Next steps.

 The deadline for the Micro Model Railroad Cartel Christmas Challenge is past and I’m running a resounding last in the voting. But that doesn’t bother me, not in the slightest. I’m having so much fun with 16mm scale. When taking the photographs for the challenge entry post, I was shuttling the Huddy up and down the tracks, just enjoying watching it pass through the scene, and feeling very good about what I had acheived.

Overall view of the small layout 

Right now, there is just one loco. The LocoRemote “Huddy”

The simple trackplan. (Rock face removed to see the other siding)

The view into the yard that no-one will be able to see

Being busy with the Micro Model Railway Dispatch and taking other layouts to three shows in four weeks recently, severely curtailed my abilities to work on this model. But I felt that as the person who came up with the concept of the challenge, I had to see it through. So the layout wasn’t finished to the level that I wanted. But I really like what I see in the layout. The scenes have come out as I envisioned them. The large size, and the physical presence of the stock gives this scale an indefinable quality. There’s a feel that I can’t quite put my finger on. I honestly haven’t felt this way about a model railway scale since I first picked up Gn15, and we all know where that led. This shot below, that I converted to black and white almost gives me the chills.

Atmospheric “feel”

It’s fair to say that I’ll be in 16mm scale for a while longer, that’s for certain. To that end I joined the 16mm Gauge Society the other day. At only $25 for a digital membership, it was foolish not to. There are other 16mm indoor micro layout modellers out there, I know some of them. Perhaps there are more. Perhaps there are others just waiting to be converted to the idea of a small layout in this large scale.

As for the layout, the buildings have already been removed and more atmospheric, prototype structures to model are being researched. Some structures will remain, others will go. The plan is to keep the forced perspective element, because I feel that worked really well. I was very surprised with it.

There will be no change in the viewing angle either. The layout was also an experiment in running the trains to and from the viewer, rather than passing in front of you side to side. Again, I think this really works very well. I’m glad I tried it out.

Lots of excitement for the future then, keep following the blog.