Utopia

I will get us started with an obvious example, the scoreboard on my Popsicle Stick Yankee Stadium showing Don Larson's perfect game in the 1956 World Series:

Why did I put this ball park and scoreboard on my layout?

I love baseball and the Yankees as well as O Gauge trains. It makes me smile every time I see it on my layout as nd run trains around the ball park.

I

Panoramic shot:

Once again Arnold you have posed an interesting, and reflective, question.

@Arnold D.Cribari

Yes, Arnold another thought provoking set of ideas

As I Google for the location I discovered it’s near a location recently in our news…

Origin of the word "uptopia" is here Utopia novel

1551, from Modern Latin Utopia, literally "nowhere," coined by Thomas More (and used as title of his book, 1516, about an imaginary island enjoying the utmost perfection in legal, social, and political systems)

So it certainly applies to many of our layouts as Arnold so beautifully shows with his Yankee Stadium.

Interesting question.

I would not be surprised if many of us use model railroading to transport us back in time to an era and scene that we have some memories concerning, or wish we did.

I guess such is the case with my Kansas City & Gulf "Ozark Sub" layout, set in the Autumn of 1964.

I did not live in the Ozarks in 1964. (Had relatives that did.) However, we used to pass through them often during my childhood as we would trek from KC to the Ozark region to visit relatives. (Mom and Dad both were from the Ozark region, as were their ancestors.)

Once we moved to Arkansas (January of '69), experiences of the railroading of the region began to be etched into my mind. I eventually earned a retirement railroading the Ozarks on the very rails that introduced me to mountain railroading. (At the time of my introduction, November of 1974, those rails were the Frisco's, when I was running those rails in engines as an employee, it was the Arkansas & Missouri.)

Given my exposure to Ozark mountain railroading, I eventually evolved into proto-freelancing my own KC&G theme, and set it a time frame (1964) that I would have LOVED to have experienced in the Ozarks. (But did experience in the KC MO area.)

I find that I can be so immersed into my fictional region of my KC&G that I model, that I have created Engineer and Conductor employee lists staffed with all sorts of characters that are either based on a railroader, or person I knew, or actually existed, or a name that I concocted on my own. (Some work regular jobs as their seniority allows them to hold!)

In addition, I'll use these characters to crew the trains included in my fiction I create occasionally for my KC&G.

My KC&G and the portion of the Ozark Sub I model, is an entire world that I have created and enjoy tremendously.

To illustrate, here's a re-post of some fiction I created to describe an incident that happened when a model railroad friend and I were running an "operating session" on my KC&G Ozark Sub layout. Perhaps you might enjoy it.

AUTUMN 1964...

The cold, mist laden Ozark mountains were no doubt already planning how to conspire against the Kansas City & Gulf once again. Mother Nature is relentless. In the summer it's heat, along with the possibility of heat kinks in rail, in the spring it's cloud bursts bringing the very real threat of washouts, and in the winter, well, the Ozarks are known for ice storms, as well as unexpected snows that can deal fits with the concept of moving getting trains over a steep grade.

However, for today, for this time of year, it was cold and mist... again. Of course, along with conditions such as this, comes the bane of trying to move tonnage on a mountain railroad: Wet rail.

Fallen leafs on the rail is bad enough, but wet leafs... they're like grease.

Into the mist-dappled mountains labored northbound train #44, a general freight, as it struggled against that devil of a grade up to Piney Gap. The engines were pulling their guts out at about 15 MPH as they ground their way alongside tumbling Possum Creek, all the while working their way up the grade toward the summit. The misted wet rail was bad enough... and the wet fallen leaves were making it worse.

What lousy timing for sand lines to get plugged with wet sand.

Bereft of the sanders on the trailing unit, train #44 didn't stand a chance.

Sure 'nuf, #44 stalled up past the crossing at Jack Fork, just as they were poised to round Chinkapin Knob and head into Buck Hollow.

Aided by Ma Nature, The Mountain had claimed another victim.

The call went out from #44 to the Dispatcher: "44 to 'Spatcher."

"Dispatch" came the response over the engine's radio.

"We've laid down... got anybody that can give us some help or do we need to start doubling up to the top?"

