Museums

[Anonymous]

Over the past few days, a few references were made of people modelling railway museums, such as Exporail in Montreal. Wow!!! What a great idea. By adding a museum to your layout, perhaps as a module, you can have almost any rolling stock and motive power you desire without affecting the particular identity of your railway. Imagine the variety of things you can run without having to justify eras, technology, geography, etc.

Definitely something I will consider adding.

[Anonymous]

Believe me, museums are definitely a good idea in real life and in model form. My layout was originally going to be a carfloat yard somewhere in New York, however, as my first loco was an SP SD9, I felt the need to change the layout to a museum line. It's a superb way of dealing with the "super-finescale rivet counter" who can reel off lists of what shouldn't be on the layout! Museum lines allow you to run what you want, including the more outlandish prototypes (my line frequently sees an NYC C-Liner teamed with an EMD Leasing SD40-2)! It also allows you to take advantage of those models that are at a very low price and in a paint scheme you like.

[Jetrock]

Visiting museums can be a hoot too. The California State Railroad Museum is a fine example of one that could be modeled--it features a big yard and shops area on one end, with a transfer table and a couple gorgeous old 19th century brick buildings, the museum grounds with a turntable and recreated CP freight and passenger stations in the middle, and a long straight tourist-train line on the other end! Plus, this particular museum also ships freight (to a lumber mill that was serviced by the old SP branch that the tourist line inherited, and possibly soon to an oil storage facility to ship methanol) adding some "real work" to the schedule. In addition, a grand old SP station served by Amtrak and traveled by UP freights is right in between the yards and the museum. Its position right between the river (which features old paddlewheel steamers and two bridges) and Old Sacramento (featuring lots of lovely Old West type buildings) makes it a scenery builder's delight.

Obviously an exact replica would be gargantuan, but by freelancing or selective compression you could include a lot of different and unique elements. Using other northern California examples, the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction would be fun (actually, someone *did* build an N-scale layout of it, which sits in the museum visitor center) or the Portola WP museum would be interesting and a lot simpler examples of more modest railroad museums.

[Anonymous]

I agree with a museum scene. The Portola RR Museum is compact and has a baloon track to add a little operation.

[Anonymous]

Railfairs are also a good idea. I have been toying with the idea of modeling the 1939 New York World's Fair, specifically, the Railroads on Parade show. There you had the brand new locos of the time, early diesel, some british models, 1870's equippment and some early 1800's models (besides, it would be a terrific scratchbuilding project)