I hope that the ghost of Clement Clarke Moore can forgive me for paraphrasing his famous poem "A visit from St. Nicholas" as a title for this blog posting. But it is Christmas and it is kind of appropriate, and while people around me partake in a Christmas dinner enduced slumber or do the washing up. I decided to start this post.
I've been trying to write this one for a while but have balked at posting it because I don't want to seem like a wierdo.
But the simple fact is, I see model railway layouts. I have visions. The children in the poem have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. I have visions of model railways dancing in mine.
Why I don't know. Perhaps it's the years spent looking at pictures in railway books mixed with my college education as a graphic designer. But these visions come to me. They don't care where and they don't care when. (I have learned it is a good idea to keep a notepad by the bed just in case)
It is probably the most important part of my small layout design method and I don't know how it happens.
It will likely happen when I least expect it. But an idea will come to me. I can spend ages looking at pictures in railway books or drinking in the atmosphere at a prototype location but the idea won't come to me then. I wish it would. I've been to several locations thinking that they would be great ideas for layouts but the vision hasn't come yet. Even after 10 years my Duluth Railroad Avenue layout idea eludes me.
I can think to myself that a certain scene will make a good subject for a layout but it might be several months later when the idea bursts out of my brain screaming to be noted down. Boy, does that idea burst out then! Everything comes so fast. Every detail. Sometimes too fast for me to get all the details down. But in that burst of thought is just about every single detail to enable me to build the model from tracklaying to presentation. It's how I came up with the idea for Wingetts Recycling. I have learned to trust it and go with it. Not every idea gets built, mind you but all get noted down in detail and sketched up. Every idea that you will see presented on this blog will be the result of one of these visions. Enjoy the results of my suffering...
I've been trying to write this one for a while but have balked at posting it because I don't want to seem like a wierdo.
But the simple fact is, I see model railway layouts. I have visions. The children in the poem have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. I have visions of model railways dancing in mine.
Why I don't know. Perhaps it's the years spent looking at pictures in railway books mixed with my college education as a graphic designer. But these visions come to me. They don't care where and they don't care when. (I have learned it is a good idea to keep a notepad by the bed just in case)
It is probably the most important part of my small layout design method and I don't know how it happens.
It will likely happen when I least expect it. But an idea will come to me. I can spend ages looking at pictures in railway books or drinking in the atmosphere at a prototype location but the idea won't come to me then. I wish it would. I've been to several locations thinking that they would be great ideas for layouts but the vision hasn't come yet. Even after 10 years my Duluth Railroad Avenue layout idea eludes me.
I can think to myself that a certain scene will make a good subject for a layout but it might be several months later when the idea bursts out of my brain screaming to be noted down. Boy, does that idea burst out then! Everything comes so fast. Every detail. Sometimes too fast for me to get all the details down. But in that burst of thought is just about every single detail to enable me to build the model from tracklaying to presentation. It's how I came up with the idea for Wingetts Recycling. I have learned to trust it and go with it. Not every idea gets built, mind you but all get noted down in detail and sketched up. Every idea that you will see presented on this blog will be the result of one of these visions. Enjoy the results of my suffering...
Ah... the muse of train layout design. I wish she would speak to me more often! Merry Christmas, Ian.
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