1: California Northern 203 pulls a cut of coal cars
slowly over a shoofly in Sonoma on a sunny California
spring day.
1
What a great idea for a scene on a layout! The scene doesn’t
take up much room, requires only one turnout, and provides a
stage for a highly-detailed scene that shows something rarely
seen on layouts: a bridge under construction. Given the kabil-
lion bridges and trestles that people model on layouts, how
often do you see one in the process of being built? Scenes
that show something in process immediately create a dynamic
story, a snapshot of something for the viewer to participate in
rather than just telling him or her to enjoy what’s finished.
Armstrong’s shoofly sketch stuck in my brain for quite a while
as I built some small practice N scale layouts. The largest
