Yes, I know....no posts for quite a while. Mainly I've just been drawn away by travel and business. But I also stopped progress on my Water Tower and Hand Car Shed build because I started in a direction for placement on my main layout ( which also has seen little progress). The placement on the layout would cause me to have to modify the configuration of the structure to avoid hidden details that were intended for the rear of the structure. This seemed fine at first....but it bothered me too. I needed to look for an alternate way to display it, and several other Sierra West kits. I'd been toying with this idea for a few years, and with the proliferation of mini and micro On30 layouts, a light bulb illuminated in my head ( ok...it was an LED )
What I have started to do is to build a mirco layout....but not just a micro layout.....actually a "mini modular" layout. I'm starting out with a 30" by 42" foam based section....it will be my engine maintenance facility, using all the structures I had intended for the big layout. But since this will in the end be visible from all angles.....no hidden details....it will have a continuous loop so I can run around a shay climax or critter....and it will be dead rail....first structure I can now finish will be my water tower and hand car shed...as designed....along with a few more SW kits and a scratch round house (tiny).
From that "module" I'll move on to a second...that will attach to the first...that will be a logging area (a place for the yarder and disconnects)....it will have a thru track with a switchback of sorts....and a few camp cars....
But the main motivation...with Terry's sawmill in progress....I kept looking at mine....partially built sitting there.....and that....will be the third "mini module".....a place that I can now finish the sawmill and use it.....there will be a log pond....maybe a flume.....but also a log unloader.....and this will allow me to in the future to add this to the main layout as the peninsula it was always envisioned to be....
So...sorry for the log post....but now I can get back to work....
And Brett....you may see a few if not a lot of 3D detail orders...I did a clinic at the Harrisburg Narrow O show....featuring your prints....and there was great interest....and yes...I'll post a few soon on the 3D thread...and this also gives me a place to put this new Model T once it's acquired.....
A photo of the start of this all tomorrow....
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Terry