Thursday, April 29, 2010

Freelance

Prompted by the comments from the last couple of posts, I though I would do a bit more biovating about this.

The main problem that we have in this country is A) its too small and hence well known (and B) ll the railways that have been built have made sense to some extent, and theres not many areas (bar Nelson) that don't have a railway that should have one. I have seen an S scale layout based on the premise of a second route to the west coast up another valley further south (which on a map made sense but I can't remember where it was) with a tunnel etc. I think you would be OK modeling a branchline somewhere (gawd knows enough of them were lifted), but somewhere with enough traffic to sustain a modern day line (which seems to be the period of choice for the masses out there at the moment).

Maybe/probably the other problem is me. I can manage cut down real locations to fit smaller spaces but I still struggle to make up a station. Even renaming a station would feel odd to me for some reason, possibly cos I know its not right which then bugs the hell out of me.

9 comments:

Muir said...

Isn't it funny how much one thinks about making up their own completely fictitious branch/main whatever in whatever period of NZR they model, there's the inevitable fitment of Paekak, or Kaitoke, or Rewanui or...
Can't seem to make up our own station, about the closest people get seems to be a variation of an existing place hmmmm -

On a different note - check out this from a different blog site:
Spot the eighth one down -

Yugoslavia - Jugoslovenske Železnice
33 (Tillig BR52)
36.001-049 (Kittler BR58.2)
154.003-007 (Jatt, Jago or MMS BR91.3/91.30/T9.3)
158.001-002 (Jago BR93.5)
159.001(Jago BR94.5)
641 (Modart SM41)
661 (Chosen Scale G12 - kitbashed to G16)
710 770-9 (Tillig T334)
734 (Kuehn DB V60/260/360)
:)

Amateur Fettler said...

My own attampt at freelancing a branch terminus was really because I wasnt able to find one that really "fitted the mold" and looked like I thought a 1960's, down-at-heel station yard would look like. Also, I seem to have a liking for the South Canterbury branches, but more of an affinity with Otago The Province.....and with Lime being the main traffic, it was always going to be a hopeless mishmash of Mt Somers and Waihao Downs pushing into the hinterlands around Palmerston somewhere...and in effect, thats really how "Teschemakers" was born. It may get looked at again one day (I'm still enamoured with the concept), but the Head Druff has promised me a layout...so I'm waiting with baited breath for that....

MaverickNZ said...

One freelance idea i have had was for a junction layout based on Inangahua Junction if the line from Nelson to Inangahua Junction had been finished. You could even get more freelance and have it electrified and a few EFs running up and down the line.

ben scaro said...

I think the mention of the Chosen Scale G12 is Frank Valoczy on the TTNut forum who's trying to catalog the various prototypes worldwide for which there are TT models. As the G12 was used in a heck of a lot of countries, it features quite a lot.

Woodsworks said...

My plans somewhat resemble MaverickNZ's, but I have gone private-company with the idea, so I can use loco and rolling stock more akin to the WMR.

Imagine what the port area at Nelson would have looked like with rail access through to the coal mines on the West Coast....probably considerably larger than what it has today, and maybe even some huge coal loading docks

RAB said...

I'm not sure if the port of Nelson would be bigger, I don't think it could get much bigger given the space constraints placed by the boulder bank. I also don't think that you could put a port anywhere else in the area, as its all rather shallow and the sand tends to shift a lot.

The only possibility I could think of would be a coal loading facility on the seaward side of Haulashore island, and even that would have quite sizable problems with access.

lalover said...

I'm going thru the problem of giving my stations appropriate names to fit the region that i'm modelling.
No actual station plans are being duplicated, rather bits from different sources that i like.
But i want place names to be indictative of the area, so that it has the right fit, and is reconisable.
This will be helped by the type of rolling stock and Locos, which will also be a pointer to the era!

woodsworks said...

Rab, you are forgetting that with private interests putting up the finance to build their own facilities, the landscape could have been quite different to what resulted from a politically driven system, especially back in the early 1900's, with no such thing as the Resource Management Act ;-)

Motorised Dandruff said...

But most of those railway companies either went bust before getting anywhere or were brought out by the government quite smartly (with one notable exception).