Doubling to the top would have been time consuming for sure... IF the engines could even handle that task with one engine not laying down sand. After all, #44 was supposed to meet southbound passenger train #11 up north of Mountain Springs. Though #11 isn't much of a passenger train anymore, it would still would not be wise to hold it up. (The KC&G is trying to get out from under the financial load of passenger service... but that hasn't been approved yet.)

Fortunately, the Jack Fork Turn was still working down in the small yard at Ozarka as they were finishing switching up their train prior to departure. Sure enough, the Dispatcher hollered at them, and within a few minutes, the work day the Conductor had planned for the Jack Fork Turn were changed. They were now "Extra 412 North", and would be taking their GP7 out of town light, and head out into the misty mountains to assist stalled #44 up to Piney Gap. Once there, they would magically transform into "Extra 412 South" (said so on the flimsies) and ease back down The Mountain to Ozarka.

After a quick comparison of the flimsies among the crew in the cab of 412, with a couple blats from the Wabco E2, Extra 412 North eased onto the main, closed and locked the switch behind them, and headed off into the mist.

About 7 miles north of Ozarka, Extra 412 North was gingerly coming up to stop near the rear of stalled #44, and once a quick job briefing was held with #44's Conductor in the caboose, they tacked-on to the rear of #44.

"Okay Pig Iron... we're hooked on!" came the shout from helper 412. ("Pig Iron" Matthews was the hoghead on #44. So nicknamed because he had a tendency to be, well, a bit "determined" in mind, if you know what I mean.)

"Okay... yer hooked on an' ready. Grab me a couple, Hotshot" crackled head end over the radio.

"Got a couple!" came the reply as the 412 nudged against the stalled train... sanders blowing.

"We'll let's git 'em movin' then!" came the response from up front.

It took quite a bit of doin' to get the stalled train moving again... but do it they did.

At the grand speed of about 8 MPH, #44, with GP7 412 shoving on the rear, the engines slipped and clawed their way the rest of the way up to the top of Buck Mountain at Piney Gap.

Easing to a stop at Piney, the struggle was behind them now. Engine 412 cut away, and train #44 was on its way to keep an appointment with Psgr #11. In the meantime, GP7 412 eased back a short ways to the tiny little depot that still served the line at the small summit town of Piney.

Quite soon the sound of #44 was swallowed up by the misty mountains... only the sound of their distant whistle could be heard at one of the little mountain dirt road crossings. Now it was just engine 412 sitting by its lonesome in front of the little depot at the sleepy little town of Piney.

Their next task would be to gingerly ease down the treacherously slick rail with a light engine and make it back back down to Ozarka to resume their scheduled job. No doubt, they would be using sand at times on their descent to keep from sliding down the rail at the worst sections. But under the capable hands of Hogger Extraordinaire "Hotshot" Chadwick, there was little cause for concern, for "Hotshot" had been in such situations countless times.

No, today was simply an all too familiar part of railroading on the KC&G.


The Picture:

Engine 412 idles its EMD chant in front of the little depot at Piney. That wood stove feels pretty good to the crew inside as they take a few minutes to swig down some hot coffee before easing back down The Mountain as Extra 412 South.

Andre

Wonderful post, Andre, thanks for sharing.

Arnold

Thanks also to Jay, Seth and Scotie, for your most interesting contributions. Arnold

As a child I was fascinated with the unexpected ways little used RR tracks would pop up in some of the most surprising locations.   I remember looking out the car window for the flat line and row of trees on the horizon indicating the presence of an old rail line which sometimes turned out to be an old canal embankment.

Switches, track alignment, loading docks, small stations and tight configurations always impressed me.  As kids we would play with unlocked turnouts in small country yards.

So  for me my Utopia is in the many scenes of multiple branch lines meandering through series of tunnels and cuts,  across the country side around obstacles and serving small communities.

Although branch lines did not have that many tunnels I needed them to help make distinction between different branch lines which by necessity run somewhat adjacent to one another.

Due to the premium I place on RR design and facilities,  homes and stores are a very minor concern to me.

