Hilton and Mears: The real show…
A year or so ago, Chris and I began writing together about a layout design, no, a layout we just haven’t built yet. Titled ‘Let’s build Rome’ there was no real thought of publication but the enjoyment of co-creation and exploring an idea, a dream together in the written word. In time, energy waned and the project was left unfinished…
Yet within those notes, those scribbled conversations was some great writing. I’m proud of what we achieved and I wanted to share a little of my own work from that title, here…
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| David Blazejewski photo, embedded via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/2oZF45K |
“The warm breeze blowing today makes the grass dance in waves where we know rails run yet they’re invisible in this mat of nature that has reclaimed her own. Birds sing, flys buzz and the wind plays a gentle tune on the branches of the tree providing our shade.
The wonderful harmonious call of a Leslie horn rouses us from the day dream - this is a railway and we came here to see a train. We came here for the show. The aging GP9 with a trio of well worn covered hoppers picks its way slowly along a right of way that just like the rest of us, has seen better days. Rocking and rolling the wheels slip as the grade begins to bite and the engineer masterfully keeps the train moving as sanders click on and off and he plays the throttle.
On our model railway it isn’t all about switching and serving customers. We’re lucky, it can also be just for the joy of moving cars from A to B to anywhere we please. Playing the game of that engineer on that day, our deliberately uneven track providing the visual, a DCC sound locomotive the audio and our imagination filling in the rest. That 567 singing, music to our tired ears, no rush yet moving with purpose…
Recognising why we build model railways is clearly important - but how we will play with them must be at least an equal. I don’t want to fall down the trap of following a formula I read in a track planning book or operational manual. I don’t need to listen to how others tell me I want to operate, sorry play with my train set. I’ve been around long enough to learn what I need - and building that into the way the thing is grown from the ground up, composed to allow play that satisfies me in every respect will be critical to the success of Rome. We all come from different angles here, and I often hear a desire to understand that a layout will give ‘enough’ switching or operation. I respect that yet layer on top my own needs for stitching these elements of operating together with enough space to just enjoy no, more, to just love running trains.”
The wonderful harmonious call of a Leslie horn rouses us from the day dream - this is a railway and we came here to see a train. We came here for the show. The aging GP9 with a trio of well worn covered hoppers picks its way slowly along a right of way that just like the rest of us, has seen better days. Rocking and rolling the wheels slip as the grade begins to bite and the engineer masterfully keeps the train moving as sanders click on and off and he plays the throttle.
On our model railway it isn’t all about switching and serving customers. We’re lucky, it can also be just for the joy of moving cars from A to B to anywhere we please. Playing the game of that engineer on that day, our deliberately uneven track providing the visual, a DCC sound locomotive the audio and our imagination filling in the rest. That 567 singing, music to our tired ears, no rush yet moving with purpose…
Recognising why we build model railways is clearly important - but how we will play with them must be at least an equal. I don’t want to fall down the trap of following a formula I read in a track planning book or operational manual. I don’t need to listen to how others tell me I want to operate, sorry play with my train set. I’ve been around long enough to learn what I need - and building that into the way the thing is grown from the ground up, composed to allow play that satisfies me in every respect will be critical to the success of Rome. We all come from different angles here, and I often hear a desire to understand that a layout will give ‘enough’ switching or operation. I respect that yet layer on top my own needs for stitching these elements of operating together with enough space to just enjoy no, more, to just love running trains.”
Until next time, more soon…
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What a terrific photo - love it!
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