Actually there were and the first site that comes to mind is the Fargo, ND Morehead, Minn.area. Another is East Fairview and West Fairview sites that I have been in in my earlier years. In each case and others the towns were divided by a state line or county line. So you are prototypical if there are two towns that are less than a mile apart.
A lot of layouts don't have much more than the 33-34 foot mainline run, or about 16-17 feet to a side on a oval. It is the use of scenic divides that give the impression of distance like the use of a short tunnel to transition from a desert to a greener hilly area to a river bottom. As far as two towns being less than a mile apart the example of the Fargo, ND, Morehead, Minn. has in the past had two railroads serving the area and at least six rail lines converging there. A river forms the state boundaries between the two towns. Traffic pre BN merger would have been interchange between the roads and the branches out of the area with through freights and passenger runs of both lines. Add in local industries served by the separate lines and transfer cuts between the lines and you have a busy rail area.
See my post at http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?162159-Z-Scale-Speedometer&p=1014207#post1014207
You made me laugh. But what people have also done on short run layouts is say you are at point a, and you are going to point b. The firat time you get to point b, you make pretend its not there and pass it go around 1 or 2 times then stop at your destination. Each lap can be a different town.
Thats assuming everyone has a Smart phone. Some of us old geezers still use one of these... https://therotaryshoppe.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/2012-09-07-16-37-24.jpg ...and actually still use one to talk to someone more then 4 feet away !!!! ....:teeth::teeth::teeth:
Ha hah hah... I can't tell you how often I've called within the house from my cell to my wife' cell to ask her something without having to yell!!! As for the reality of scale versus prototype... when we begin to try to scale out everything in our hobby... regardless of scale... the sad truth is that we can not accurately scale much of anything down prototypically unless we have the equivalent of a 1,000 sq. ft. warehouse bay to do a couple of small towns a few miles from each other. Selective compression is necessary even as small as Z scale is. Have you tried to scale out ONE regular city block!!! most of them are 300' x 500' rectangles NOT including the road right of way. That means just ONE city block requires 22.5" x 37.5"... just about a 2' x 4' module if you include the streets... and that doesn't include any railroad right of way!!! Oh yeah... about that railroad right of way... if you want to keep to prototypical safety standards... mainlines would need to be a minimum 50' wide for a single track... 75' for double tracks (4" to 5.625" wide). Branch line and Industrial areas can be a bit tighter spaced. Every time I look at these realities... it really kills my motivation to build anything.
Yea...lucky for me...where we live (out in the boonies) cell service is near nonexistent. Magic Jack saves my bacon...lol. We take the cell phone with us when we head to town. When it rings...it scares the ^%*&%&^%*^ out of us both. Funny quick story... About 6 years back my sons and their families came to visit. The 2 daughter-in-laws where sitting next to each other on the couch. They kept giggling. When I studied the scene for a bit...I realized they where texting each other...sitting right there shoulder to shoulder...LMAO!! As far as selective compression. I stated earlier that I use 4 feet= 1 mile. Thats actually wrong. I use 3 feet=1 mile. Thats the distance between 2 state highways on THE layout. Most everything in almost every town in the state is set up on a 'grid' and main roads are 1 mile apart. Besides that...I had heard/read that most railroads are required to have train lengths that wont block main intersections should the train have to stop between them for any reason. That means my trains cant be over a mile long. Selective compression again puts the # of cars at 15. The shortest track in Lucky Peenny Yard will hold only 15 cars. Run em slow and the train 'seems' longer anyways... ;-)
I guess I am taking a page out of George's book as far as the retirement layout design goes. I have tried a number of things over the years and have not been totally satisfied with any. Downsizing everything is what helped me finally in planning for the retirement layout. I settled on having one community of any substance on the layout which will be the harbor area. Located the operation on a island with the only way that railcars get from the main to there is via a car float. And the trains are limited to no more than 10 cars maybe 14 if they are all ore cars. Mainline is mostly single track limiting what can be run at anytime on a segment of track and the speed is slow because the power is mostly geared locomotives and often double or triple headed because of the grades. Passenger service is there because the roads are primitive mostly single lane dirt and the locals are the primary way to get to the town and from there get to the mainland by either ferry or sea plane. The log camp about halfway up the line serves as a destination point for traffic and passenger service, and the end of the line will have a very small cluster of houses and a general store where the quarry, mine, and two mills, and maybe a brewery will set, and the final destination for loads and passenger service. Since we are talking primarily geared locos and grades the speeds will be very low like about 15 N Scale MPH. Solves all my issues of the old space time warp continuum and gives some interesting operational scenarios. The nearest that passes for a yard is in the seaside town where the loads are staged for the car float and enough tracks exist to off load the newest arrivals, and the sawmill with its incoming and outgoing tracks and up at the log camp. I am keeping all of this reasonably separate and conveying the impression of distance by several things. At least two short tunnels are between the small town/port facility and the log camp is on the other side of the room in the layout plan. The log camp is elevated and semi behind a forested area and from there the track continues upgrade to the last area. Hills and terrain features are used as the line loops back to the mining and quarrying areas and from the town the area will not be visible because of the forested area until one moves to that side of the layout, plus that area will be at least a foot or more above the port and again as stated behind some scenery when viewed from the port. The total mainline run works out to about 35 feet. Slow speeds, short trains, and scenic divides, and the unseen benefits of a point to point operation, all are planned to come into play in what will probably be my last layout as age creeps up on me.
I make no assumption everyone has one, only those that want to carry the app in your pocket and use it anytime they want -- like at a show or a build session. If you don't want to use the app, don't get a phone! I've also got one of those ancient telecommunication devices. I find them useful, too. But mine has buttons for ease of use and no wires so I can pace as I talk. I do have a version of the app that you can use on a computer. I assume you might have one of those since it's hard to make posts on the ancient telecommunication device. :cute:
About.com (and particularly the model railroad information) is the worst source of information on the planet. Anytime I see about.com in the URL, it's instant garbage file. There was once an article on About.com about model railroading that said TT scale was the most popular scale and recommended it for parents buying children their first train set. That should tell you everything you need to know.