On my subway layout there is no graffiti (being set in the 1960's, graffiti had not yet appeared on the subway), no gum spots on the platform, no litter or rats on the track, lots of available seats, no juvenile delinquents or muggers... NYC utopia. 😁

What a delightful question! I enjoy running a train through my own little world. Personally, I have always chosen a fictional world - most recently one based on a long-ago BBC children's television show, Ivor the Engine. It is a fun challenge to try to interpret the show's settings on a layout - and it is certainly a Utopian version of the 'top left-hand corner of Wales'.

@West Side Joe posted:

On my subway layout there is no graffiti (being set in the 1960's, graffiti had not yet appeared on the subway), no gum spots on the platform, no litter or rats on the track, lots of available seats, no juvenile delinquents or muggers..

I like it. A subway you wouldn't think twice about riding - unlike that in Philadelphia today.

@Tom Tee posted:

As a child I was fascinated with the unexpected ways little used RR tracks would pop up in some of the most surprising locations.   I remember looking out the car window for the flat line and row of trees on the horizon indicating the presence of an old rail line.....

We did the same thing camping in Northcentral Pennsylvania in the 60s and 70s. My father mapped out the S-curve taken by a grassy trail that wound through the woods near our tent, and then proved that it had been a logging railroad when we found railroad spikes and other items. Once there was a rail, overlooked by a long-ago track gang that moved on in their haste. Eventually we discovered the book series about the logging railroads of PA and found the old traces everywhere, slowly dissolving into the undergrowth. In a light snow we looked off into the forest and saw just lines of snow matching the bumps where ties had supported geared locomotives decades earlier.

Geared locomotives in early Pennsylvania?  Neat! Where?

@West Side Joe posted:

On my subway layout there is no graffiti (being set in the 1960's, graffiti had not yet appeared on the subway), no gum spots on the platform, no litter or rats on the track, lots of available seats, no juvenile delinquents or muggers... NYC utopia. 😁

Ah yes, that is when mothers were married to fathers who helped raise the family.

@John's Trains posted:

I like it. A subway you wouldn't think twice about riding - unlike that in Philadelphia today.

I appreciate what you say, John and Joe, but one of the cutest things I've ever seen is a Facebook post showing a rat carrying a slice of pizza down a subway stairway in NYC. LOL, Arnold

Maybe I'll try to do an animation of the rat carrying a slice of pizza on my layout. LOL.

@Tom Tee posted:

Geared locomotives in early Pennsylvania?  Neat! Where?

Yes, it was also neat for us as kids to learn this with our Dad. Shays, Heislers, Climaxes and even some intrepid non-geared locomotives traveled temporary railroads of varying qualities in the Pennsylvania woods of the early 1900s: Lycoming, Clinton, Centre, Union, Potter counties, much of PA. The story is told in the early 1970 series "Logging railroad era of lumbering in Pennsylvania" by Thomas T Taber and Benjamin FG Kline. Titles are many and include "The Goodyears: an Empire in the Hemlocks" by Thomas T. Taber III, "Sunset Along Susquehanna Waters" by Thomas T. Taber III , ""Wild catting" on the mountain: The William Whitmer & Sons Company and the Whitmer-Steele Company" by by Benjamin F. G Kline

My "utopia" model RR is a modern day tourist/museum line , powered mostly by restored Fairbanks Morse locomotives ....

All trains are either passenger dinner/excursion trains abd the freights are staged freight train photo op run-bys ...

I love this thread! The walk down memory lane is fun! I don't have those kind of stories, trains have never really been part of my life, but model layouts have always intrigued me. I agree, as we build our layouts, we cannot help but think (fantasize? ) about what it would be like to be there. Some my not admit ut, but I think we all have some back stories for our layouts, and the people there. Utopia is usually described as a place of perfection, of Eden or Heaven. While nice, not really practical. I do not have near the talent of all of you, my layout is full of imperfections and mistakes, much like real life. But as Arnold says, It's my little world.... At this point with new layout I would not want to live there or even visit, there is way to much work to do! Maybe once there is a town, with a restaurant or bar, and a liquor store I will change my mind. Remember my imagination and inner 10 year old run wild with this hobby. I do have an Ogre and grizzly bear on my first layout, that I would want to meet in person! But the mesa pond is a place I would visit.

