I'm currently constructing my third and final signature layout. Its 17 1/2' ft. long and 18 3/4" inch wide. Its a freelance HO scale modular style, inspired by David Burrow's Santa Fe & Cat Mountian benchwork. Set loosly in the time era of 1970's. Fictionaly and not to scale, it repersents a 12 mile rural industrial branchline, that connects via at a junction connection, 1.5 miles south of the Cougar Yard interchange, with the class one railroad MKT(Katy). Its point to point style and Cougar Yard Interchange serves as open car stageing as well. I'm modeling a small rural town business area with the basics, a cafe', three store bldg. merchant row, a gas station, and a small Safeway Store. This will be compressed into a corner on a upper level, with tracks passing under it. The town is the fictional Oklahoma town of Ink Falls. Theres five industries varying in size. The two largest is Union Tire Mfg. and Crimson Scrap & Steel. The medium one is a coal fired steam generated electric powerhouse, pumphouse, cooling towers, and electrical sub station.The selective compressed backdrop industries is a steel coil Alloy mfg., and a warehouse. This layout will have a perfect balance of alot in the largest facilities, to less and compressed in the smaller plus backdrop facilities. With a touch of a country business district rural town, the kind you find in rural Oklahoma. You know, if you blink passing through the one yellow flashing light intersection, the town is in the tailights in a matter of seconds! Lol😁 The branchline railroad is Walthers code 70 track and turnouts. Its name is Company West & Katy Industrail Branchline Railroad. A combonation of Autumn scenery, and photo backdrop rural Autumn scenery, and a few negitive spaces with rocky hills and trees, just a couple of main roads and service roads, ect., will set up the layout to look larger than it is, with a combo of taste in industrial, rural, and small town America variety. With just enough super-detailing that it pulls the eyes of the viewer into the scenes, before they've a chance to realize how small the layout actually is. My last layout was a large city and industrial scenes with spagetti tracks going everywhere. It was difficult to maintain and I eventually become burned out and overwhelmed, with too many unfinished projects. After 6 years of work, I had to move, so down it come and I sold out everything. Now 13 years later my approach is simplicity. The size of the layout allows me to remain old school DC. Letting me enjoy the way less expense that DCC involves. I do have a stationary sound system and will have misc. animations and constant loco lighting. Just because its DC, you don't have to not have some enjoyment from digital devices. Theres alot of products out there so DC modelers can enjoy sound and such from the digital world. My advice is stay simple, stay reasonable, mix in selective compression with extreme super-detailing in your larger industries. You'll acheive balance. Your pics of your old layout was fantastic modeling! I believe you've got the artistic mind and ability to acheive what your reaching for this go around. I'll subscribe. I'd enjoy watching you create. I might even be inspired with ideas I never thought of from viewing your work. God Bless my friend, and most of all, if Model Railroading isn't fun anymore, and is more like the burden of work, its not Model Railroading! 👌👍
I appreciate your insights. I've been struggling with the same design issues - I think most of us want our cake and eat it too! It's becoming more and more clear that less is more with a small shelf layout.
The concept of "staging" is how you leave the scene (or stage) on a model railroad regardless of the size - unless you prefer to run in circles. If you care to know more about this concept try reading Ian Rice. Furthermore, Tony Koester wrote that every point-to-point railroad should have stub end staging at each end. Staging can be all manner of things, from physically removing rolling stock and locomotives from the layout by hand, or driving them off onto a staging track considered to be - off the layout - into the imaginary world we do not have the luxury to model. In theory, most model railroaders use a form of manual staging without even realizing what it means. Cheers. 😁
You’ve been reading my mail, part two is all about staging. I would like to read Ian rice, you’ve mentioned him several times. I didn’t really understand staging until after I built my layout, and is definitely a reason I wanted to start again from scratch rather than try retro fit something that didn’t make sense or improve the operating experience. As always, I appreciate your wisdom.
Looking forward to the new build PostModern . Can’t wait to see what you come up with. Remember your layout your enjoyment we get to go for the ride. Have a great day and enjoy the hobby
This is the first video of yours that was suggested on my channel page and I’m very interested. Love to see where it’s going from here, keep us informed! 😍👊
Wow, the first 2 minutes of introduction to the video, I’m really trying to determine if it was modeling or real life scenery. A tribute to your work and skills!
I thought this was brilliant! Taking the shelf layout and zooming in instead of zooming out. Makes perfect sense. Looking forward to the build. Enjoyed the look back at the Park. You did good with that layout. Snazzy intro, btw 🙂
Christian, I'm sorry to see ojus park go I learned some excellent scenery technics from this layout! can't wait to see what you come up with for your next layout!
