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By Tony
Neilson
It’s almost inevitable that
the new N scale modeler will imagine owning a huge layout in the future
regardless of the amount of space available, but it’s really a better idea to
take a look at what the new railroad is supposed to do. That’s usually the best
starting point, rather than just rushing ahead and starting to lay
track.
Just as with real world
prototype railroads, a model railway needs to have a purpose and a reason to
operate. It needs to operate efficiently (just like a real railroad needs to),
and it needs to have a part of a scene, but in the case of a N scale railroad
it will have miniature scenery to replicate real life scenery. So, the first
thing to do is ask yourself some searching questions like:
• Will the miniature
railroad be sporting long trains of container stacks or coal
cars?
• Will the railroad be
a logging or mining railroad from the late 19th or early 20th
century?
• Will your N scale
layout depict some other scene from history, from the modern day, or maybe just
a scene from your imagination?
Whatever you decide is
entirely over to you as it is your N scale layout. However, it is a really good
idea to picture the final scene before you get started buying your model
trains, laying the track, making structures, or miniature
scenery.
For the modeler who
envisions long trains, N-scale makes a logical choice no matter how much space
is available.
One visit to a local train
show will usually allow you to see actual 100 car N-scale trains in operation
on a modular layout set up for the event. Not only do the trains run well and
look good, but it’s easy to create scenery that portrays the trains more
closely to their true proportional relationship to their
surroundings.
The most interesting
layouts start with a core industry that the railroad serves. A railroad needs a
reason to exist, and industries that can best benefit by bulk transportation of
product are often the best place to start. Manufacturing, agriculture, mining,
and timber are all industries that make very effective use of rail
transportation. Answer the question of “why is this railroad needed in my
imaginary world?”, and you are off to a solid start in planning the layout. A
great feature of N-scale railroading is that you can start with a small
industry and have plenty of room and opportunity to scale up as your industry
grows.
Planning the Scene Complete with Miniature
Scenery - Start with a Story
It sometimes helps to tell
a story about your railroad. Try writing a short story about the industry, or
make a series of notes or an outline about it.
Consider this
paragraph:
“When Charles Oglethorpe, a
carpenter and craftsman of children’s sleds, settled in Cliffhanger, Colorado
in 1903, he opened a small shop and factory to make his products. Oglethorpe’s
sleds were twice as fast as any on the market, and his business soon grew to
the point that the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad put a short line track
extension into Cliffhanger from the main Denver to
Salt Lake City line to bring his sleds to
market. By 1912, Oglethorpe had cornered the sled marked and was shipping
thousands of sleds a month…so many that the Milwaukee Road also created a line
from Cliffhanger to Billings, Montana, which had an immense sled shortage.
Cliffhanger’s population exploded, and the Oglethorpe Sled Company became
Oglethorpe Industries, a manufacturer of all kinds of wooden
products.”
The totally fictional
paragraph describes a situation in which the Oglethorpe Company needed rail
service to ship its first products, and then later became the reason for more
lines to come into town. Cliffhanger can now become both a rail junction town
AND a manufacturing hub. With manufacturing comes population, and with
population comes passenger service! One paragraph or just a set of notes will
give your model world an excuse to spring to life.
Another approach is to take
a real railroad and model its operation in a certain spot at a certain period
in time. Some modelers have taken this to extremes. One layout is known to
model a certain day in a certain year in a certain town. It’s more common to
see something like the New
York Central freight operations in Schenectady, NY in
1933 being modeled. Such models based on a real railroad are said to be
“prototypical”. The real railroad is the prototype for the model. The
location is constructed to be as much like the real community and
surroundings as possible.
Prototypical or not,
setting a layout operation in a certain period of time gives the railroad
temporal context as well. Buildings, vehicles, advertising, and surroundings
can all be period appropriate to make the scenery and setting authentic. Plus,
it’s great fun to tell the story!
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