The Reddibilt Railroad

Layout Summary

Setting:

whatever

Scale:

N

Size:

14 by 20 inches

Track:

Tomix Fine Track

Control:

none selected

Benchwork:

Gatorfoam

Scenery:

none

Year:

2013

Status:

~25% complete

Disposition:

gone

A Futile Exercise

The Reddibilt Railroad grew out of my explorations into new and different types of track. When I came across Tomix Fine Track, I ordered a bunch to play with, and after some tinkering I arrived at the Reddibilt, where the core concept was to utilize pre-finished products exclusively.

While it might seem to contradict my normal modeling MO, the point of the layout was to see how good otherwise dubious-looking Woodland Scenics' pre-built structures could be made to look. I started with the "kit" versions of their pre-finished buildings (which they call "prefabs").

Partway into the project, though, I realized it wasn't worth the effort because it was far more work to re-work prefabs than to start with traditional kits. Among other things, there were holes for every single freaking little detail, even the piles of crap like bicycles and trash bins.

I briefly entertained the idea of using pre-finished buildings with no or absolute minimum modification, but they're expensive, and would result in an astronomically costly layout. Not to mention that most of Woodland Scenics' pre-finished buildings look downright laughable to begin with.

Ultimately I abandoned the project as a stupid idea. I even debated whether or not to include it in my layout list. I kept it on the website as a reminder of how bad my ideas can be, and that it was a precursor to the Trenton Transportation Company, by contrast a good idea.

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