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A different twist--what NOT to include: 1. Tunnels--there were only 2 in the entire state, one on the FWD at Quitaque in the Panhandle (now a trail and state park) and 1 at Grape Creek near Fredericksburg in Central Texas that was abandoned in the 1940's (a state park and great bat sanctuary now) 2. Rugged mountain railroading--even Paisano Pass is rolling country 3. Rivers with lots and lots of water, unless you are doing deep East Texas or a flood 4. Houses with basements or very steep peaked roofs (with some exceptions, but definitely not the norm--not enough snow) 5. Old pax stations with only one waiting room (a dispicable practice, but a historical fact nonetheless), except in some very unique circumstances (Del Rio and Quanah come to mind) 6. Carload coal unloading facilities, unless you are doing the late 1800's and very early 1900's, and coal-burning steam locomotives after about 1920, except in a few very unique locations--by then, almost every one was oil-fired 7. Oil wells in Dallas County or Travis County (there aren't any), or a few others as well -- check the Handbook of Texas and the Texas Almanac 8. Interlocking towers with names or letter designations--they were all numbered by RCT and lists and locations are available online at several web sites 9. Northeastern/upper midwestern-style huge barns--not all that common, barns were generally small and may or may not have had silos, depending on the area 10. Mesas, desert and rugged western scenery east of IH35 corridor and along the Red River (remember, the old movies about Texas were mostly shot in CA, and Remington's Western art used so much was done in MT) 11. Double track, except between DAL and FTW on the T&P, on parts of the SP in SAT, HOU and ELP, and in terminal districts 12. Really HIGH bridges, unless you are doing the Pecos River High Bridge on the SP 13. Particularly SP Pacific lines and Burlington CB&Q locomotives and cabeese before about the mid-1960's. Remember, until the early 1970's when the law was changed every railroad operating in the State had to be incorporated there and were headquartered there. Some of the other roads used different markings (e.g., MKT of Texas, B-RI on the early SHZ and TX Rocket) but generally ran out-of-state road no's on head and rear end equipment--SP was actually divided as an operating entity and changed power and cabeese at ELP during this era. Burlington ran C&S/FW&D locomotives and rear end equipment. Check the specific era and appropriate markings. 14. Rotary snow plows (!). Flangers and conventional plows are appropriate in the Panhandle and on the higher-altitude sections of the T&P and SP. Things to consider modeling: 1. Limestone cuts (most of the state was ancient ocean bottom) and cement operations along the I35 corridor 2. Two-lane roads paralleling the tracks in rural areas (that's where THD put most of the old highways) 3. Small industrial facilities along the tracks including steel fabricators, feed mills, elevators, warehouses, loading docks, chemical facilities (in some parts of the state), brickyards 4. Ag loading platforms and sheds, commodity by area 5. Small creeks and rivers with flood plains and generally some water, unless you are in west TX 6. Stock pens, until about 1973, in virtually every rural town and most cities. Of course, FTW, San Antonio, Amarillo, Lubbock and Dallas (Neuhoff Packing north of Downtown and Hormel in Oak Cliff-both slaughterhouses) had major stockyards, but they are probably too big to model efficiently. 7. Rural houses with storm cellars (tornado alley) 8. Rolling hills; high mountains in the distance in far West TX--it really isn't flat 9. Team tracks and house tracks--every little town had them 10. Farmland east and somewhat west of the the IH35 corridor, along the Red River, in the Rio Grande Valley, around Lubbock (Nile dryland Cotton in widely separated rows!!), along the coast, and pine forests in deep East Texas . Remember, everything east of the I35 corridor is green, and gets greener the further east you go. Soil color varies by area from desert sand in the far west to black gumbo and red dirts in east Texas, so research the area to get the easily distinguishing soil color. 11. Older houses with big, overhanging roofs and lots of porches. Texas is a very diverse state, and you should do some research on the part you want to model. Check the local libraries and historical museums for the area you want to do. The DeGolyer Collection at SMU is good; the library at the LBJ School has a collection of Sanborn Maps, and the Texas Collection and Library at Baylor are also good. Just a few ideas--hope this helps[C):-)]
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