While not a branch line any longer, I rail-fanned the KCS-NS Meridian, MS-Shreveport, LA speedway a couple of years ago and have some shots of a KCS Double Stack train easing down the main line at 65mph. with a tunnel of trees surrounding the train. The containers were touching the leaves as the train passed. The line does this in several places through the dense Louisiana forest. This is the old ICG-Mid-South line that has been upgraded over the years by the KCS and NS and it really has a branch line look and feel until one of these hot shots passes at track speed! Danny Click
________________________________ Anyway, I'm building a module and, after learning that the S-mod forum had effectively shut down, was directed to this forum. The module I'm building is a 48"X38" section of straight track that will feature a spur connecting the club's two track mainline with an initially parallel single track branch line. Picture three parallel tracks with the third track, the branch line, set apart from the other two and connected to the middle track by a spur and two right hand switches. To create the illusion of spacial compression between the two track main and the single track branch, I'm going to put a dense stand of coniferous trees between these. After seeing this along a long industrial siding near my house, I got the idea of "boxing in" the spur with trees to further the illusion of space between the two lines. This "tree tunnel" appears to have been formed as trackside trees were trimmed up to a height of approximately 20' but spread out above this point and eventually the trees on either side of the track merged together at the 20' level, creating a "tunnel" of foliage. Now this occurred along a (presumably privately owned) industrial siding that serves a single business but receives several deliveries a week and where cars are regularly shuffled by a trackmobile, would FRA rules permit the same thing to occur along a slightly used spur? I might be getting a little ahead of myself since I'm still laying homasote, but this'll help me plan my module.
