Change
- will it do you good?
One of the keys for any successful layout designer is to be
open-minded to suggestions and improvements. Therefore, one of the
important factors in any design is to allow a critical review by an un-biased set of eyes, or preferably, a number of sets of eyes.
Thoughts
from the outside.
I had seen Lance Mindheim's layout articles in Model Railroader and
he has produced a wide variety of quality designs, so I fired off a
quick request for a review of the plan as published in Part
3. His first reaction was that I had picked a
good prototype and that the layout along the walls was very good.
But he felt that the center peninsulas were too busy
and that some of the edges of the layout were too straight.
He suggested that I consider a "J"-shaped "blob"
extending into the middle of the room, to better maximize the space.
Lance also suggested the use of curved backdrops coming to the
foreground as scenic dividers.
Response
and re-design
Part of the
challenge in responding to Lance's suggestions was that the center
support column splits the room and my design uses a
center dividing wall to disguise the support. Curving the layout
into a "J" would have caused a problem in hiding that
support. Upon
further review, I agreed with about 90% of Lance's suggestions,
however I chose a "W"-shaped blob, as I think it balances
the room nicely and it allows an extra 25' of run. Also, instead of
curving the backdrops to the front, I chose to extend landscape
features out to the corners in order to create natural scenic
dividers.
Next
Time: Planning the Construction
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What
do you think?
If
you would like to share your thoughts
or opinions on this track plan, please
send me an e-mail
with "Annie plan"
in the subject line.
Thanks for visiting the N Scale Annie!
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