Most T-trak layouts I've seen had quite a bit of whimsy in them.  While that's all well and good, it becomes a bit repetitive over time.  Your layout is shaping up into something a bit more serious and refined.  Can't wait for the next one!

James, Thanks so much for checking out my video.

I won't say that there will not be any future whimsey in my modules, but I am definitely trying to make the scenery based on realistic scenes.

Thanks,

Heath

And that's certainly not a dis on people who like different kinds of modeling, but I have noticed that different modular standards seem to attract different styles of modeling.  The T-trak group that is in Montana has some pretty creative modules including an erupting volcano, redwood trees that are about 4x larger than necessary, and an "underwater" module with Atlantis.

Contrast that with the regional Free-moN group that has clean-cut lines, long trains, and slow running.

Both are quite cool, but you seem to be going a different, and unique, direction for this particular modular standard.  I'll be interested in seeing the finished project.

Dear MRHers, 

 redwood trees that are about 4x larger than necessary

Given that Redwoods are just soooo darn big,
and it's a rare model RR that actually models them _anywhere_near_ scale size, 
I'd be interested to know what "larger than necessary" actually looks like... in scale...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

I would have done Free-MoN if there was a club local to me.

If you want to see what a real redwood tree looks like in N scale....

Turn a passenger car on end. Now do it again. and again.... and again. Now take a block of 2" square foam that long and taper it withe a Sureform tool.. The first branch is 100 scale feet above the ground, and is 6 feet in diameter  sticking 80 feet out from the trunk, the size of a mature oak tree.

They are monsters.

I've always wanted to build a module with redwoods.

If I had a photo, I'd post it.  A 200ft Redwood would be about 16 inches tall and around 1 inch thick at the base. Some are fatter, others are taller, but those are the dimensions of a typical coastal Redwood.  The trees on this module were carved from 3x3 pieces of balsa about 3ft long.  That would be a 480 ft tree with a trunk diameter of 30ft.  If they were on an HO scale layout they'd be right at home.

Don't get me wrong, there are some exceptional trees.  But that would be like using the largest tree in Montana as the basis for a forest.  Cool?  Certainly.  Realistic?  Not so much.

Admittedly, some of the trees were closer to actual proportions than others.  It's just that the few which dominated the scene were shaped like giant novelty pencil.  Something like this:

(Not actual graduation photo)