Good things come in narrow packages

[Steve]

One thought........Where the actual throw bar would be on the trestle, and not the safest place for the brakeman, determine which end of the trestle would be where the brakeman would be most likely to be when the switch needed to be thrown, and put a switchstand there, with a bell crank and rod assembly, to the throw bar. That would keep him on solid ground for the coupling, uncoupling, and turnout operation.
Or.....
mount a switchmotor casting on the trestle, and a control box at each end of the trestle ( if that is era appropriate )

Great ideas Pete!
I will definitely need to do one or the other....Thank you!

Steve,

I'll be doing a Remote Tortoise Install shortly. It will be a first for me, so it should be interesting to watch. Perhaps this might give you an idea. Although, your solution is simple and actually quite elegant.

I don't think that is something I want to get into for myself, but I would love to watch you do it (and I will be watching )

Looking at the overall scene...the green of the Gallimore Coal and the red of the Wollenberg Grain seem to act as anchor points visually - they grab your attention right away and allow your eyes to come back to them again and again. And not only the colors, but the size of the structures. The three smaller structures in between are in muted tones with little bits of color from the signage, people and details that draw you closer to the scene and suck you in. Then when you're done examining them closely you follow the tracks down to the left or right to those scenes, then back again...it's going to be something when you get a little further along. That rhythm and pacing you've established with the existing structures should carry through somehow. Not sure if I'm just reading all this into the scenes or you're even thinking about composition in these terms, but either way it works!



Galen

Galen , my friend, you really need to write a book.......the way you paint with words, allows me to not only understand what you are saying, but "see" it as well.
Kurt deserves much of the credit for the "flow" of the layout. As you may remember, Wollenberg was built before this layout was designed. There was an earlier trackplan that was going to be 2ft deep instead of 1. In both plans, Wollenberg was going to be close to the center, kind of like a "big red jewel" to anchor it. It seemed natural to give Gallimore Coal a vibrant color as well since the prototype it is based on is red. I however, did not want another big red structure, so I chose green. I will let others decide if it was a good choice or not. The danger then was having too many bright colors, so the rest became more muted (the house next to Wollenberg is white like its prototype).
I have to admit, when I saw the pic of the overall layout, I was really shocked (and pleasently surprised) to see the ballance and natural flow of it. It is not very often that I step back and take a good look of the whole thing. I usually have my attention on the small area that I am working in and forget about the larger picture (probably not a good idea).

Any way, it has all been fun for me, and I hope fun for all of you as well .