this far...I appreciate it. I'm playing with a layout to relearn or learn some of the skills I'll need. Now for my questions: 1.) Where can I find out who owns the line to confirm my thoughts? 2.) The railroad uses the old station in Salina for an office...any thoughts on where I could find the plans to model it? 3.) There is a 180 mile space between Salina and KC so can I use modeler's license to do this non scale? Or would this be bad form? 4.) I realize this a big scope but is this perhaps too much to model? I'm thinking doing it in modules or sections. Any thoughts on size for them 2'X4' or 4'x4' were my thoughts. 5.) I was thinking of a lower level staging area is there a book or perferably a website that can give me some ideas on this. 6.) Any other things I should consider since this is still in the thinking or dreaming stage? Thanks, DT
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