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3<br />
6<br />
4<br />
taboo; modelers seldom place objects between the tracks<br />
and the front edge of their layouts. I guess the issue must<br />
be fear of things getting damaged or interference with<br />
operations.<br />
Take a look at this cluster of trees near the Mill St. crossing.<br />
There are four turnouts with groundthrows in this area.<br />
I was careful to place the trees so they wouldn’t obstruct<br />
my reach when throwing a switch. This grouping of trees<br />
helps divide the layout into two distinct scenes at this<br />
point. This is even more effective when you get closer to<br />
track level as in Photo 7. Mill St. itself also acts as a divider<br />
by interrupting the flow of the track lines. I used the same<br />
7<br />
5<br />
tree; therefore, the trains appear out of scale to their surroundings<br />
(Photo 5). You can get away with modeling tall<br />
objects on a shelf layout because of the narrowly defined<br />
cross-section of a given scene. As mentioned in Part II, the<br />
24” depth of the benchwork only is only 96 scale feet. By<br />
focusing on the track and immediate surroundings, you can<br />
model objects closer to their actual scale size and let backdrops<br />
fill in the rest of the world.<br />
Puzzle Piece #8: Viewblocks.<br />
Photo 6 introduces another important scenic feature – a<br />
viewblock. On a long horizontal shelf layout, having something<br />
to block your view of the train, however briefly, helps<br />
to divide the layout into distinct scenes, making it seem<br />
larger than it actually is. It doesn’t take much to do this.<br />
Even a single large tree could effectively serve to divide a<br />
scene into two separate areas. This seems to be another<br />
38 • O <strong>Scale</strong> <strong>Trains</strong> - Jul;y/Aug ’08<br />
trick (a dense cluster of trees) to hide the entrance to the<br />
staging cassette. The train simply disappears gracefully just<br />
as you might see in real life (Photo 8).<br />
Puzzle Piece #9: Mini-scenes.<br />
In addition to dividing the layout into different scenes, I<br />
like to create mini-scenes that help hold the eye in a given<br />
area. These can help reenforce the character of your rail-<br />
8