I suppose it depends on what your idea of a "small town" is. There are around 200 cities with populations of between 1 million and 100,000. I'd guesstimate that those 200 cities add up to roughly 50% of the population of the US, 150 million of a total population of about 300 million. So, assuming that you'd consider 100,000 people a city rather than a small town, and a city of less than 100,000 as a small town (many would not) then about half of the population of the US lives in cities.
The density of small towns varies WIDELY, as mentioned in the brief history of the US above. On the east coast, towns are close together largely because there were towns there before automobiles. As you travel farther west, small towns are more widely spread out, and there are large chunks of land that are still uninhabited because they are rather inhospitable. One interesting phenomenon I find when I travel on Amtrak is that European passengers are totally mind-boggled by the spaces involved--there are points in Utah and Nevada where you can stare out into totally uninhabited stretches of desert that are larger than some small European countries (and we're not talking about Monaco or Andorra here...) So it's not so much that Americans live in small towns as that there are large chunks of the west which literally have no people in them.
People don't "walk in to market" here, they drive to the store in all but the densest of cities. Also, one thing that might disguise the size of cities is that typically a large city is surrounded by an orbit of smaller cities (like Chicago's Chicagoland, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Los Angeles/Orange County metropolitan area, or the New York metropolitan area.) So even though cities like Berkeley, CA, are not big cities in themselves (population 100,000) they are often still considered to be part of "big cities" by their inhabitants because they are physically connected to larger urban areas, which are often directly adjacent. And of course there is the difference in the price of gas...the $3 a gallon prices (about 2 pounds, I think) are an all-time high, historically they have been about half of that, and even though most Americans drive bigger cars than most Brits, driving is considered a given and few people pay close attention to how much they pay for gas. A friend who lives in Montana (a state with less than a million people, despite being the fourth-largest state in the country) told me that he generally paid more for gas than rent, because driving to the store was generally a 2-3 hour trip by automobile (each way.)
Watching American films will mostly give you a view of Los Angeles, which is where most of the films are made. Keeping an eye out at the physical location of a film can help give a sense of place and time--popular film locations like New York and San Francisco look very physically different than Los Angeles.
Thanks people for all the information. I am in a comparable situation as Dave. My solution is to invent a reasonable sized smaller big city in Nebraska along the Missouri called Nemaha (population 220.000)(do I here a bell ringing?). There is an actual county and small village in southeast Nebraska going by that name.
My model city has a lot in common with both KC's (Missouri and Kansas, I have been drooling over maps!). There are actually Big and Little Nemaha rivers that empty separately into the Missouri. In my Nemaha they come together in town and have a very short run to the Missouri. It will have a terminal station from the early 20's with a tower a la Cleveland / Buffalo. I will actually model a stretch of track north of the terminal with a kind of suburban stop (college or university neaby). Time period 1950-1967. Passenger trains will be mostly gaselectrics and Bud RDC's. Some services run with 2 or more RDC's running KC - Nemaha - Lincoln / Omaha and maybe beyond once a day to places like Sioux City Iowa and Sioux Falls South Dakota or beyond Lincln to GRand Island in Nebraska. Trains to places like Minneapolis / St Paul will be regulare streamliner types. North Nemaha has the new terminal (supposedly the area burned down between 1910 and WWI) and Central Business District with a college or university north of it, South Nemaha has the shopping and dense urban housing with 2 old main stations (say like Atlanta) close together. West Nemaha will get the new suburbanization. In the river bottoms is most of the old industrial area (think KC bottoms along the Kaw / Missouri).
Main freight yard is to the north of the city, plenty of bridges connecting everything including a Councill Bluffs like area on the east shore.
Well, I got this far, now I am trying to get something of it in 4x6 ft in n-scale.
greetings,
Marc Immeker
marcimmeker wrote: Well, I got this far, now I am trying to get something of it in 4x6 ft in n-scale.
Someone likes a challenge!
Jeff But it's a dry heat!
This post by Jon Grant gives a beautiful image of an American City, primarily the old "rust belt" cities of the North, Midwest and East, which could be anytime from the 1930's to the present day. Depending on which locomotives Jon chooses to display, it takes on those eras very well.
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/922821/ShowPost.aspx
I particularly like the first picture, which could also be the outer portions of New York.
Now, how many of you know that Jon also lives in the UK?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
marcimmeker wrote: Thanks people for all the information. I am in a comparable situation as Dave. My solution is to invent a reasonable sized smaller big city in Nebraska along the Missouri called Nemaha (population 220.000)(do I here a bell ringing?). There is an actual county and small village in southeast Nebraska going by that name. Marc Immeker
Phew! I'm so glad I'm not the only one trying to figure these things out!
Sure I like a challenge! Usually I stare at it till it gets away. Sometimes I dive after it into the pool without checking if there is sufficient water in it. This subject however has been brewing on the backburner for some time and now is the right time to go for it (celebrating 20 years of armchairmodelling and recently my 39th birthday, also the makeover of my house is almost done...)
In my previous post I painted the background, I will only model the approach to the terminal from the north or Omaha side. Lowest area on the outside is the river. Next up is an industrial belt line. Then up comes the double track approach to the terminal and finally the residential and commercial area on the top of the bluff acting as a scenic divide.
A double track oval is no problem to design in that space, I have problems trying to connect both ends to staging "down below" everything. I have a tunnel through the bluffs scene in mind (at one 4 ft side)that both ends of the oval will use. In between will fit what I have in mind or I will have to scale that back (looks like it sofar). No problem so long as a connection to the belt line can be made.
The idea is to watch trains pass by when I am tired yet have the possiblity of switching if I want to. The theme of course is American but the concept is very continental European: double track mainline (to show of all those expensive trains) with branchline to have some fun away from the busy mainline.
It's a bit easier to get the ring of authenticity if you are familiar with the territory. I have come up with various schemes for freelanced railroads, and I find that the more "prototype research" I do the more interesting such a line can become. Hunting for photos (online is just as easy nowadays) for what you're trying to model, even when freelancing, is a good way to steal tidbits with lots of character and use them together on a freelanced layout.
I'm still trying to dig out my moving boxes, but my photos of Chicagoland train stations are in there somewhere...as well as some photos you might like of urban industrial areas in nearby cities. Even in relatively small cities in much of the midwest (Omaha, Burlington, etc.) there are typically at least a few very scruffy neighborhoods lined with old brick factories and warehouses, and they are almost inariably near the railroad line. I try to take a few snaps every time I take the California Zephyr to Chicago (once every couple of years.)
Thanks for all the help everybody.
I got "locked out" somehow by the sytem and have been busy at work or I would have said thanks before. This has been really helpful for me
Another idea would be instead of a fictionalized city, take a real city and fictionalize (is that a word?) the history. Minneapolis is west of Chicago, has had a fairly large amount of railroading thru there (Burlington Northern - formerly Great Northern and Northern Pacific and CBQ -, Minneapolis & St. Louis, Milwaukee Road, etc.), but they didn't go light-rail until the last 8 years or so. You could rewrite the history, i.e. What if Jesse Ventura had become governor in 1984 (heaven forbid!) and pushed his version of light rail on the people there? The Minnesota Twins could have their outdoor stadium built already and you could implode the Metrodome! Wow, talk about the possibilities!
Anyhow, the point is that there is no city which exactly fits what you are trying to do, but you could go back and change the history to fit what you want to do. I think that's called "Freelancing" on this forum.
FT