Model Railroads that Transcend the Trains

Arnold, I have those old TM Videos of all those great layouts, and they really are beautiful. But for my own layout, I pretty much stuck to the simplicity I remember from 50's displays in Hardware stores. They used grass paper or green crepe, roads were paint, trees were lichen and Plasticville, mountains were either the compressed Papier Mache or the Mountain Paper made by Life-Like and others. Those layouts for me meant toy trains. Mind you, I mean no slight to well-detailed layouts, they're wonderous to look at. It's all personal preference for everyone.

Arty, I totally agree with what you say.  The approach one takes boils down to personal preference.

There is a lot of charm in the layout you describe, which is what I had as a child. I had a layout on a 4 foot by 8 foot plywood board with grass paper, trestles, 027 track, and painted roads that my father built for me  when I was about 10 years old. I ran my Lionel trains on that layout in our basement for several years.

What transcended the trains on my above childhood layout was the great relationship I had with my dad.

Arnold

I remember Phil's layout in CTT and the TM videos too Arnold and see what you mean. The most recent layout that has stuck with me in surpassing the trains themselves was the large one I posted after Christmas from my trip to New Orleans with the Atlas track and large areas of just scenery with few buildings and structures. It was grande and left me with an impression of some of the vast spaces that many real RRs have to traverse in the course of their routes. I love the natural beauty of our country with the mountains, streams, valleys, rocks, forests and pasturelands across America. The natural features can help emphasize our favorite structures if used sparingly. My next layout will aspire to convey the same feeling...

@c.sam posted:

I remember Phil's layout in CTT and the TM videos too Arnold and see what you mean. The most recent layout that has stuck with me in surpassing the trains themselves was the large one I posted after Christmas from my trip to New Orleans with the Atlas track and large areas of just scenery with few buildings and structures. It was grande and left me with an impression of some of the vast spaces that many real RRs have to traverse in the course of their routes. I love the natural beauty of our country with the mountains, streams, valleys, rocks, forests and pasturelands across America. The natural features can help emphasize our favorite structures if used sparingly. My next layout will aspire to convey the same feeling...

Breathtakingly Stunning, Sam! Your layout transcended the trains with the extraordinary natural beauty of the scenery in America.

Arnold

Arnold,

          I think that was a layout C Sam visited , Not his

Gunny

@gunny posted:

Arnold,

          I think that was a layout C Sam visited , Not his

Gunny

Thanks, Gunny, I re-read C. Sam's post and you are correct.

Arnold:  Again thank you for all the nice things you keep saying about my layout.  Making improvements on it has kept me sane while home  bound  due to covid.  Probably many of us experienced this too.  The layout pictures C Sam  posted are magnificent!  I would love to see it sometime.  Let it be known that I am happy to share my layout with visitors.  I belong to all four toy train clubs and am in their directories.  So do not hesitate to contact me.  Phil

There are many O gauge layouts that transcend the trains and inspire others to build better layouts.  A few of these off the top of my head are:

1.  Alan Arnold - Name?

2.  Bob Bartizek - Pennsylvania & Western

3. Bill Bramlage - Tower City Railroad

4.  Norm Charbonneau - PRR?

5.  Chris Smith - Norfolk & Western

6.  Neal Schorr - PRR Middle Division

7.  Rich Batista - The Black Diamond Railroad

8.  NJ Hi-Railers

And many others that I can't recall right now.  NH Joe

Arnold C.

Alan Arnold's urban O-gauge layout with city-based skyscrapers is -- fortunately for me -- located in Arkansas where I live. Admittedly, The Natural State is a region "off the beaten path" for most east-coast-centric hobbyists; however, I have visited his empire, and it is a memory maker!  The theme of his layout is an extension of his academic involvement in architecture.

Mike Mottler
Conway, AR

Mike, when I first saw the video of Alan Arnold's urban O Gauge layout, my thoughts were: does Alan have a basement the size of a gymnasium, and empire.

The models of city buildings on it are stunning, and it transcends the trains by being a railroad empire. Alan is the Commodore Vanderbuilt among us. Arnold

There is always the granddaddy of model railroads that encompass trains, planes, and automobiles, Miniatur Wunderland.  If I ever get back to Germany, it's the one stop that I have to make!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

There is always the granddaddy of model railroads that encompass trains, planes, and automobiles, Miniatur Wunderland.  If I ever get back to Germany, it's the one stop that I have to make!

WoW!

I had the opportunity many years ago to visit George Selios’ HO Franklin & South Manchester numerous times. Just jaw dropping modeling. He only ran one train with a few cars around the layout. Judging by the responses from all the guests. If he ran nothing at all it wouldn’t have mattered. The layout and modeling was all that was needed.

My own layout. Train guys want to see trains run. Casual guests that go to the basement are kind of in awe at the size of it. Women especially seem to notice all the little details. Not the trains. Makes me feel good because there’s a good amount of money and time in them.

I would like to add Ron Luckock's Lehigh Valley Layout to the above names & layouts


Here is a playlist of the above video plus Ron talking about the prototypes on his layout: https://youtube.com/playlist?l...akwv2Af_xZlWGBrB8eTy

Bryce

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

There is always the granddaddy of model railroads that encompass trains, planes, and automobiles, Miniatur Wunderland.  If I ever get back to Germany, it's the one stop that I have to make!

Reminds me of the children's story, Wind and the Willows, in which the main character, Toad of Toad Hall, first has a mania for horses, then cars, and finally airplanes. There were no trains in that story.

I relate to that character. Toad gets so excited, his eyes turn into pin wheels. LOL, Arnold

Don "IndustrialModels" Smith comes to mind. His architectural modeling of buildings and urban canyons is first rate as is his implementation of in-street trackage.