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

I appreciate what you say, John and Joe, but one of the cutest things I've ever seen is a Facebook post showing a rat carrying a slice of pizza down a subway stairway in NYC. LOL, Arnold

rat sensei Splinter is taking pizza to Michaelangelo !

still haven't built my utopia yet and with everything going on idk if its gonna happen but

my utopia is an old wrought iron metropolis called Allegheny city that is in an Arizona alternate dimension that looks more like Pittsburgh and New Hope PA

the main line that serves Allegheny City is the Allegheny and Willow Point railroad that connects to the northwest with the Seattle Northwestern aka the iCarly Route. the A&WP has currently 4 locomotives -a former rock island gp7, a northern Pacific 85 ton centercab a gp39-2 in a hotwheels livery and a retired chessie 4-4-2 Atlantic. we hope to add a few more engines in the future including a turbine and some more diesels . i hope i can also get some long distance passenger cars like  sleepers because the trip from Allegheny city to willow point may be only 30 miles but if you decide to take the icarly connection from Allegheny to seattle and then seattle to toronto you are looking at over 95 hours in roomette and parlour cars on board the overnight Alleghenian that will be pulled by the turbine which might be an S2 but who knows what the future holds as i'm trying to stick to lionel engines so i only have to buy the cab3 for control and not the DCS stuff

wish me prayer and luck because my health anxieties and world fears are really making it seem like my dream is a waste that it will never happen

I don't think dreams are ever wastes. They give you a reason to raise your sights and look beyond to a better future (a "utopia"?), making you better able to deal with current situations. I think you should always have dreams.

Some fascinating thoughts have been contributed here. Thanks to all for sharing.

CR Cole, assuming you like the photos of my Popsicle Stick Yankee Stadium, I can almost guarantee you have sufficient talent to build your little Utopia like I did.

If I can do it, you can do it.

I subit that you don't need to be a highly skilled Scale modeler to build your perfect little world.

Many of you folks have already seen it, but my Utopia includes the ball park in Manhattan across the Harlem River from Yankee Stadium, known as the Polo Grounds where " The Shot Heard Round the World" occurred in 1951:

The call from the broadcaster was shouted out: "The Giants Win the Pennant," "The Giants Win the Pennant."

What many of you don't know is my family (the Cribaris from Mt. Vernon, NY) socialized with the great Brooklyn Dodger pitcher, Ralph Branca, who gave up that home run to Bobby Thompson.

I recently read Ralph Branca's autobiography, A Moment in Time, which is very interesting. I highly recommend it.

The Polo Grounds was also where "The Catch" was made in the 1954 World Series by arguably the best player in baseball history, Willie Mays:

LOL

All I did was glue and paint some wood, cardboard and Popsicle Sticks together, sprinkle some Woodland Scenics Fine Turf on the ball fields and affix it with diluted white spray glue.

Again, you don't need to be a Scale modeler; all you need is to do is make a caricature of something you love to create the idea of it, in order to make your Utopia. Arnold.

One more thing to keep in mind for those of you who doubt whether you can build your Utopia.

Some of us, including me, have spent decades building, revising and improving our perfect little Worlds. It's been a labor of love for many years for me.. The ideas for building my layout germinated in my mind for many years.

Key thing is to get started, have fun, and keep at it. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish over a long period of time.

I particularly loved developing the design of my current layout back in the mid-1990s when I started it. Guess I am an engineer at heart, who gave up pursuing that career goal back at Columbia College when I was befuddled by Calculus. LOL, Arnold

Very true Arnold and sometimes we (me) can get caught up in the details as opposed to just doing it and tweaking it later on. Thank you, because this has helped to refocus my agenda.

Arnold, thanks for sharing those great Polo Grounds memories.  Fantastic because I was a Giants fan when everyone else in the neighborhood seemed to root for the Yankees or the Dodgers.  As a very young kid during the 50's I recall  thinking that baseball teams play against each other during the season to see who plays against the Yankees during the World Series.  I don't the stat's, but I think the Yankees were pretty commanding at that time.  The other childish 'conclusion I made' was that the United States was Irish Catholic...I was neither, but my friends stayed with me.  Good times, plenty of friends, and most of us had parents who had Lionel trains in the basement too.  I still have all of the trains, and great memories to boot!

