The Big Train Project
#52- May Status Report
May 31, 2011
In this installment we’ll look at some of the recent changes to the Modern City. As usual, the descriptions mostly follow the order in which you would see the described items as you follow the aisle in sequence from entrance to exit. As you exit the tunnel from the Middle Period, the first thing you’ll notice on the layout is a steel girder road bridge leading into the city. Though it ends at the plexiglass barrier, the viewer must assume that it continues beyond the edge of the layout.
#51 - April Status Report
April 30, 2011
This installment will look at some of the new things added to the layout recently. As usual, the descriptions mostly follow the order in which you would see the described items as you follow the aisle in sequence from entrance to exit. The first addition shown is the new lumber yard in the Middle Period city. It’s right across the aisle from the large locomotive wheel museum exhibit. The photo was taken from the steps up to the mezzanine.
#50 - March Status Report
March 31, 2011
While we’ve been focusing our attention on the upgrade to the Modern City, some less grandiose but equally worthwhile improvements have been incorporated into the Middle Period City. Also there’s been a long-awaited completion in the Modern City. As usual, the descriptions follow the order in which you would see items described as you follow the aisle in sequence from entrance to exit.
#49 - February Status Report
February 28, 2011
Some major new buildings are finally being installed in the Modern City in sufficient quantity to give the city a less barren appearance. One of the most creative of the new additions is what I’ll call the Oakmore Skytower (Figure 1), which is reminiscent of Seattle’s Space Needle. What’s really special about this is not the basic concept of a skytower, but why it’s needed and why it’s located where it is. The EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) building has a number of vertical columns supporting the roof. They are spaced 40 feet apart, and one of those unmovably pokes its massive self through the platform supporting the Modern City. The columns are large I-beams with plumbing and electrical conduits running upward in the beam channels. They can’t realisticly represent anything in 1/24th scale. So, the Skytower was used to hide the lower part of the column; and, with its brightly lit observation deck at the top, it was used to camouflage the rest of the column that extends above it to the EJ building’s ceiling.
#48 - October Status Report
November 01, 2010
Major changes are being made to the layout, which need to be reported immediately, so I’ve put off the promised look at more of the layout’s details. The Modern City on the layout is undergoing sweeping urban renewal. The entire city center inside the mainline track loop has been leveled, literally. Not only have all the buildings been removed but the layout tables, which previously were in the form of streets sloping upward toward the fountain plaza in front of the domed capitol building, were lowered to the level of the surrounding mainline tracks.
I enjoy Entertrainment because it brings such BIG smiles on the little faces of my grandchildren.
- Jean Bohinc
Greensburg, PA
