Over the past few years, Maryland has been gradually losing an iconic symbol of its industrial heritage in the way of the slow, painful, destruction of the Bethlehem Steel Plant at Sparrows Point in Baltimore. While this in itself can be a major talking point for VARIOUS reasons, I began to wonder if anyone has actually modeled something like this. This kind of setting is RICH with modeling potential… in all aspects of the hobby. You see plenty of people modeling steel plants, but the destruction of one almost seems more appropriate in the "modern era."
Certainly it would make a different kind of model scene, but what activity would it provide for the RR? I mean, with no industry, there's no loads to switch out or empties to bring in.
If you take a look at some of the photos I posted (or of some of the aerial shots from bing or google) there is definitely a variety of sorting of different types of debris to be loaded into gondolas. Line after line of gondolas and multiple work crews loading in different locations. Scrap metal, junk material vs. salvageable material, concrete chunks….one could integrate any salvageable equipment that could be loaded onto flatcars. Tank cars are necessary to remove any sort of leftover chemicals…etc… Empty cars in, loaded cars out. There is a lot of environmental remediation taking place on this site. Chemicals and/or clean fill brought in while tainted soil is hauled out. Though you clearly wouldn't get a good mainline run, this would be a perfect situation for a switching layout.
This is just me and my idiosyncrasies but when I go to my layout, I want cheerful. I remember when I first realized my preference. Roughly 15 years ago there was a layout featured in MR, it was incredibly detailed, very well done, and probably true to the prototype. But I found as I looked at the pics, I began to be turned off to it and it took me a bit to figure it out. The layout accurately detailed the intense pollution brought about in the area by coal burner engines, the scenes were dirty and grimy. I realized even though the model probably reflected realism, I didn't want to go to my layout and live with pollution. In another layout, again in MR, I think it was Mendheim (don't hold me to this), a scene showed late fall, early winter with all the leaves off the trees. Very well done I might add. But I thought - if I go to my layout I want cheerful, no pollution (or very little) but with some weathering; I want green grass and leaves on the trees. I want my layout to be a "pick me up." So if I were modeling your industrial scene which is going under, I'd probably do it at the height of its existence - more cheerful. But again, that's just me.
I would take a guess that this is probably exactly why you dont see this sort of thing. I think you hit the nail on the head. But to each their own. A part of me could see the appeal to modeling this sort of thing (predominantly because I HAVENT seen it done before) but to spend months or years immersed in that environment and reflecting on the nature of the setting could definitely be a downer. Unless, perhaps, you have no emotional investment and you're approaching it strictly through the artistic challenge. Personally, I haven't started a layout yet..Ive been in the "planning stages" for a few years... but for me, Im attracted to the hobby through the artistic endeavor more than, say, a layout designed with "operation" as a priority. And I can definitely see the draw in the complexity that a scene like this could offer. Though I probably wouldn't try to approach that on my first layout.
A favourite theology professor at a seminary I attended had a sign on his door - "they said it couldn't be done so I did it. It couldn't be done."
When I broke down my old layout, it looked at one stage like Ground Zero after a major destruction project.
