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One of my aesthetic goals for The Hills Line was to create a seamless fascia. While that serves absolutely no purpose towards the design or operational intent of the layout, it does help create a more pleasing appearance to others, regardless of their familiarity with the prototype. I originally used joint compound to fill the … Continue reading Bondo
There's no such thing as the perfect layout space, and our basement proves that as fact time and time again. Over the lifetime of The Hills Line, as well as other layouts I've built in that space, I've made what I feel are significant compromises to make a model railroad fit in our lower level. … Continue reading Cornering
There seems to be three schools of thought of how to handle buildings that extend beyond the benchwork: Compress them to fit Eliminate them all together Cut them off at the world's edge Option #1 is never a good idea. In practice it often crosses the line from selective compression towards cartoonish replication... a practice … Continue reading Fascia Extensions
Several years ago, noted model railroader Bill Darnaby of Maumee Route fame coined the phrase macro vs micro operations. In a nutshell, macro model railroad operations focus on the movement of complete trains against each other, while micro model railroad operations focus on the movement of individual cars to either their next or possibly final … Continue reading Where You Are
The Hills Line 