Never-before modeled railroad scenes

[Anonymous]

I've seen that done on British-outline layouts - they used some of the Dapol plastic loco kits (cheap, unpowered simple-to-assemble kits). I've also seen these used to represent a loco undergoing restoration on a preserved line.

[Anonymous]

Here are some scenes I am thinking about modeling that I do not see done very often.

A railroad museum, with steam engines, and older freight and passenger cars on display.

Some one being "busted" by the cops.

Some shall we say "Late night romantic festivities" in the back of a SUV at "Lovers Leap"

maybe some more "late night romantic festivities" in a sleeping car.

Rioting crowd vs. Police (I have decided that when I model the GN Portion of my layout it will be 1968)

Business with funny and humorous names. EX: (Honest Karr's Used Johns)

These are some of what I don't see very often.

James

[Anonymous]

My layout is supposedly a museum line like the Illinois RR Museum, but it also carries freight traffic for CSX - there's a museum line somewhere in the UK that serves a small ironworks as well as running tourist trains. No steamers as yet though, mainly due to cost (and the fact that I prefer diesels)!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Grayhound Challenger
A railroad museum, with steam engines, and older freight and passenger cars on display.

The Canadian Railway Museum in Delson, Quebec (near Montreal) has a layout of the museum grounds that they take to shows.

See http://www.exporail.org/

Andrew

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Pittsburgh during the fortys and fiftys. I remember the brick ovens. Every thing in Pgh. seemed to be made of brick. There must have been rail activity associated with the industry! Also the slag dumping that used to be done. I remember it lighting the hillside up. I have plans to model both these, if I live long enough. Seems that every time I start getting serious about it, something else gets in the way.

[Anonymous]

I keep thinking I should just go ahead and do this, but something holds me back. Must be my already-enormous commitment towards my northern Virginia layout.

As I am deeply into mythology and fantasy, along the lines of "The Lord Of The Rings", I have thought about doing a totally-freelanced Dwarven Railroad (you just know it'd be mineral-loving dwarves that would invent a railroad), which could start out in a big underground city (a whole engine terminal and yard inside the belly of a volcano!) and then venture out across vivid and exotic fantasy settings. Maybe even have a spur that switchbacks up to a blad mountain face, where a lot of rigging and nets are emplaced for the purpose of capturing dragons. Show off a few wyverns held in "cattle pens" - more like cattle pens on viagra! Snowsheds through the frigid mountain passes would be meant to keep the frost giants away.

A layout like this would require extensive kitbashing and scratchbuilding; ever last car and engine would be a unique design. I would suppose that ever car would have its own doghouse-style sentry shack, where a pair of bowmen ride along to protect the cargo. The engines would all be based on the fantastic gilded victorian steamers that prevailed in the 1800's, but they would need their own particular aesthetic.

I'm convinced that it could be done well, and that it would be a totally unique concept for a model railroad, but I'm willing to bet that as I post this there is someone who has attempted something similar.

[Anonymous]

IronRooster mentioned tracks being laid on ice during WW2 - I know that the frozen Lake Ladoga near Leningrad/St Petersburg was used during the winter of 1941-2 to bring supplies to the town which was under siege by Nazi German forces. A roadway was cleared for convoys of trucks/lorries, but I don't think railroad tracks were laid. But the idea is fascinating and this would be easy to model!
My Z layout is very much at the beginning stage but I intend having a double line running through nothing but woods. I tried making trees from dried sedum flower heads as described in September's Model Railroader and they turn out so well with so little effort that I'll have a miniature forest around my urban area. I've already decided to scratch build an imaginary town which could have been built - all the structures will be representative of the International/Funtionalism style of architecture. Three reasons - I like it, the undecorated surfaces are easier to model in Z scale, and the buildings suit any era starting from about 1930, so I can run pre-war steam or 21st Century trains without having the surroundings look out of character. I haven't seen a similar thing done before - my purist, white city in the forest!

