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Crazy idea: Layout Concentrate
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<p>Ulrich's illustration looks like what I'm proposing. Just because you can put an orange grove next to a lobster port doesn't mean you SHOULD. My scenes would be sequential, just without having to put empty mainline run to separate the scenes.</p> <p>---</p> <p>Lying in bed last night I took this idea a little further. I was worried about the scenes being so short and close together that the mainline run would seem too short (in physical space) and packed together. Comments about the locomotive being three towns away worried me, because they're absolutely true. And if you're running at track speed you cover distance at a ridiculously fast pace.</p> <p>This new idea is a twice-around...on the same track. Phase A has every other module illuminated and the others dark, possibly even curtained off with drapes on a clothesline. The train starts in Module 1, runs through Module 2 which is dark/hidden, and into Module 3 which is illuminated. This continues to the halfway point: 4 is hidden, 5 is visible, 6 is hidden, and let's say 7 is the halfway point, which is illuminated.</p> <p>The train stops briefly for a station stop, crew change, interlocking to clear, bridge to lower, etc., and the operator flips a switch to Phase B. Modules 1, 3, and 5 all go dark and 2, 4, and 6 light up. If curtains are used to further hide dark modules, the drapes on clotheslines can be cycled one module to hide the now-dark modules and reveal the now-lit ones.</p> <p>The train continues, through now-illuminated modules 2, 4, and 6, while passing through 1, 3, and 5 in the dark.</p> <p>1 and 6 are the termini of the line, so the train only passes through 7 (the halfway point, always illuminated) once on its journey.</p> <p>If one is really ambitious (and/or the modules are really small), a thrice-around would be possible with two lighting change points and having three phases. Every third module would be illuminated. Heck, why not four or five times around?</p> <p>Obviously, any plan of this type only allows one train on the main line at a time, but other operators could work always-lit branches off the main line where a yard, or industrial area (I'm planning a massive paper mill at the end of the line as my railroad's main traffic source) keep them busy and off the main line the whole session.</p> <p>I think there's tremendous potential for this type of main line run and psychological separation between scenes. If the run takes long enough (time-wise), modules could progress from night to day throughout the run, and the return trip would arrive back at the interchange at nightfall having worked a full day.</p> <p>Now I'm getting a little bit crazy. But I'm also really intrigued by this idea and might just build this.</p>
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