Story Miles

Story Miles: The imagined distance between two locations on a layout as defined in the layout's backstory.  

Usage: The island test facility was 25 story miles from the locomotive factory.

Source: The phrase 'story miles' was first spotted in a photo caption associated with John Olson's article, The Mescal Lines RR, that appeared in the January 1984 issue of Model Railroader:

"Saline Valley is a desert water stop. It's just above the scene in photo 2 [JDL: Above an area of "red desert" scenery shown in photo 2] even though it is some 25 "story" miles further north, a good example of how John separates scenes with a camera-like eye."

As the editor hints at, Olson makes the Saline Valley seem farther away from its layout neighbours than it actually is by carefully orchestrated scenic transitions.

Story miles are not scale miles.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.