[Anonymous]

One more idea that I've never seen, except in a small diarama, is the City Point and Army Line. This was a short 20+ mile line built by the Union army in 1864-65 to support the troops during the siege of Petersburg.

And, like the fantasy theme idea, this is going to involve a lot of kitbashing and scratch building as today's vendors have little to none in the way of engines and rolling stock from that period. While the 4-4-0 was the primary motive power, most decent models are built for a later period. (I know because I've searched high and low, as this is what I am attempting.)

[Anonymous]

How about one of the world's largest railway tunnels....You sure wouldn't need to spend much on scenery!!!!
But, given my luck, someone has already done this.
-Daniel

[detting]

There is a wealth of great ideas for creating something truly different in these threads. It is important to realize that we are not liminted to the a suburban train station, the gas station and the small country church.

I have two pet ideas:
1. I was thinking of a line that ran across southern Japan - from the "Floating Gate" to Tokyo. Of course Godzilla would have most of Tokyo in ruins. This would be done in N.

2. WWII France from Cherbourg to St Lo. This would be done in HO. I would also model the US unloading trains from LSTs on Utah Beach and the temporary rails to Chef-Du-Pont.

[Anonymous]

Has anybody ever modeled NASA and its connection to the outside road (FEC?).

-Tom

[Anonymous]

I have thought it would be interesting to model the switchback line over Raton Pass on the Santa Fe before the tunnel was bored. It would put you into an era (1880) that not many people model. Also, the D&SL line over the mountains before the Moffit Tunnel was built.

Jared Harper

[leighant]

Yes, I have daydreamed about the D&SL, the "Giant's Ladder" and all. In 1969, I drove over the roadbed in my little Toyota. No, not the 4-wheel drive kind, the Tou Auto kind. An adventure. Many years ago, I sent in an entry to Model Railroaders layout plan contest with a multilevel layout. Of course, the real railroad had some multilevel scenes! I'll have to look up my plan. I believe it had 3 levels of scene and 5 of track because the first level was the Giant's Ladder with the track looping back and forth. The second level was the horseshoe curve around Jenny Lake, and the top nosebleed level forced the viewer to climb up on a stool. Track was near viewer and view was DOWN into the distance, rather than up the side of a mountain the way most layouts are oriented. Operator and view looked through one side of the covered station and wye. Was in N scale for a normal height room, with track a foot below the ceiling. But wouldn't a D&SL layout be near in a 12 or 16 foot high room with the track actually gaining 8 or 10 feet of elevation and the operator walking up stairs or ramp while running.

[timthechef]

How about some of the railroads that served the copper mines in the upper peninsula of Michigan. As a teenager my brother and I belonged to a rock club that used to spend a week up there every summer and we used to follow the old railroad beds (all the tracks have been pulled up) to the abandoned mines to search for copper. There are hundreds of miles of trackbed and old tailing piles . It would make a great railroad.

[Anonymous]

Several years ago I saw a TV show that was hosted by one of the members of Monty Python that was essentially a train trip from the southernmost point of the British Isles to the Northernmost. Along the journey there was a section of track that was built over some type of water, but there was some reason that trestles could not be constructed. If I remember correctly, the rail line was laid over floating animal bladders ( I am serious. ) If anyone can clarify this or debunk it, I would love to hear from them. If it is true, I would love to see this scene modeled. It would be especially interesting in an outdoor layout. Anybody live near quicksand? Bob T

[Anonymous]

Not heard of that one before - there were boggy sections of line where wood had to be dumped into the bog to create a solid base for the track, but not heard this story before. I know of a bridge in North Wales which suffered from sea worms eating it - woodworm on a large scale! This resulted in the only trains allowed to cross it being lightweight DMU diesel railcars - could be an interesting model!

[Anonymous]

Here's a few more.
1)Mt. Washington Cog Railroad
2)MBTA North satation with the Big Dig all around
3)CN island operations in Newfoundland
-justin

[lupo]

On some posts the US transportation efforts during WW2 came up,
this is one of the steamers used then and preserved by a museum-railroad where I live