AMAZING!! Waiting to do a layout after I move...won't be like this one. Crazy wild and really detailed! Good for Rod. Reminds me of Mike Wolf's friend Tony Lash , who has a nice one as well: http://www.toytrainrevue.com/lash.htm Also, Aventura Mall in Hollywood, FL has a nice xmas layout. Heard it cost $300,000 from vendor in Miami who does that. It is pretty neat...lots of computer stuff and all. I read all the stuff and see all the pics to get ideas, but still don't have a room, so not sure how big it will be--as big as the room, I guess. Great hobby...anxious to get started if anyone wants a house in FL, let me know! Then I can move and start building! Cheers, Richard
...every once in a while, I think about what money would allow me to do. Lack of it has limited a number of interests, logging steam locos being one. I stayed in "train set" mode rather than "model railroading" with an LGB under the Christmas tree. A few static 1:20.3 locos is as far as I've gone with logging...
Yes, that's true, but looking closely into the details I can see that Rod built his entirely with commercial kits and commercial trains. I also do model railroad, and have a pretty good idea what those things cost. I'd love to build what he did, and I'm not knocking his creativity or the fact that he's one of the privileged few that gets a shot at fulfilling their wildest dreams, but he did entirely build it with money. To put things in line with car building, he's a "Chequebook restorer". A set that was almost entirely scratch built was a railroad called "Gorre & Daphetid", I can't remember who built it, I think it was a guy named John Allen and that was back in the 50s and early 60s. His was a very impressive railroad, it was all O gauge and had incredible scenery. These days scratchbuilders are few and far between because the grade of the commercial kits has finally caught up to even the pickiest detail guy's expectations. We finally have access to European calibre kits with North American themes that are fantastic to look at and build, but they come with a high price.
That is one incredible model cityscape. I like to get off the highways when I can on road trips to check out old time roadside America attractions. One gem of a find was Roadside America in Pennsylvania. 6,000 sq ft of model railway! https://roadsideamerica.co/about/
It was John Allen, and sadly after his death his house burned to the ground with the Gorre & Daphetid in it. A real tragedy. The Gorre & Daphetid was HO scale.
