We don't need to build big towns! Here's an exercise in minimalism.

As route builders, we tend to want the big towns with lots of houses and downtown structures. Here's an exercise in minimalism right in Rossville, Tennessee.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.048...4!1sUGnOoAVUkqnABw69fm0i5Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

The downtown consists of seven buildings if you count the stores separately on the long block where the bank is. The station is long gone and replaced with a junk area, depending upon which camera is chosen from the timeline.

Anyway I thought you'd be interested in this.

As you travel around the old section it just feels peaceful. Go over to the typical housing plans it seems more frenetic.

Anyhow. it may cause me to delete a lot of stuff that does not really look good and is a poor representation of reality.
It would be nice to just spend a few days in that section of town to "reflect".

boleyd said:

As you travel around the old section it just feels peaceful. Go over to the typical housing plans it seems more frenetic.

Anyhow. it may cause me to delete a lot of stuff that does not really look good and is a poor representation of reality.
It would be nice to just spend a few days in that section of town to "reflect".

Click to expand...

I felt the same way when I saw the area which was a random click on the map as I was following a railroad line. It's like going back in time to quieter times. We once had an area similar to this not too far from where I live. Today the same place is filled with those big housing developments and the area is built up; so much for the quieter village appeal the place had.

I have de-TANE'd a large route within Maine. Inspired by the "quite times" I grabbed a large chunk of trees and just put it on top of everything except significant and obvious land/track areas. So roads, complete towns and existing forest were painted with trees and trees, etc. I am quite pleased with the result. from and aerial view it ain't not so good. But, at train level it is a big improvement. As you would, if your were there, you can see all of the houses and buildings through the trees. I was spending too much time in an aircraft. Stems from too much simulator time. Thanks for the a look at a better life.

A vinyl siding salesman made a killing in that town. Typical of many towns in the south. Once the town was centered around the railroad until the "new highway" came through and the businesses moved down TN-194 to the new road. I love the wrap around porches. They were a required feature before AC became common in the 70s.

Thanks John.

William

wreeder said:

A vinyl siding salesman made a killing in that town. Typical of many towns in the south. Once the town was centered around the railroad until the "new highway" came through and the businesses moved down TN-194 to the new road. I love the wrap around porches. They were a required feature before AC became common in the 70s.

Thanks John.

William

Click to expand...

They did that in New England too. There are so many houses, my old house included, here that lost their beautiful intricate clapboards and smothered with vinyl, or asbestos, during the 1940s to 1970s. We also have those big porches here as well for the same reason. You see a lot of sleeping porches too on the big mansions as well.

The highways did the same too to whole swaths of areas. MA. state route 110 is a good example. When Interstate 495 went in from the late 1950s through the 1960s, the old beach road, that ran from Fitchburg to Salisbury, became a dead zone when all the small family-owned restaurants and other businesses closed due to lack of business. This hurt the local economy and caused the many small towns to suffer.

boleyd said:

I have de-TANE'd a large route within Maine. Inspired by the "quite times" I grabbed a large chunk of trees and just put it on top of everything except significant and obvious land/track areas. So roads, complete towns and existing forest were painted with trees and trees, etc. I am quite pleased with the result. from and aerial view it ain't not so good. But, at train level it is a big improvement. As you would, if your were there, you can see all of the houses and buildings through the trees. I was spending too much time in an aircraft. Stems from too much simulator time. Thanks for the a look at a better life.

Click to expand...

You're welcome. I've been doing the same with one of my routes and I too like the results. We have to remember that the trees were a lot more dominant here than they are today, or at least until the land was cleared for farming. With that said, the trees are coming back in those places that haven't been developed yet, albeit, smaller new growth forests and fewer old large trees.

Trees seem to be the big problem in TRS2019. My current route has pretty big areas of tree plantations and it is a struggle to find trees which aren't billboard type.

lewisner said:

Trees seem to be the big problem in TRS2019. My current route has pretty big areas of tree plantations and it is a struggle to find trees which aren't billboard type.

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I agree. The trees we have are like those found in city parks. We need thin trees that can create thickets and scrubby areas. Doing that with what we have is difficult and requires crunching down, and squishing the trees into the ground, but even still they're oversized. The other problem is the young trees are scaled down full sized equivalents which is not the case with a lot of species. The leaves maybe the same, but the trunk and branches are not. This is one area where I spend a lot of time, like track, looking for something better, but that's like seeking the holy grail when it comes to this stuff.