To be honest I don't know who you are, other then from what the board says, and to be quite frank I don't care that you work for Kato. My question isn't a technical one, it isn't a product one, in fact it isn't even an important one. I want to find out more about your modelling tastes, what kind of layout have you been planning, what era, what locale. So my question is not "what's new with kato" it's more what ideas does charlie the modeller have?
Okay, you asked for it! I have been "In" N Scale since 1965. I am a CB&Q fan, and was frustrated at the time trying to model the Burlington accurately. So I got into N because no one in their right mind would ever try to model a specific railroad in such a small scale....right?? Brass E-5s, E7s, E8s, California and Denver Zephrys, etc,etc, later that plan didn't work out. My home road is the Galesburg & Savanna Rwy. Co. which runs from Indianapolis to Minneapolis. I am modeling the middle of the road from Farmington, Illinois (near Galesburg) to Deleware, Iowa. The line includes the East Dubuque tunnel and crossing of the Mississippi. If I remember correctly I get about 14 scale miles of track on two levels. Mostly single track, one main yard in the upper 1/3 of the modeled railroad with mostly single track main line. Steam/diesel transition era, operations orientated with carcard/waybill operation. Three branches, online coal traffic and general merchandise and overhead bridge traffic. More later if you want. Charlie Galesburg & Savanna Rwy. Co.
To share my story with you, I have never been a serious model railroader until about 4 years ago when I dabbled with a few different small layouts. Money, or in my case, lack of it was the major reason my layouts weren't the sprawling empires of many Scalers out there. I built my Western Valley RR on a 2 foot x 4 foot slab of popcorn styrofoam and it was nothing more then a simple oval of track with some trick effects to make the trackplan look like there was more...basically dummy tracks. I spent many hours on that layout scratchbuilding everything I could to save money. When I made a major move from BC to Ontario I sold all my equipment and gave away my layout, and had a dryspell for about 9 months, where I dabbled in traingifs, a virtual model railroad. Now, with the help of some internet friends, and a big room, I can have the layout I've wanted. Set in the 1980's it's a modular shortline between London and Hamilton Ontario based loosely on the CN trackage. Everything I can possibly scratchbuild, I will and with money still being a major issue, there are alot of cheap alternatives to some of the big boy toys that are sold today. Link to my virtual railroad http://rstraingifs.tripod.com Link to my Western Valley Railroad http://realityscaled.tripod.com
