Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Thanks, Richard.

When I first started seriously reining in my expectations (yeah, Horseshoe
Curve was long off that list), I went from wanting to model the entire
Monongahela Division from Pittsburgh to Brownsville (~50
miles)...."selectively compressed"....then understanding what that entailed
(approximately 50 freight trains and >10 passenger trains), to wanting to
model just the Mon from Port Perry south to West Elizabeth (now down to ~30
freight trains and 2 passenger trains), still with massive selective
compression, through several more iterations...to last-go-round < 3 miles of
the Mon at Clairton, PA, with USS Clairton, and a half dozen industries
around it, plus an interchange with Union RR and the P&WV, and guess what...I
STILL need over 500 cars, dozens of engines, and the ability to makes up
around twenty through drag freights, transfers, locals and local switching,
just to make those 3 miles work...AND look right doing it. Trains that move
through the scene and never stop...those that drop off blocks and pick up and
leave...locals that do local switching and leave, and a local switcher. NO
spaghetti bowls, once-thru scenery laid out like the real thing, none of that
cramped scenery that I liked when I was a little guy, and the ability to make
and break consists in invisible staging. Even that fills most of an entire
2-car garage.

I don't know how others have the resources to do larger "operations", but I
have to give them credit. It is beyond me, and I still have hundreds of
freight cars to build....right.

Elden Gatwood