Nice work! Your photos make the layout look really big.
My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JR7582 My Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcfan/
Thanks! It's actually all stacked foam. The base is a hollow-core door and the track level is the top of a 2" sheet of foam. All below-track terrain has been carved from the foam. It's a very efficient and sturdy way to have below-track topography.
As for pototype, I plan to do better next time. My operating sequence is based on actual trains on the 1956 Middle Division, so having the actual towns means I can use schedules as well as sequence. Some day, anyway.
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
Some real nice stuff, Dave, I wouldn't worry much about how prototypical the coal is. Some modeler's license is always allowed, especially if you have the advantage of the additional industry on the layout itself.
I like the elevation changes to the scenery. Is the layout open grid or stacked foam?
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
My N scale PRR Middle Division is "proto-lanced" in that it represents a fictional segment of the real Pennsy Middle Division. The trains are correct, but the town names are only approximate.
Recently, I've been preparing a possible magazine feature on the layout for one of the N scale publications. As I wrote the story I re-hashed my original reasoning for going "proto-lance." The idea was, even using LDEs, I was not going to have room to do justice to real scenes on the PRR Middle Division.
However, I've also been toying with ideas for the future "big one." Inspired by Mr Neal Schorr's O-scale 3 rail PRR Middle Division layout in 2007 MRP, I've decided that the future "big one" is going to be:
Continuous running over 2-4 (Atlas Code 55) tracks (extended sidings and switch leads will give the appearance of the 4-track main, while for operation's sake it'll be more like 2). Run-through visible staging representing Altoona at one end and Enola on the other. Locations along the line will include Perdix, Sherman's Creek, Duncannon, Mifflin/Mifflintown, the Narrows, Lewistown, Granville, and possibly Huntingdon. At Lewistown I'll include the Milroy Secondary and the Standard Steel plant at Burnham. This would be on a peninsula.
To get there from here, I plan to start converting the current layout to more prototypical locales. For starters, Lewisport may become Mifflin, with a kitbashed Walther's AT&SF depot replacing the current generic Atlas one:
Jack's Run becomes its inspiration, Spruce Creek:
East Mifflin has a passenger shelter similar to Millerstown, but the tower wouldn't have been there. Then again, selective compression can be used! Did Newport have a passenger shelter, or was it just a tower (PORT Interlocking)?
The coal mine is kind of a geographical oddity. Most of the coal on the PRR Middle Division originated west of Altoona or on the Clearfield Branch which connected via the Bald Eagle Branch at Tyrone. Of course, the H&BTM and EBT hauled coal to the Middle Division at Huntingdon and Mt Union, respectively. I'll keep the coal branch "proto-lanced" for now.
Comments welcome!!!