Linn Westcott's Million Dollar Railroad

[JCitron]

Thoughts on Linn Westcott’s ideas for a million-dollar model railroad - Trains

million-dollar model railroad, million-dollar layout, mega railroad, Linn Westcott, Ideas for a million-dollar model railroad

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We could do it easily of course.

 

[marmalade32]

Well, that'll be a project i'd like to see somebody take on!

 

[soap__]

I remember reading this original article years back in 101 Track Plans for Model Railroaders. It's funny, though, as I always thought one of the other large plans from that issue, depicting the South Shore Line from Chicago to South Bend, was a more intriguing "million dollar" plan than the "If I Had A Million" article was!

 

[ricomon35]

Yeah, well. The idea has been eclipsed many times now, but most notably on the high end of the scale by Miniatur Wunderland in DE, at a current build cost of 42.51 Million.
At the 1 million mark is Howard Zane's Piermont Division home layout. One of my favorites

This is a great idea for a discussion @JCitron. I follow many of the high dollar MRR layouts and the public mega-layouts.


Up there is also Bill Kachel's PRR layout. Absolutely stunning model work !

Rico

 

[JCitron]

Yeah, well. The idea has been eclipsed many times now, but most notably on the high end of the scale by Miniatur Wunderland in DE, at a current build cost of 42.51 Million.
At the 1 million mark is Howard Zane's Piermont Division home layout. One of my favorites

This is a great idea for a discussion @JCitron. I follow many of the high dollar MRR layouts and the public mega-layouts.


Up there is also Bill Kachel's PRR layout. Absolutely stunning model work !

Rico

I have enjoyed these model railroads myself. In my childhood and later my dreams always had gigantic layouts like this. As said in the article, the maintenance of layouts like these can become an all-time-consuming job all unto itself.

I agree with you on Howard Zane's layout. To me that's more of a giant home layout than the others which seem to be sponsored corporate layouts and don't have any personality even with all the vignettes all over them.

 

[ricomon35]

I have enjoyed these model railroads myself. In my childhood and later my dreams always had gigantic layouts like this. As said in the article, the maintenance of layouts like these can become an all-time-consuming job all unto itself.

I agree with you on Howard Zane's layout. To me that's more of a giant home layout than the others which seem to be sponsored corporate layouts and don't have any personality even with all the vignettes all over them.

I wish we could get video footage of Rod Stewart's layout. I have the issue of Model Railroader with pics, but video man. I reeeeally want to see that layout in action !.

Rod is a consummate artist with detailing, terrain and weathering

George Sellios's Franklin & South Manchester MRR is my absolute favorite. If I had the wealth and space, I'd try to build something similar.

Rico

 

[JCitron]

I wish we could get video footage of Rod Stewart's layout. I have the issue of Model Railroader with pics, but video man. I reeeeally want to see that layout in action !.

Rod is a consummate artist with detailing, terrain and weathering

George Sellios's Franklin & South Manchester MRR is my absolute favorite. If I had the wealth and space, I'd try to build something similar.

Rico

I remember the article too on Rod's layout. A quick search on YouTube shows these here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rod+stewart%27s+model+railroad+

I need to watch them when I get a chance.

George's Franklin and South Manchester is one amazing layout. I remember the series on it in MRR magazine. If we could get a plan for that, we might be able to do something with it ourselves.

One of the frustrating problems I've run into with the model railroad genre is the plans being distorted or faked to look pretty in the books. When put to task, many of the dimensions don't work out the way they show them and big adjustments need to be made. I suppose this is also due to us taking the drawings literally and not using plywood measured and cut carefully to the proper lengths.