First, I must apologize for having crossed an apparent boundary in the
S-Scale list, my only goal was to simply promote our public appearance with
our layout on the chance those who may have heard of it or seen pictures,
would be able to visit us in person.
I thought twice about posting a follow-up comment, and decided to take
advantage of this rare opportunity to present our club's direction, goals,
and activities in a public forum. I do not do this to rebut any previous
comments on the 'scale vs hi-rail' debate.
Our club was born from a high pedigree back in 1989, our first officers
were Roy Hoffman and Bill Lane. We began as a more scale-oriented club,
but transformed over time to something that lent itself to all flavors of
S-gauge-based train enthusiasts. We currently see ourselves as inclusive to
any and all forms of trains that run on S-Gauge track. To that end, our
layout is built with code 148 hi-rail, and does work with scale rolling
stock. All loops of our layout can run AC, DC and DCC powered equipment
and also feature a scale-only switching section on one side of the
layout. We find that hi-rail is more tolerant to variances in alignment
caused by transportation and swings in temperature and humidity. That
translates to less tinkering to get the layout setup and running, and more
presentation time to our audience.
We chose to include Flyer accessories for several reasons. 1. People
recognize items from their childhood and many a discussion at train shows
start with "Gee - I had that when I was a kid, I didn't know they made that
anymore". 2. It provides us with something to start a conversation on
S-gauge; what it is, where it's going, and that it accommodates everything
from toys to scale in one gauge. 3. Our layout is sceniced in two
halves. One side is geared to entertaining kids with action, noise,
flashing lights, and running trains. Flyer accessories do that well. The
other side of the layout was built with attention to detailed scenery, and
a scale-like presentation. Except for the hi-rail track, it will stand up
well to any comparisons to scale layouts. 4. Yes, it is a layout in a
circle, the best possible way for us to present running trains to the
public. We start them up and they run flawlessly, leaving us with full
opportunity to interact with the guests. A scale point-to-point layout,
although appealing best to operators, demands attention to itself leaving
guests as observers and not being interactive in the presentation.
Our club spends a great portion of our time taking our layout to public
places. We have standing invitations to visit hospitals, veterans homes,
museums, train shows, and benefit events. Our members get a real kick out
of watching "the public" stare open-mouthed at Louie the Barrel Loader, or
Sam the Semaphore. The most liked accessory seems to be the mail-bag
pickup, where a miscue causes the kids to scramble across the floor
grabbing for the errant mailbag.
Maybe I can summarize our club this way... we just have fun!
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