Fancy a(nother) beer?…
Whilst on holiday in Scotland I pondered if an N scale diorama was a possible ‘next step’ in the N scale Englewood adventure, and what that might look like…
However, as I worked my way across the finishing line with the signature locomotive, the Canfor yellow SW1200, I began to wonder, appreciating it’s small size in person once again “does the idea of a cameo even fit with N scale”… it feels like it needs a layout, in a cameo it can’t be appreciated, it’s too small to get ‘in to’, or in other words, to immerse yourself in…
I agree. It’s almost as if there are predestined layout sizes that are not correlated to modelling scale. That said, I feel the smaller the footprint the better the layout is served if done in a larger scale.
That, when the model gets larger we get in closer to it. In so inheriting a kind of myopia that distracts from distance. We don’t care how far it’s going because right here is very, very interesting.
Chris put it so well, my mind wandered back to another of my 4mm/ft Scottish unfinished schemes, inside the Wick train shed, but more on that another time… the idea of a compact view inside a building along with Atlas’s announcement about the reissued H0 scale Susquehanna 3040 (my favourite, now preordered!) took my meandering mind back to a scheme I developed in March based on Chris’s overlap, at Matt Brewing in Utica, New York…
Could this be distilled further into a single scene?
Picture this… you can’t see it but you hear the roar of the GP40, the flanges of it’s solitary covered hopper train protesting at the tight curvature of the street track-work, squealing and screeching, bell ringing, the hopper comes through the doorway into the building, progressing slowly, through to the yard beyond, as the loco follows filling that room with noise, exhaust fumes in the air and up your nose, the ground rumbling as it moves through the space to the yard beyond…
I’m thinking H0, this could all be achieved in a micro about 60cm long, with a fiddle stick…
And perhaps a wall of these shelves could find a home in your office, study or even lounge… and my forthcoming Scottish scheme may feature on a second shelf?! More soon…
Looking at the plan view, it appears to me that quite a lot of the depth is used for building volume that doesn't achieve much, especially if the scene is displayed at eye height. By cutting away the depth at the rear, and perhaps adjusting the angle of view slightly (although the composition as is certainly looks nice in that front view), it might be possible to fit the scene into a literal shadowbox, rather than an enclosed shelf. 'Picture this' indeed.
ReplyDeleteNow, this is a great build… I would still think to work with the depth of the shelf I have, but if you had less, it may well work as flats… thank you!
DeleteI can "see" this as you describe it. I can hear that loading up of the engine and the sense of what it would be like to be here. It could be cool. Though your plan is for N it immediately reminds me of Mike Cougill's 13th and North: https://www.ostpubs.com/ideas-drive-design/
ReplyDeleteThat sense of not just "last mile" but last few feet of shoving a car into place.
Chris
Thanks Chris… I’ve got my Guilford GP40 and CP Rail hopper out next to a tape measure on Beaverbrook at the moment… eyeing it up… it’s doable in 60cm. My thought is H0, not N.
DeleteI think that N struggles in these cameo layouts…. Where we want to get in close…
I have been fleshing out ideas for large scales scenes using a single track such as this in an industrial setting ... in such cases I was thinking about throwing in some form a actually loading/unloading of a commodity ... working coal or gravel or other bulk commodity unloader/loader ... other possibilities would include a traveling crane with structural steel and pipes ... carendt.com also has ideas using remote control fork lifts to load/unload a car ... (I am thinking boxcars with working remote door ... or flat cars ... or centre beams with lumber loads) ... I am sure you could add to the list.
ReplyDeleteI think that could be fun - although beyond my interest…. I’m more a scenic man, but do love getting lost in a scene.
DeleteThis simplification moves it towards my thoughts on DI Highway - at least the 'track plan' does :-)
ReplyDelete