@@PostmoderneModelWorks Really appreciate this video, as I've been stuck in analysis paralysis over my tiny HO scale shelf layout plans for almost a year. I realistically only have 8 - 11 ft / 2,5 - 4 m maximum, and have always been trying to figure out how to compress the few things that I want to model into that space.
@ I’m glad you were able to get something from this. We’ve been programmed for so long to look at this through compression like there’s no alternative, but there is. Thanks for the feedback
I Love David Barrow’s Domino Cat Mountain and Santa Fe Railroad! I built a number of 8’ by 2’ Dominos 30 years ago that would be 1994. I just never got to putting them together into a layout. I hope to start up a layout in 2025 using N Scale KATO Unitrack. Wish me luck!
Being realistic, but for whom ? The modeler or visitors ? It´s your world ! You want a third rail in the middle with rack & pinion to climb 10% grade like Mount Washington cog railway ? Go ! You want modern D&RGW narrow gauge with SD40 ? Go ! After all, that´s what they did with our surplus SD40 in Brazil. They remove CC trucks and put BB+BB. Their own SD45 came from EMD with DD trucks like UP Centenial. Specially if you freelance. Your railroad will be right on the moon ! No mental limit. After all, big CN had also GE 44 and 70 tons and narrow gauge. Last, everything is a matter of scale. In HO we´re inflenced by magazine, YT, train show etc... and a tendancy to always more details, lights, sounds in an industry that push us to buy more, more detailed and costly. Honest, why super detailing underframe ? Except if you run your cars on their sides....sort of artistic form of modeling. But who´s right ? Picasso with its soft like melting watches, Monet, Gauguin ? When you leave HO tchou tchouing in the basement and go outside in 1/8, it´s a different game. You don´t watch tchou tchou, you sit on tchou tchou. You are part of the layout and move in it. SD40 is available, and you handlay your track and turnout. The fun is to be part of that motion. Some are very happy with their boxy plywood ugly locomotive.....that are always shiny. No weathering like in HO. Playing with trains can be so different from size to size. A good cue is to model invisible industries. Those off the layout. A turnout, a foot or 2 of track and a dock. Load, unload wood, pipe, machinery, liquid, whatever you want, keeping variety of rolling stock with enough land for truck movment. Choose the right era for your available space. I see so modern big power locomotive on layout that i´m sick. How to fit those monsters on 4 X 8 feet table pulling autorack ? 2 forty foot boxcars are shorter than a single autorack. You love covered hopper ? Fine. Haul cement instead of grain or plastic pellet. Same style, half the lenght. There was shortline with small GE 70 tons, even 44. Add 6 or 7 "short" cars. You have a decentbfreight or peddler that will take with ease 15 or 18" curves on turnout #4. It´s funny cause the freight you showed us was a bunch of different styles short hoppers around 40 feet, then bang, long flat car. Modeling an iron ore line with even shorter cars, why not ? Planet Earth isn´t only double stack behind UP, CSX and NS. Once old boxcars were used at grain elevators. 6 of them is 3 feet of track. Era = cars/loco lenght = minimum radius curve and turnout ÷ by your actual space. In plant only is an other option. Like a mine train from underground that dump before returning down. Many industries did it. EMD had its own inplant switcher, as did MLW. Steel mill, refinery, harbour etc... Your dream, your world ! Enjoy hollidays, and in 2025, the best for all with PostModerne Boomer and Chicago Crossing (and others too). What a great year !
