OK, so here's the modified track plan, as it stands right now. The OG, the first section to work on, will be the Jerome & Southwestern (J&SW) track plan. This image isn't super high resolution, but I still have the actual book, so I'm good. Not just the track, but also the basic scenic beats will also be followed; i.e., where he's got Apache Gorge, I'll have Injun Gorge (maybe I should call it Dead Indian Gorge; that's actually a real name that's quite common in Wyoming for a lot of features; Dead Indian Pass, Dead Indian Gulch, Dead Indian Creek, Dead Indian Mesa, Dead Indian Peak, etc.) I also have the same two main towns (renamed), and I'll even be using the same (when I can get them) building kits to some degree, or similar ones. It's not going to be saguaro Arizona scenery, but rather PJ woodland with prickly pear and yuccas. Still desert, but much more grassy and yellow rather than red and... dirt, I guess.
Although Olsen doesn't highlight this, it's easy to read between the lines that some aspects of his presentation of this were not how it always was. He talks about backdrops being against the left and top edges, but clearly they weren't always there, because he has pictures of them missing and people standing on those sides. But he also has pictures with the backdrop in place and the railroad in the corner of a family room. I always thought that that was very odd given the fact that the entire top edge of the railroad was in a tunnel, including at least one turnout, possibly two depending on how strictly you count it. That would be a crazy situation to actually have, but if he didn't actually have it, it just looked like he did, then you'd be OK. I want to make backdrops be easily removable and repositionable on any edge of the table, for photographic/videographic reasons (which seems to have been a clear consideration of Olsen's as well, and I'd actually like the scenic the inside of the tunnels to be open against the top edge, and have some interesting stuff going on there. The more left-hand side of the area will be a railroad tunnel with support beams and rock walls, as well as some tiny yellow LED lights, while from the turnout and beyond, I actually want to have an Indiana Jones-esque scene where there's an underground excavation of some sort going on. I may even put a loading dock there, and make it be a legitimate potential stop for the trains.
Olson also had the Back Alley & Wharf expansion (BA&W), a 2x6 expansion that connects to the tracks that go off the edge shown above. Here's the schematic for that.
I have two main changes that I intend to make to this; first, at least one of the tracks on the right edge will connect to the next 4x8 module. And, of course, it'll also be seriously rethemed. The left hand side will be a town, not a city, with some railroad facilities that I hadn't modeled anywhere else. This town will be called Mirabeau (named for early Texian Republic president Mirabeau Lamar) and rather than a wharf into a harbor, the right hand side will be a bayou/swamp with bald cypresses (with knees coming up out of the water), spanish moss, and shady looking businesses like Biden & Son Swamp tours, with dead bodies being fed to alligators out back, etc. I also would love to have an Inspector Legrasse busting up some cultists in a small diorama-like scene. I might make a "tunnel" disguised as a forest canopy, as well as a grade increase on the track crossing over to the new section.
The last section will be based on the original Gorre & Daphetid track plan, although expanded to 4x8 (it was actually quite a bit smaller, believe it or not. 3½x7 or something like that. I've also rotated it, but I'm not sure this is the final form; I might flip it too. In any case, a gigantic cliff and curved trestle will great the viewers from the bottom edge. And I want a small scale 65' or so turntable to deal with my need to turn trains around so that I'm not just manually picking them up to turn them around. I have too many tracks coming off the turntable; I actually don't know that I need any at all; it could simply be to get on the turntable and turnaround. I'll probably keep two small tracks as holding tracks, at least, though.
I won't have a roundhouse, but a town will be there; Travis, so I'll need more small buildings.
The other town will be Crockett, and it may be located where Gorre is on the schematic. Daphetid will not be a town, but will be a high lumber camp, I kind of like that trains can be up there on a higher point looking down at other trains getting read to cross the curved trestle in the front.
That passing siding may be moved a bit so that it's not on the curve, however, or if it is, at least it's at the very end of the curve rather than halfway across the table. I did mention, right, that the trackplan will eventually be slightly large in scale than as shown? I also need to come up with a better plan for scenery; other than the curved trestle and probably a waterfall cascading next to it, I have only vaguely "mountain stuff" in mind for the place.
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