Fancy a beer?...

Matt Brewery in Utica, New York, locally famous for its Pilsner and the Saranac range of beers, family owned is even today a rail served industry with plenty of character...

A few months ago, whilst looking for other things I found a video of a wonderful black and yellow Susquehanna GP40 running up the street in Utica, New York State. It was switching the brewery on Schuyler Street propelling a couple of covered cylindrical hoppers... on arrival it disappeared through the brewery itself on a sharp curve, flanges protesting and the engine and turbo working hard before re-appearing shortly after with a pair of empties. These were switched to the street and left on the end of the spur, before the loads were placed in the brewery. The GP emerged to collect the empties before tiptoeing back down the street. All the while the crew worked hard, efficiently undertaking the moves with safety whilst road users negotiated the obstructions with some difficulty at time! 

I love this... street running, covered hoppers, short trains and beer!

This is another of those images that got lodged in my mind, like Corkickle, Ponts Mill, Claremont Paper, Kinross... one morning this weekend I sat comfortably with the first coffee of the day in the lounge, the sun shining in and the dog basking on the rug... I didn’t just want to read but create, and a quick sketch very quickly seemed to connect to a scheme that I’d discussed and worked with Chris recently but interpreted more in my manner, with the overlapped scene connected through the backdrop, disguised by the brewery structures. Full creative credit on that wonderful re-imagination of the shelf layout sits with a Chris, but it struck me that the ‘overlap’ was the perfect way of interpreting the prototype in a linear rather than curved format, and one outline sketch developed into something more concrete. I decided to ping it over to Canada...

This is a really neat use of The Overlap.

I like it a lot!, I think I’d build it.

I like so much about what you’ve already done with this so the only part I want to play with is widen the aperture of the right hand scene to invite the viewer in...

Chris’s reflection on the size of the brewery scene in relation to the whole was a good one. I love bouncing ideas off him, we have a great conversation and it fires my creativity. Our conversation about the prototype and it’s model ability continued...

It occurs to me this brewery layout is one where onboard sound shouldn’t be a thing. On the street scene layout sound should be a thing with a speaker at the further end but the sound is the street. Within the brewery on the right no train sounds at all. Sound of work happening. The idea of sound modulating the importance and identity of the train. On the street it is prominent because of its mass but within the brewery itself the invited guest. 

I love this...

The idea of a sound scape,a further level of realism, another step towards an engaging and immersive scene... the idea of non on-board sound begins to suggest a change in scale from my usual H0 meanderings, and a seed is sewn. Through a few messages, later in the day, whilst sat on the steps in my workshop it struck me that designs often work best when planned with a space in mind, and to that end, I thought reversing the schemes orientation and extending the brewery scene across my workbench, it would be an interesting use of the overlap in the space available... 

Fascinating, Chris explored the same idea, imagining the layout in a peculiar corner he imagines the layout mostly hidden with just a little part emerging into the main room, inviting the viewer to come forwards, to enter the alcove, to view the scene and become a spectator...

It would really sing if you had an outside corner to build in. The layout could reach just beyond the outside corner of the wall...

I sometimes wish I had a clean slate, imagine I sold all my stock, and built a layout and stock from scratch. When I was done with it, sold it all and started again. 

This would be a lovely project, self contained, small enough to take only a year or so for the average modeller. Interesting to operate, if repetitive, but perfect for those grabbed occasions. Immersive. I love the idea of the sound scape. You know what, remember I mentioned scale, this really screams O gauge... one switcher and three or four grain cars... is this the perfect large scale small space?

Hopefully, at the least, myself and Chris’s musing have inspired you to look a bit further than the usual flat fronted shelf concept. Until next time, more soon...

Further prototype reading: https://rices-rails.blogspot.com/p/nys-utica-area-industry-tracks.html