Layout at some point?...
It's rather ironic because I was just having this conversation not more than about a week ago with one of my TWS colleagues. We were entertaining the talk of our weathering endeavors versus building layouts. While we usually dispensed with the idea in the past, this time around there was somewhat confessions from both of us about the possibility of creating layouts at some junction in the future.
When I was a young boy, twelve years old or so, I did in fact have a layout in the garage that my father generously propped up for me. You know,...the obligatory 4X8 sheet of plywood with painted on roads and Bachmann "Plasticville" structures of all sorts. This sufficed and I was a happy kid back then watching my Tyco trains make the continuous loop. Again in my mid thirties, I got corralled into building a layout with a friend who shared the mutual interest. We had his garage and while I concentrated my efforts on things like the scratch building of structures and the landscape, my associate spent his spare time with his forte of wiring and track laying. It was a decent compromise that came to a half way decent fruition, however it was a very short lived episode, as my friend became bed ridden with medical issues and operating sessions became infrequent and eventually gave way to never happening again.
I decided that I would indeed at some point, pick up from where I left off. I did in fact enjoy creating and operating a small layout....so much in fact that I nary left a gap in between starting to scratch build structures of contemporary nature once more for a potential future layout. I had envisioned a half way decent sized wrap around / peninsular design that would entertain the Pacific Northwest lumber industry during the peak of the involved American economy during the 1980's...with the Southern Pacific being the focal carrier. I was stunned by the work of Pelle Soeberg who had right around that time released his conceptual Daneville layout within the pages of Model Railroader magazine. Although his theme was the Mojave desert of Southern California, Pelle did tap into the very core of what I had in mind (structure and time frame wise) for a layout that I had been conjuring in my mind.
As time lapsed, My wife and I had extended our family to 4 children and we were ever relocating to accommodate the increase in mouths to feed. Soon enough my dream of creating the Pacific Northwest was dashed into the "maybe someday" file and to be perfectly honest,..it remains there to this very day. Eventually, we (my family) will reduce in size as the kids grow and depart for their own life's ventures and my wife and myself will have excess space where I might be able to once more fulfill my dream of that lumber industry in 1/87 scale.
During the idle years, after the demise of the layout that I had created with my friend, I was ever occupied with scratch building structures for the "future layout". I accumulated quite a few franchise business type structures that I stored for that glorious day. Eventually, my interests shifted over to concentrating on weathering models in lieu of building a layout. This has been the pattern now for nearly a decade. With the advent of our project "The Weathering Shop" nearly a decade ago, my focal interest has remained with a monthly obligation to TWS with supplying a weathered model. In the meantime, I put those scratch built structures that I aforementioned here to use by incorporating them into two different diorama scenes that would become platforms for my weathered models to be featured monthly at TWS. The first one is approximately 6 ft. in length and is dubbed "HWY 89". It consists of a main thoroughfare (Hwy 89) with a small cross street that overlaps the plural sets of tracks that parralel the highway. All flanked with modern franchise type businesses.
HWY 89...
And then of course, "CALDWELL BLVD"....
Along with these two scenes, I have created and utilize 12 different diorama settings for my photographing purposes. I have found a solace in these dioramas over the years, that fill the "void" of the layout that has never came to be. I still have never ruled out the idea or dream of one day raising the conceptual lumber industry themed layout. I have kind of a target now for the day or year when my wife and I decide to purchase a home again. A home that will be compatible to bring the layout that I've always wanted to build to reality. Until then...I continue my interests with The Weathering Shop and a forum on the subject. I also have places like MRH here to keep that candle lit. I can take in so much here idea and concept wise by reading through the journals and articles pertaining the subject of layouts and model railroading in general until that great day comes when I lay the first section of track to bring that dream layout alive.
Thank You both Pat and John for your interest, your compliments on my works and for your inquiries.
Gary Christensen
