06-19-2010, 04:31 PM
Hey, Ralphie! (Norton to Cramden)
You make an excellent point which I hope those in the planning stages take heed of!
The whole "Beyond the Basement" concept, as it was called when I was getting back into the hobby after four in the Army and four in college, was championed by the likes of Allen McClelland (Virginian & Ohio) and Tony Koester (Allegheny Midland) and reading much of what they published helped form my thoughts about layout design. [The two of them were to me in my late twenties what John Allen was to me in my early teen years - I couldn't wait for the next magazine issue!] I had no real room to build a railroad at that time, and a string of "right-out-of-school" consultant design office jobs and the moving that went along with them didn't help, but I did build rolling stock (doing my best to stay in the time period I wanted to model - which required reading and research.) I did keep an eye out for the kind of locomotives I wanted (Wooten-fireboxed Camelbacks, hopefully in pairs and numbered several numbers apart to imply a larger number of units in a class of locomotives.) When I drove though upstate Pennsylvania (the area I wanted to model) I observed and photographed the countryside and the architecture of the area, all the while developing plans for a model railroad that included "interchange with neighboring roads," to reinforce the illusion of a miniature transportation system that dealt with shippers and receivers that were "Beyond the Basement."
The "Beyond the Basement" concept transcends the size or the style of a model railroad and that should be considered when in the planning stages. Full basement with four-track mainline and needing eight operators to run a session on a Tuesday night or a simple 18" wide shelf that hugs one wall in a small bedroom ... both (and everything in between) will be better served if consideration is given to the fact that your railroad does not exist on an island, all by itself (unless you are modeling Hawaii.) All railroads make connections with other railroads and so should yours (not "yours," Ralph - you've already got this figured out - but those in the planning stages!)
I've babbled on long enough, maybe too long. But ... think about "Beyond the Basement" and you won't regret it later on!
You make an excellent point which I hope those in the planning stages take heed of!
The whole "Beyond the Basement" concept, as it was called when I was getting back into the hobby after four in the Army and four in college, was championed by the likes of Allen McClelland (Virginian & Ohio) and Tony Koester (Allegheny Midland) and reading much of what they published helped form my thoughts about layout design. [The two of them were to me in my late twenties what John Allen was to me in my early teen years - I couldn't wait for the next magazine issue!] I had no real room to build a railroad at that time, and a string of "right-out-of-school" consultant design office jobs and the moving that went along with them didn't help, but I did build rolling stock (doing my best to stay in the time period I wanted to model - which required reading and research.) I did keep an eye out for the kind of locomotives I wanted (Wooten-fireboxed Camelbacks, hopefully in pairs and numbered several numbers apart to imply a larger number of units in a class of locomotives.) When I drove though upstate Pennsylvania (the area I wanted to model) I observed and photographed the countryside and the architecture of the area, all the while developing plans for a model railroad that included "interchange with neighboring roads," to reinforce the illusion of a miniature transportation system that dealt with shippers and receivers that were "Beyond the Basement."
The "Beyond the Basement" concept transcends the size or the style of a model railroad and that should be considered when in the planning stages. Full basement with four-track mainline and needing eight operators to run a session on a Tuesday night or a simple 18" wide shelf that hugs one wall in a small bedroom ... both (and everything in between) will be better served if consideration is given to the fact that your railroad does not exist on an island, all by itself (unless you are modeling Hawaii.) All railroads make connections with other railroads and so should yours (not "yours," Ralph - you've already got this figured out - but those in the planning stages!)
I've babbled on long enough, maybe too long. But ... think about "Beyond the Basement" and you won't regret it later on!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln