Altonville as a model railroad

This project will not represent the epitome of the typical model railroader's interests. It seems that most American model railroaders prefer to re-create days gone by, with particular concentration on the 1940s & 50s, and the earlier Steam era. I suppose this is fair enough if you're really interested in trains.

I like trains as much as the next guy (okay, probably a lot more), but I intend to concentrate on what could be, not what was. This seems to be particularly interesting in the context of model railroading because lots of the heavy industries that many model railroading enthusiasts delight in creating have contributed so much in causing the economic and ecological mess that we're in now.

That said, I do hope that this project will intrigue some enthusiastic model railroaders. I've already solicited advice from the HORailroading Yahoo Group and these folks have been very friendly and helpful so far.

Despite my more recent experience with Marklin's Miniclub (Z scale) line, I'm going to go with HO scale for this endeavor. Partly because there's more available in this larger scale, and partly because the anything smaller (I did consider N) will limit my ability to hand-craft tiny cyclists & such.

As I'm thinking about it now, the railroading component of this project will probably only consist of a loop around the periphery, with a turnout for the passenger station in town, and maybe a switching yard in the second phase. Ironically, I guess, for a model railroad, I will include a couple defunct train lines that have been converted into bike paths.

But I'd really like to include a modern tram system to link the center of town with park & ride facilities and offices outside of the center - but there doesn't seem to be anything available in any scale! Don't quite know what to do about this one.