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| An S-scale, 9mm beginning for a trolley inspired by Thaddeus Lowe's. It's built on a Kato 11-108 drive unit. |
The last two months I've been working on a diorama for entry in this Loco-Revue contest. It was submitted last week and graciously accepted, so now I'm back to normal operations :-)
The thing that surprised me about the diorama project was how fast I completed it and the enthusiasm I brought to the work. I started from zero on 26 February and finished on or around 19 April - and that included a 10 day excursion to Texas in the middle where no hobby work occurred. The project involved making 3 little dioramas, designing and scratchbuilding a building, scenicking, and modifying and detailing a locomotive, as well as shooting lots of photos, two videos, and packaging them for submission. I had a great time. The best in a long while. Most of my projects take ages and drag on. There's a message or two in there for me.
I think one of the messages is that I need to park most of my existing projects for a bit and focus on fun - well, let's say getting satisfaction from building, not 'fun' as the popular media defines it. I was doing many projects out of a feeling they needed to be done. Forget that. This summer could simply be a random walk looking for hobby fun, as well as enjoying any good weather that comes along of course.
I may have finally figured out how to build a little layout inspired by the Mt. Lowe railway. First though I need a model - in this case a casualized model - of Thaddeus Lowe's personal trolley that he used to scoot around his railway. I've made a start and I'll continue until the fun runs out.
So if my math is correct, which it rarely is, in S scale 9mm track works out to just under 24 inches, yes? Interesting. You can use Matchbox vehicles in that scale, if you so choose, and it seems like there are some nice early vehicles in that size or close enough (too big for HO and probably closer to 00 than 1:64). Hmmm....
ReplyDeleteThat's my intention. I've been playing with the idea of a what-if scenario where since the Mt. Lowe RR and the Angeles Crest Hwy are both in the San Gabriel Mts, what-if there was a 'secret' parking spot off the hwy where one could pickup an electric Mt. Lowe trolley to a few scenic overlooks? (Assuming the Mt. Lowe RR lived longer than it did) Micro-layout sized, continuous loop, fits on a coffee table, gives me an excuse to model rock formations. First though I want to try and build the trolley before going too far down this path.
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