tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3218524178230712938.post6827626163369942060..comments2024-03-28T17:35:45.759-07:00Comments on modeling the SP: Modeling freight traffic: Coast Line, 1953-Part 3Tony Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11593061828601275378noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3218524178230712938.post-32453735275128188352011-01-19T18:45:42.120-08:002011-01-19T18:45:42.120-08:00Thanks for the interest and comments, Robert. I ha...Thanks for the interest and comments, Robert. I haven’t posted a “prototype” location map yet, but mean to do so in a future post. The branch is envisioned to diverge from the main south of Oceano.<br /><br />I got the idea for a fictitious branch line from the year I lived in England. Many exhibition layouts there (traveling from exhibition to exhibition) use the fictitious branch idea. This means you have familiar locomotives, cabooses, signals, depots and other structures, in short all the things that comprise the image of a particular railroad. This is far better for creating a plausible railroad scene than an invented railroad, where all those “image” things are freelanced. <br /><br />But you do freelance the location, thus, I guess, essentially taking the position that you’re mostly a modeler of a railroad rather than a modeler of a particular place. The English approaches to this do model the general scenic and other characteristics of the REGION in which the fictitious branch is located, and I do the same.<br /><br />I’ve tried to create industries (at the risk of being compressed into too few towns, thus being more “industrial” than this part of the Coast really was) which do represent the kinds of traffic which were present on the Coast. I’m not going to have a pickle factory, or a coal mine, or a lumber mill, but will have some of the industries that really were there in the 1950s.<br /><br />The branch is obviously very small--and it’s a small layout--so I have to make some of these compromises to obtain any traffic at all. But I really emphasize PLAUSIBLE, in industries, rolling stock, and traffic patterns. That’s why I want to know as much about prototype traffic and operations as I can--and of course rolling stock and locomotives.<br />Tony ThompsonTony Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11593061828601275378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3218524178230712938.post-40758906480132839032011-01-19T16:28:01.447-08:002011-01-19T16:28:01.447-08:00Thanks for posting some interesting insights re: C...Thanks for posting some interesting insights re: Coast Division operations circa 1953.<br /><br />Where does your branch line join the coast main? To what extent do you physically model the Coast Division? Is there an online map of your branch?<br /><br />I'm interested in the thought process that went into your decision to accurately model main line operations (at least during daylight hours) and a fictitious branch, industries, and operations. Could you elaborate?<br /><br />This seems to be one way of achieving a good compromise between modeling a real branch with limited operations or scenic possibilities, such as White Hills or Ojai, and modeling a generic SP main with or without a branch where there may be too many "degrees of freedom".<br /><br />Robert SimpsonRob Simpsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16877325056191527508noreply@blogger.com