I'm currently constructing my third and final signature layout. Its 17 1/2' ft. long and 18 3/4" inch wide. Its a freelance HO scale modular style, inspired by David Burrow's Santa Fe & Cat Mountian benchwork. Set loosly in the time era of 1970's. Fictionaly and not to scale, it repersents a 12 mile rural industrial branchline, that connects via at a junction connection, 1.5 miles south of the Cougar Yard interchange, with the class one railroad MKT(Katy). Its point to point style and Cougar Yard Interchange serves as open car stageing as well. I'm modeling a small rural town business area with the basics, a cafe', three store bldg. merchant row, a gas station, and a small Safeway Store. This will be compressed into a corner on a upper level, with tracks passing under it. The town is the fictional Oklahoma town of Ink Falls. Theres five industries varying in size. The two largest is Union Tire Mfg. and Crimson Scrap & Steel. The medium one is a coal fired steam generated electric powerhouse, pumphouse, cooling towers, and electrical sub station.The selective compressed backdrop industries is a steel coil Alloy mfg., and a warehouse. This layout will have a perfect balance of alot in the largest facilities, to less and compressed in the smaller plus backdrop facilities. With a touch of a country business district rural town, the kind you find in rural Oklahoma. You know, if you blink passing through the one yellow flashing light intersection, the town is in the tailights in a matter of seconds! Lol😁 The branchline railroad is Walthers code 70 track and turnouts. Its name is Company West & Katy Industrail Branchline Railroad. A combonation of Autumn scenery, and photo backdrop rural Autumn scenery, and a few negitive spaces with rocky hills and trees, just a couple of main roads and service roads, ect., will set up the layout to look larger than it is, with a combo of taste in industrial, rural, and small town America variety. With just enough super-detailing that it pulls the eyes of the viewer into the scenes, before they've a chance to realize how small the layout actually is. My last layout was a large city and industrial scenes with spagetti tracks going everywhere. It was difficult to maintain and I eventually become burned out and overwhelmed, with too many unfinished projects. After 6 years of work, I had to move, so down it come and I sold out everything. Now 13 years later my approach is simplicity. The size of the layout allows me to remain old school DC. Letting me enjoy the way less expense that DCC involves. I do have a stationary sound system and will have misc. animations and constant loco lighting. Just because its DC, you don't have to not have some enjoyment from digital devices. Theres alot of products out there so DC modelers can enjoy sound and such from the digital world. My advice is stay simple, stay reasonable, mix in selective compression with extreme super-detailing in your larger industries. You'll acheive balance. Your pics of your old layout was fantastic modeling! I believe you've got the artistic mind and ability to acheive what your reaching for this go around. I'll subscribe. I'd enjoy watching you create. I might even be inspired with ideas I never thought of from viewing your work. God Bless my friend, and most of all, if Model Railroading isn't fun anymore, and is more like the burden of work, its not Model Railroading! 👌👍
Thank you for sharing your story, there is something in this hobby for everyone. Cheers
You´re back ?
What a cool Christmas present you offered us.
Welcome back home. The family is complete now😊😊😊😊😊
And the train must go on .
@@danielfantino1714 thanks Daniel, been busy at work, but had a break during the holidays
Ojus Park was visually outstanding, can't wait to see what you create this time around!
Thank you, I appreciate the kind words.
I appreciate your insights. I've been struggling with the same design issues - I think most of us want our cake and eat it too! It's becoming more and more clear that less is more with a small shelf layout.
@@rodromano3128 it’s tough to control those impulses. Thanks for your feedback.
The concept of "staging" is how you leave the scene (or stage) on a model railroad regardless of the size - unless you prefer to run in circles. If you care to know more about this concept try reading Ian Rice. Furthermore, Tony Koester wrote that every point-to-point railroad should have stub end staging at each end.
Staging can be all manner of things, from physically removing rolling stock and locomotives from the layout by hand, or driving them off onto a staging track considered to be - off the layout - into the imaginary world we do not have the luxury to model.
In theory, most model railroaders use a form of manual staging without even realizing what it means. Cheers. 😁
You’ve been reading my mail, part two is all about staging. I would like to read Ian rice, you’ve mentioned him several times.
I didn’t really understand staging until after I built my layout, and is definitely a reason I wanted to start again from scratch rather than try retro fit something that didn’t make sense or improve the operating experience.
As always, I appreciate your wisdom.
Looking forward to the new build PostModern . Can’t wait to see what you come up with. Remember your layout your enjoyment we get to go for the ride. Have a great day and enjoy the hobby
Thanks Mike, I hope I can live up to
The hype
@ I’m sure she will be a Beauty
This is the first video of yours that was suggested on my channel page and I’m very interested. Love to see where it’s going from here, keep us informed! 😍👊
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
Wow, the first 2 minutes of introduction to the video, I’m really trying to determine if it was modeling or real life scenery. A tribute to your work and skills!
@@kerry_glock thanks you so much
I thought this was brilliant! Taking the shelf layout and zooming in instead of zooming out. Makes perfect sense. Looking forward to the build. Enjoyed the look back at the Park. You did good with that layout. Snazzy intro, btw 🙂
Thanks Bill. It’s a logical solution to an ideological problem. I appreciate the feedback as always.
Christian, I'm sorry to see ojus park go I learned some excellent scenery technics from this layout! can't wait to see what you come up with for your next layout!