My utopia in one quarter inch is both an attempt to recapture a happy childhood, and to capture a vanished historical period, that ended about the time l arrived.  That would be the steam era which was parallel with the era of choice and variety in automobiles.  To me this is caught by the photo of an Auburn auto waiting for passengers outside a Rio Grande Southern "Galloping Goose" station.  I did begin grade school watching steam on the Southern, so l caught part of my "good old days".

My utopia always has something to do with a cold one

As the old advertisement jingle used to sing,” Baseball and Ballantine, what a combination, clear across the nation “. I’m not a beer drinker but obviously their marketing strategy worked; some 60 years later.

@bluelinec4 posted:

My utopia always has something to do with a cold one

Who is the Ale Man? He could be you! A man with a thirst for a manlier brew...

Fantastic! I especially like all of those Atlas Ballantine Reefers. If you every think you have too many, drop me a line

Bryce

For me, it’s not “Utopia” more than it is recreating the things I remember from my past.  I have to admit that there is a lot of rose colored filtering, but my layout has its share of bums, graffiti, rats with wings (otherwise known as pigeons), assorted “other side of the tracks” scenes, etc.  , like this one from a place in the village of NYC that I fondly remember, even though many have written about how putrid it actually was, LOL!

So very cool for you to include that on your layout. I went there once in my "salad" days. Sat near the stage next to one of the speakers. Took an hour or so after I left to recover my hearing. And yet, years later, I drove one of my daughters there to an event she wanted to attend, because I know that's the stuff memories are made of.

bluelinec4,

Please tell us about Night and Gale Brewing. The paint job/weathering is well done. What did you do to achieve that look? Who makes/made the building or walls?

Dave

@Chuck242 posted:

Arnold, thanks for sharing those great Polo Grounds memories.  Fantastic because I was a Giants fan when everyone else in the neighborhood seemed to root for the Yankees or the Dodgers.

Chuck, athough I'm a lifetime, die hard Yankee fan, if was born 10 years earlier (around 1941) and know what I know now, I would have been a Brookkyn Dodger fan.

I love their scrappiness, how they played with heart, great team spirit and played Jackie Robinson style baseball, stealing home, etc. Jackie Robinson transcended baseball, profoundly making our nation a better one, paving the way for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. He is a hero. Ken Burns' documentary on Baseball, a great work of art IMO, beautifully explains this.

The Polo Grounds is on my layout because of its proximity to Yankee Stadium, at the Southern- most stop along The Put. I enjoy tweaking my layout to make it more like The Put.

Also, the Giants had the great Willie Mays, arguably the greatest all round baseball player of all time. I remember an All Star Game that he dominated with such boyish joy, stealing bases, hitting home runs, making great catches. He was a force to reckon with on the baseball diamond in his prime.

Yes, I love baseball and O Gauge trains, a great combination IMO. Arnold

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

As the old advertisement jingle used to sing,” Baseball and Ballantine, what a combination, clear across the nation “. I’m not a beer drinker but obviously their marketing strategy worked; some 60 years later.

I love this.

@Oscale_Trains_Lover_ posted:

Who is the Ale Man? He could be you! A man with a thirst for a manlier brew...

Fantastic! I especially like all of those Atlas Ballantine Reefers. If you every think you have too many, drop me a line

Bryce

No. drop me a line first! LOL, Arnold

PS: better yet stop us both a line. Bryce is a great friend of mine. Arnold

@Strap Hanger posted:

For me, it’s not “Utopia” more than it is recreating the things I remember from my past.  I have to admit that there is a lot of rose colored filtering, but my layout has its share of bums, graffiti, rats with wings (otherwise known as pigeons), assorted “other side of the tracks” scenes, etc.  , like this one from a place in the village of NYC that I fondly remember, even though many have written about how putrid it actually was, LOL!

Oh, but Strap Hangar, those bums, rats. etc. belong in Utopia IMO. LOL

I already g.j ot the bums on my layout. now I got to get an O Scale rat carrying a slice of pizza. Better yet, an animated O Scale rat doing that.