The area highlighted in yellow below represents the area of my layout plan that I'm focusing on. I've noted the various structures in my plan for this area. Zoom in to the larger image and study the various structures and their labels. I'll speak more to each specific structure in future posts to this blog.

Click image to enlarge

You can compare my layout plan to a prototype plan of the same area below (I adapted the plan from the book SP in Oregon, by Tom Dill and Ed Austin).

Click image to enlarge

If like me, you're modeling a specific prototype location, and if you can find a plan of the area you're interested in close to the time you model, then you can use it to guide your modeling efforts. The plan above works since it's how things looked at about 1950 (I model the 1980s) and I also know (since I lived in the area) that things had not changed that much.

The one major change on the prototype since 1950 was the removal of the turntable and roundhouse by 1960. Since I have some proto-freelance elements on my layout like the Coos Bay branch coming in at Roseburg, then I'm asusming the roundhouse went in the 1960s, but the turntable stayed into the 1980s to turn power for the branch.

If you can't find good plans of the area you model, and you're modeling more recent times like me (I'm modeling the 1980s), then another good source of information is Google Earth. Even if you're modeling the 40s or 50s, there may be enough bits and pieces left in Google Earth that you can learn some things about the area you're trying to model. We'll take a look at Google Earth in my next blog entry.