Modelling a Small Town |
MAY 2002
Perhaps it is because of my stage in life, raising a young family and being increasingly involved with all aspects--creative, administrative, production--of a small business, but I have begun to scale back on my modelling aspirations in a big way. Having observed the progress of fellow modellers over the years, I have concluded that we all suffer from the same constraints--lack of space, lack of resources and lack of time. In my case, I have recognized those as being chronic states with no cure in sight. Trusting that other modellers are in the same boat (for similar or different reasons), please allow me to offer an alternative to the grandiose schemes we are all guilty of: modelling a small town.
Leaf through the pages of Steam at Allandale, To Stratford Under Steam, or Steam Over Palmerston, and you will find probably a hundred examples of small towns on single track branchlines or secondary mainlines. They possess common characteristics: a small station, team track, coal yard, lumber company, feed or grain mill, section sheds, cattle pens, and possibly a passing siding, water tower or separate freight shed. In all likelihood, there are shade trees, gravel roads and perhaps small rivers or streams in the vicinity of the station. Mixed trains or way freights call once or twice a day (or every second or third day), and small passenger trains and other freights may rattle the shutters on the buildings in the course of the day.
I know that the current rage in the hobby is operation, and a number of its practitioners are campaigning for hundreds of feet of mainline, multi-level benchwork, time table & train order operation (complete with telephone sets), a despatcher in a distant location, and so on. These practitioners maintain that we must recreate the operations of the railways of the past, and the best way to do that is to construct an elaborate layout, populate it with dozens of command control-equipped locomotives, amass a large roster of freight and passenger cars, and build staging yards to accommodate twice as many trains, twice as long, as we anticipate handling.
Well, in another life, or in perhaps several lifetimes, with no other considerations, go for it. Me? I am content to focus on modelling, creating small scenes of the past. Let's be realistic: just when am I going to recruit and train a steady operating crew for my layout and engrain those people into the habit of being here every month for an operating session, not to mention build the layout to support that kind of activity? It just ain't gonna happen.
What impresses me most these days is seeing a modeller take an actual place, choose an aspect of it which lends itself to 1:1 representation in a given scale, and proceeding to build that scene in miniature. By definition, this kind of quality model building by one person requires that a small prototype area be chosen. That brings us back to our small town.
By modelling one place--Thornbury, Harriston, Mitchell, Creemore, Drumbo, Cookstown, or any of the other dozens in the above mentioned books--a modeller is not limited in his aspirations of building a sizeable roster of engines and cars. He would need just as many locomotives, freight cars and passenger cars to pass a single town in one day as he would to model the entire subdivision. Nor is he denied the option of realistic operation. That layout--one town with hidden staging at one or both ends--is essentially a one-man show. Only one train can occupy a section of single track line at a time, so there is no need for multiple operators! I am reminded of Richard Hendrickson's aspirations for his next layout, which is this very scenario--'visitors will be invited to pour themselves a pint and watch the trains go by'.
That small town, with its array of railway structures and industries, would be a train watchers' layout. How many of us grew up in small towns or cities? How many of us would love to just go down to the tracks and watch the coming and going of the daily mixed train or way freight? A boxcar being set off at the grain mill, or a load of new tractors for the earth-fill loading ramp, would be an exciting event for a kid on a bicycle. In today's world, I cannot take my son Spencer down to the tracks in Orillia to watch such activities, as there are no way freights or industries or tracks. We will both have to be content with watching the drama unfold in miniature downstairs.
Ian Wilson
May 6, 2002
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