Back at it...

[MurphOnMillerAve]

That's a lot of stuff in a pretty small space. It doesn't look crowded, aka it's well laid out. The total level of detail is extraordinarily impressive, you've even got stuff up on the roof tops.

Are the big pine trees scratch built? Some of them look like Norway Spruce with the "droopy" branches.

Thank you very much for taking the time to post the photo's (and those are well done too, nice composition/lighting).

Hi Chuck, Good to hear from you again! I'm so glad you are enjoying the views and much appreciate your approval.
Most all the trees, conifers and deciduous, are from Jim Elster's Scenic Express, not as kits, but as ready-to-plants. I do not believe in skimping on foliage when detailing my layout, which to me seems to depict somewhere in the Northeast/Mid-Alantic USA, as it all seems to come from my experiences in life living where I have.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Frank
I have a suggestion for a new scene for your layout. This is based on the conversation you are having in the club car about the deer in your yard. As I recall you have a model of your house on the layout. How about putting some deer in the yard and a man with a big club in his hand trying to chase the deer away.
..."
Robert

I like the idea veerrrry much! I may just surprise you and myself, if I come across any such deer and a man with a club. Nice creativity! The conversation would go right in the sideyard.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...and just down the road , to the east, left of the Street Fair, across the tracks, is this market, which just got tweaked a bit and cleaned...

[chuck]

So much detail. I almost forget there are trains in there

[healey36]

Yup, just a staggering amount of detail. Great fun seeing all the bits.

The rock/stone-work is exceptional...makes me want to go back and revisit the rudimentary attempt I made a couple years ago.

Healey

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Chuck and Healey, Thank you, both, for the replies.

You guys are totally enjoyable to converse with about my layout efforts, not just because it is nice to hear something positive, which is true, but because I appreciate the fact that you elected to take the time to say something at all. My whole life, it has been interaction with other people that has been the great joy to me. I have never been the type to stay cloistered in some cubbyhole by myself frittering away at some pile of stuff kept intensely private. When I hear from voices on this forum, I get a further impression of which aspects of what I have done have been particularly effective and which have been less than optimum, and It's also enjoyable to experience when posted comments echo those made by guests to the trainroom who have seen the whole shebang in-person.

Thanks again. I appreciate your being so considerate. Murph

[healey36]

Hey Murph, have you ever been over to Roadside America in Shartlesville, PA? There are aspects of that massive layout/display that echoes some of your work. If you haven't you should check it out...it'd be a nice day-trip for you, straight out I-78 from northern Jersey. Also you could stop off at Cabella's and pick up some gear to help you deal with that deer problem.

Healey

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Real nice suggestion, Healey. Thank you. I have been there, once, and sort of soaked up as much as I could in the short time I was there. I appreciate your discerning eye (!)

Regarding that deer-discouraging equipment resource, its address has been duly noted, perhaps for a special excursion someday this Summer.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Another spot I like and keep grooming, including spraying with Ortho occasionally, especially in the Spring (the critters are all headed outside) and in the Autumn (the critters are all headed inside)...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

.........it'd be a nice day-trip for you, straight out I-78 from northern Jersey. Also you could stop off at Cabella's and pick up some gear to help you deal with that deer problem.

You could also stop in at the Dunkin Donuts there and score a chocolate peanut butter cup donut......and probably put your blood sugar well over critical before finishing it off.........

[HONDO74]

So what happened to the cucumber truck, the McDonald catering truck and the F-1 cars.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

So what happened to the cucumber truck, the McDonald catering truck and the F-1 cars.

They move around; it's a busy little community... They can't always get parking in the same spot.

[Steamfan77]

Hey Frank...I love the detail not only for the final result, but I also appreciate the effort and care you put into all the work. Hope to see more pictures in the future. It's both an inspiration and a reminder of how far I can go.

Thanks,
Andy

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Hey Frank...I love the detail not only for the final result, but I also appreciate the effort and care you put into all the work. Hope to see more pictures in the future. It's both an inspiration and a reminder of how far I can go.

Thanks,
Andy

Hi Andy, I much appreciate the pleasantness, encouragement, and outreach of your reply. And it would be super to see your progress, as you mentioned.
Regarding the effort and care involved in modeling for the layout, I quickly discovered that, as soon as I had given myself permission to reach back to my youth and enjoy trains again, that the adventure of finding and buying the trains themselves evolved into a satisfaction in the creative expression. Making the layout became the next aspect of what was enjoyable about our hobby for me.

A layout meant sharing the happiness I got out of having trains, once again after 50 years, with others who might enjoy experiencing them, too, with me. The layout became the liaison for that connection.

So, I guess we could say I went from collecting trains to crafting a layout to sharing it all with others.

For crafting a layout, I gave myself a few "rules":
(1) Never skimp on foliage, particularly trees. If I can't afford to do a scene as natural looking as possible, then I am not doing it at all, or until I can save the money to do so.
(2) I buy everything and craft every element needed for a scene I have in mind before starting. Then, I array every element around me and start. I don't like stopping the progress of a scene just because I don't have enough gravel, or shrubbery, for example. The only element that sometimes gets serendipitously added upon completion can be vehicles, some of the time.
(3) I open my eyes and look around. I do not depend on remembering a particular scene. I go and look, like at the side of the road, where the forest meets the shaved hillside. I may have thought I knew what such a place looked like. But a drive-by visit informed me otherwise.
(4) I don't craft places I do not have personal experience visiting, That is why I have never crafted a desert environment, like where Wayne lives. Even though I have had the advantage of seeing glimpses of the landscape he has chosen to show us, having not been there personally to see the details and to feel the atmosphere of the place, I would not even attempt modeling it.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Hey Frank........Hope to see more pictures in the future. It's both an inspiration and a reminder of how far I can go.
Thanks,
Andy

Thank you, Andy. So, here's another project (mentioned in an OGR article a bit) that I was hesitant about for a while but decided to plunge into for the creative exercise of it all. Plus, I had wanted to open the view into the railroad service yard more, as viewed from the aisle around the layout, and I had wanted to expand and alter the environs of the factory, now in the foreground of this area of the layout....