Northlandz is a joke.

[Anonymous]

Northlandz is everything that everyone above has mentioned. We went there knowing what it really is/is not. With that frame of mind, it was an interesting and quite odd curiosity. In the middle room of this huge layout building is an immense restored pipe organ! Also a doll collection! And the circuituous walk around Northlandz if not a mile, is darn close to it! Northlandz is a really eccentric oddity.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Texas Zepher
I presume you just visited it in person?

Yes, I visited it last year, we didn't even fini***he tour, we left and went to Jutland to railfan.

[Anonymous]

What is it?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TrainFreak409
Trains are trains are trains, so what if it is not prototypical? They are always fun to watch. And I think the large environment makes it even more impressive.

Well lets look at it this way. Do real trains continually do loops and go nowhere and nowhere? When you go down to the tracks to railfan your not watching trains do loops. Your watching a part of the national transportation system, stuff going here and there. Thats what makes it intresting, thats what makes railfanning so fun. It adds to the mystery of it all, wheres this boxcar going? Where is that block of Centerflows headed?

It's not so much the fact that its a giant loop, its the fact that the scenery is so redicious. Its over the top and far fetched. You cant relate it to the real world.

You want big and impressive and realistc? Take a look at the MR story or Allen Keller video on Ken Mccorrys PC/Conrail layout. Or the MSI layout, the MSI is a giant roundie round but it represents scenes from the real world and thats what holds MSI over Northlandz. Even John Allen, who modeled a world that teetered on surreal and real, sometimes blending that line so much you couldn't tell, realisticaly operated and represented the real world and pulled off an effect that tricked you into believing it was real. Northlandz couldn't even trick you to believe that.

[Texas Zepher]

I had acutally heard that from other sources. Always good to get confirmation. Loop after loop stacked beside and on top of each other. I presume you just visited it in person?

[TrainFreak409]

I'd really love to go see Northlandz, even though it isn't prototypical. It's a large model railroad display built for continuous running. It cost about $9 million dollars to make, and the fact that over 90% of it was built by one person is astonishing to me. I'd love to go there and take the mile long tour.

Trains are trains are trains, so what if it is not prototypical? They are always fun to watch. And I think the large environment makes it even more impressive.

[Anonymous]

There. I said it.

I dont see why people get all gah-gah over this thing, its just big for the sake of being big. Doesnt represent a railroad in any sense of formality, the trackwork is ugly, the scenerys crude, the engines are old Mantua peices of crap. The track goes everywhere in ugly as sin loops. Not to mention its a giant dust trap. It's a slap in the face of everyone who wants to have a realistic layout. The only thing good about it is the bridges, and even those look all the same.

There, call me a rivet-counter all you want, but I dont fall for the illusion that is Northlandz.

It's like some 6 year olds fantasy layout.