I wanted to showcase a particular album from Mark Dance. This guy's layout is exquisite,a nd the scenery is breathtaking. Please, take the time to review his album: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/album.php?albumid=931, you'll be glad you did. Without further ado, The Columbia & Western Railway! 81 above Lower Arrow Lake: Helicon photo by Tim Horton: Pushers at Farron: Rolling stock by Jeff Briggs; Photo by Tim Horton: (this shot chills me to the bone!) And the Pièce de résistance, Eastbound ore drag by Pup Creek: Helicon photo by Tim Horton: (I wanna see this in person someday!) Flash Blackman follows up with a great little Geep, weathered and detailed; GP20 SSW4142: To be continued!!
Marty Coil begins part 2 of the weekly favorite with an SP&S meet: Pete D shows off a nicely weathered Ferromex_ES44AC_4678: Phantom built a nice grapevine and tossed in a neat steamer for good measure; No 6 departing Laona NY. North bound: Wolfgang Dudler finishes up the weekly review with switching at Third Street District 4: See you next week!
Nice work here! Mark Dance's Columbia and Western layout has lots of great scenes. That's a good album to peruse.
If you think Mark Dance's photos are amazing, check out his videos on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/user/markdance63 Definitely one heck of a gorgeous layout!!
I have been looking at Mark Dance's pictures: Simply breathtaking and inspirational! I still have troble visualizing his trackplans in 3D, maybe I need to print them on transparents and layer them. It is the first time I have seen "staging drawer" in N-Scale, amazing! Cheers Dirk
I am very appreciative of all the kind words on this thread. Many thx. If any of you are ever in Vancouver Canada, please drop me a post. I would be happy to show you the layout if our schedules coincide. In terms of visualizing the track plan, I would venture that this is because of the overlapping levels in the double mushroom, the four gates the layout uses, and the multiple uses of the helix areas, especially the large double track one. If you are interested in straightening out the track plan for yourself, watching the first "Overview of the Columbia & Western" video on Youtube might be helpful though it doesn't show what is happening in East staging inside the large helix. I should also note that the posted track plans were generated primarily as a construction tool for me and not for publication so I am sure someone with better graphic communication skills could simplify them. My apologies for that. If Tim and I are fortunate enough to have a publication pick up an article or two then I suspect their track plans will be clearer and I can use those in the place of my drawings. thx again md
