Bootcamp Responses

Byron Henderson's Layout Design Bootcamp seems like an excellent way to get started planning a model railroad. Below are some of my thoughts from the Conceptual phase:

• Visitors will see a switching railroad intertwined with the Motor City's major industries, trains running through scenes that are quintessentially Detroit, warts and all. There will be Big Three auto plants, metal recyclers and steel plants; there will also be abandoned factories, graffiti and blight. Operators will work in two-person teams, engineer and conductor, working the railroad by hand (manually operating couplers and turnouts) just like the real thing. I'd like to build in challenges for operators too, such as mechanical failures, weather conditions, and so on; reflecting the hand-me-down nature of the railroad.
• Signature elements could include:
• Ford's Rougemere plant
• interchange with CSX over Michigan Ave.
• Dearborn Steel and Kenwal Steel
• interchange with CSX at the former Pennsy/Union Terminal line (Wayne Nut & Bolt)
• Woodward Ave. underpass
• Ford Junction and interchange w/GTW
• Winston Bros. Iron & Metal/MAC (Conant Ave.)
• Alpha Resins
• North Yard and Forest Lawn interchanges with the GTW, CSX & NS
• the M.C.R.R. Belt line
• PVS Technologies
• Chrysler's Jefferson plant
• PSC Environmental Services
• Motive power will consist of Conrail's castoffs, possibly consisting of GP8s, GP10s, GP30s, SW7s, SW9s & SW1200s.

Next up - images, rough sketches of track plans, links and other conceptual fodder.