Claremont Paper on a shelf...
Whilst being stuck ‘resting’, post COVID I’ve been quite productive in terms of layout scheming...
Whilst thinking this through, using the idea of unwrapping the prototype (a process where you effectively imagine your a car rolling through the plan, in a linear fashion what do you experience) something clicked and I simplified this to a basic two Y point scheme with three vertical levels to represent operations in a simplified yet sympathetic and most importantly exciting manner. The key to Claremont is the gradient and the relationship between trucks and cars left at different levels in the plan. The difficulty to overcome is not one of size, space or time for such a characterful micro, it is the gradients that need to be checked and tested to ensure the locomotive can manage the load, and that the couplings stay engaged on the changed in gradient, however, as a concept it is one that I want to build, like the Corkickle plan, and so I’m pretty certain that in the next 12 months or so we’ll see progress on this, perhaps by then in parallel with the Halifax and South Western shelf layout... in the meantime, back to commissions and physical modelling today, slowly, as I’m on the mend. More soon...
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| Photo by M Leachman from https://www.railpictures.net/photo/689217/ |
You may remember a few weeks ago I introduced the Claremont and Concord and some first ideas around a micro layout, based upon operation rather than scenery. Well I’m afraid I weighed things up and decided that it didn’t evoke enough of an emotional response to connect with the subject.
I decided to try some of the ideas Chris and I had been discussing around layout design and the interpretation of prototypes into models. I thought about how you would interact with Claremont Paper, on the ground walking around and watching the operation, as it was the scene above that had first caught my attention... so switching from Coy Paper to Claremont itself...
If you want to learn more about the fascinating Claremont and Concord and it’s streetcar trackage, then the links in my original post have further information of if you search online you will find plenty.
I'm reminded of the role the gradients and changes of level play in making the rather ordinary track plan of Arun Quay into something extraordinary which draws the eye into the scene. Have you considered placing your lower level tracks at the back of the scene to have a similar effect?
ReplyDeleteThanks Colin, I think that might work better with the L shaped Alcoa scheme from SOPOR I shared yesterday. In this case, the hill direction works better with the lowest at the front both in terms of presentation (the layout itself becomes its own backscene) and operation!
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