@@modeltrainaficionado7195 thanks Chris, you’ve got some great scenes yourself
Gives me something to think about when I start laying track on my 8 foot long layout .
Yep, 8’ is going to be one industry with one or two spots, a main and possibly a small siding. More than that and it just gets unrealistic
@@PostmoderneModelWorks Really appreciate this video, as I've been stuck in analysis paralysis over my tiny HO scale shelf layout plans for almost a year. I realistically only have 8 - 11 ft / 2,5 - 4 m maximum, and have always been trying to figure out how to compress the few things that I want to model into that space.
@ I’m glad you were able to get something from this. We’ve been programmed for so long to look at this through compression like there’s no alternative, but there is. Thanks for the feedback
Looking forward to the journey!
@@HartfordWhaler thank you and that’s my grandfather’s old brass alco Connecticut Central rs2. In the process of restoring it.
Thank you for the detailed scenery photos and design suggestions. Happy New Year.
Thanks for your feedback and happy new year to you too!
I Love David Barrow’s Domino Cat Mountain and Santa Fe Railroad! I built a number of 8’ by 2’ Dominos 30 years ago that would be 1994.
I just never got to putting them together into a layout. I hope to start up a layout in 2025 using N Scale KATO Unitrack. Wish me luck!
Thanks for sharing your story Kerry and good luck
Very interesting thought process and perspective. Looking forward to future updates.
Thank you, I’m pretty focused on this right now.
Very interesting and well done
@@OldcampRanch thank you sir!
amazing video! sounds like an interesting plan :)
Thank you my friend
good stuff
@@TheNorthwestWind thank you!
Truth
@@kokosnood thanks
@@PostmoderneModelWorks I thought your last one was kickass. Can't wait to see what you come up with next
Being realistic, but for whom ? The modeler or visitors ?
It´s your world !
You want a third rail in the middle with rack & pinion to climb 10% grade like Mount Washington cog railway ? Go !
You want modern D&RGW narrow gauge with SD40 ? Go !
After all, that´s what they did with our surplus SD40 in Brazil. They remove CC trucks and put BB+BB. Their own SD45 came from EMD with DD trucks like UP Centenial. Specially if you freelance. Your railroad will be right on the moon !
No mental limit. After all, big CN had also GE 44 and 70 tons and narrow gauge.
Last, everything is a matter of scale. In HO we´re inflenced by magazine, YT, train show etc... and a tendancy to always more details, lights, sounds in an industry that push us to buy more, more detailed and costly. Honest, why super detailing underframe ? Except if you run your cars on their sides....sort of artistic form of modeling. But who´s right ? Picasso with its soft like melting watches, Monet, Gauguin ?
When you leave HO tchou tchouing in the basement and go outside in 1/8, it´s a different game. You don´t watch tchou tchou, you sit on tchou tchou. You are part of the layout and move in it. SD40 is available, and you handlay your track and turnout. The fun is to be part of that motion. Some are very happy with their boxy plywood ugly locomotive.....that are always shiny. No weathering like in HO.
Playing with trains can be so different from size to size.
A good cue is to model invisible industries. Those off the layout. A turnout, a foot or 2 of track and a dock. Load, unload wood, pipe, machinery, liquid, whatever you want, keeping variety of rolling stock with enough land for truck movment.
Choose the right era for your available space. I see so modern big power locomotive on layout that i´m sick. How to fit those monsters on
4 X 8 feet table pulling autorack ? 2 forty foot boxcars are shorter than a single autorack.
You love covered hopper ? Fine. Haul cement instead of grain or plastic pellet. Same style, half the lenght. There was shortline with small GE 70 tons, even 44. Add 6 or 7 "short" cars. You have a decentbfreight or peddler that will take with ease 15 or 18" curves on turnout #4.
It´s funny cause the freight you showed us was a bunch of different styles short hoppers around 40 feet, then bang, long flat car. Modeling an iron ore line with even shorter cars, why not ? Planet Earth isn´t only double stack behind UP, CSX and NS. Once old boxcars were used at grain elevators. 6 of them is 3 feet of track.
Era = cars/loco lenght
= minimum radius curve and turnout ÷ by your actual space.
In plant only is an other option. Like a mine train from underground that dump before returning down. Many industries did it. EMD had its own inplant switcher, as did MLW. Steel mill, refinery, harbour etc...
Your dream, your world !
Enjoy hollidays, and in 2025, the best for all with PostModerne Boomer and Chicago Crossing (and others too). What a great year !
Your passion definitely shows. Thanks for your feedback. Cheers