structures with the turrets at the front corner are neat, but
one or two in a town are all that is needed to convey the idea.
You don’t need one on every corner. Look for simple, common
buildings. Remember, someone had to pay for the building
and they were as likely to be concerned with cost as much as
we are today. A rectangular building is much less expensive to
build than one with a bunch of corners and angles. Yes, you can
find those stand-out buildings, but are they common?
Many of us have seen the layout with a 2,400-square-foot fac-
tory that produces enough product in a day to warrant two or
three 40-foot box cars. An industry that can handle that many
boxcars more than likely will have 240,000 square feet of pro-
duction space, if not more. And, not everything arrives and
leaves by rail.
OK, you don’t have enough space for that size of an industrial
building. While selective compression is warranted to a point,
there is a point where it goes too far. Not to worry, just model
the loading/unloading dock area and have the rest of the build-
ing represented on the backdrop, or in the aisle space.
When you are planning the industries that will be on your lay-
out, take your time to think about the space needed to service
the industry. Where do trucks deliver materials? Where do
they load shipments? This can include parking space for auto-
mobiles, and truck docks with room for trucks to turn and back
in. Nothing can kill the overall look of a well-modeled scene
faster than having an unrealistically small space for trucks and
autos. Our eyes will see it, and our minds will immediately
know that something is wrong.
In the future, take some time out to think more about the
space, and the overall composition of your scene.
