Cascadia 2.0 Notebook: A New Home For a New Layout

As I wrap up my career and start preparing for my next chapters of life and their new adventures, it also is a good time to make a change of scene.  Accordingly, I'm in the process of closing up my affairs here and looking for my next home.  That means the current model model railroad layout has to go - most likely into the dumpster, which is the final place for most layouts.  To many modelers, demolishing a layout and starting over is their dream come true.  Being a member of that class, I welcome this opportunity.

Let me start with a few admissions that will guide the new layout: 

First, I love the look of the Pacific Northwest.  For as long as I've wanted to build a model railroad, I have wanted to model cloudy, varied terrain - especially waterside - railroad scenes.  My attraction to the place is purely aesthetic: never visiting Portland or Seattle until my late 40s, there is no nostalgic connection, no real points of reference for foaming, just an appreciation for the beauty of the place as a setting for a model railroad.   Rob Spangler sent me this picture, which is uncanny in the way it illustrates EXACTLY what I want to model.

Shoreline running near the Washington-Idaho border illustrates everything I want in a model railroad: a mainline (and switching) along a shoreline (here a lake), fall colors and clouds, that feeling of dampness everywhere, and many simple details that define a place, such as the dock stranded by lower water levels.  Here the terrain, weather and atmosphere are the stars, and the railroad has to work within it. 

Second, I'm a 'passenger train nerd/geek/historian/enthusiast.' I make that admission everywhere on this blog because it truly sets me apart from nearly every other model railroader I know.  Passenger trains and their operations are seldom modeled and made a core operation.  My model railroading mission is to change that. 

A glimpse at the passenger facilities of my current layout, the coach yard specifically.  Under the backdrop of Mt. Hood, the newest addition to the passenger fleet has arrived: SP SD-7 equipped for passenger service, followed by two new SP 3/4-length domes - all from Rapido.  In the background are the coach yard facilities I want to re-use. 

The Cascadia Union Terminal Railway and its surrounding environs has proven to be a viable concept and a fun one to model.  I love its passenger depot-as-switching hub, its self-contained local freight jobs, its Pacific Northwest aesthetic, and the fun it offers as a freelanced model.  It also is a concept with many lives, all easily adapted to a new home.  A new layout for an existing concept is the opportunity to fix the things I don't like about my current layout, re-visit my wish list, and work out a plan to maximize both.  Accordingly, it's time to begin planning "Cascadia 2.0."

Although I don't have a new home yet and don't know the space I will be using, this is an opportune time to begin the process of sketching out ideas for the new layout.  These ideas will capture the things I liked, things I wanted to change, and add fresh new ideas and what I learned from my first layout.  Building a layout is a learning experience - the true college of model railroading.  I have been advised many times that 'your first layout is not and should not be your last.' Practice makes better, and not being wedded to the first layout is freedom to create that never gets old.  And one should not be afraid of leaving behind old ideas (and people) to gain new perspective and opportunities for growth as a modeler-operator.  

How to use this series: These are ideas that can be used by any modeler to create a better layout.  They are distillations of my experiences as a modeler, experiences designing and managing a model railroad operation, operating good and bad layouts with different crews and everything in between, and ongoing historical research on prototype railroads and model railroading through its publications.

So, here we are looking at the horizon with the chance to write a new map.   This new series, entitled Cascadia 2.0," is my notebook of design ideas for the new layout, incorporating different approaches to everything from concept and operations to design, construction, modeling and running a new model railroad.  As a notebook, Cascadia 2.0 is descriptive more than photographic.  Wherever I can, I will have visual images, but reading is required to follow the story.  It assembles and lays out ideas for building a high-quality model railroad with fun, credible operating opportunities.