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First, I don't buy the "historical" part of the preservation arguement for protypical modelling. If Mr. Joe Blow decides to build a layout depicting a fallen flag and does it admirably; he has indeed added to the history, but only for a limited amount of time. For unfortunately Mr. Joe Blow's time to go to the big layout in the sky comes and the layout is dismantled and turfed. So much for the history. I think there are great reason's to model protytpically - the challenge, the research, the skill in duplicating scenes, and operations. And what of us who prototypically freelance, and I suspect a great many free lanced layouts fall into this category. I'm building a sub division of CP that didn't exist, but I'm basing it on prototypical track and operations that do exist. Then this prototypical free lance line merges with a completely free lanced mythical subsidiary of Montana Rail Link in the interior of British Columbia. Prototypical and free lance can get fuzzier than what I have described above. I have learned over the years in various forums, that what at one point seems to be "obvious" isn't so obvious after you begin scrutiny. I put a query in at the layout design sig about the width and breadth of my layout - and found the answer wasn't so obvious. I once questioned "selective compression" and "layout design elements" and found that people have a wide range of interpretations of notions we assume to be universal. I asked the question, can the Horse Shoe Curve be model using straight track only. You'd be amazed at how many said "Yes." A common retort was: "if the track mimics the operations of Horse Shoe Curve and has familiar structures, then it can be modelled." Needless to say, I'm one of those who believes you have to have a curve in your modelling of Horse Shoe Curve before I'll accept it is the aforementioned. Then again in the layout design sig, I challenged when does a modelling element move from prototypical to free lance. How much detail do you need to have a "prototypical" model. I was surprised at the answers this brought forth. Again there were those who insisted there didn't need to be much prototypical for a modelled element to be prototypical. To me, this philosophy enters the realm of prototypical free lancing. My agenda is not to have a modelled erea that is prototypical or free lanced, instead I suscribe to the "wow" factor theory. If you can make your visitor's say "wow!" when they see your layout, you've got a great layout.
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