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DOES ANYONE BESIDES ME THINK THEY REALLY SPENT $3.5 MILLION ON THIS LAYOUT? THE TRACK DIAGRAM ISN'T WORTH THAT MUCH. IS IT?
Posts: 2 | From: lafayette,IN | Registered: Jul 2003
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I am the layout design, and custom painting busness (Hopeing to add manufacturing to that in about a year) and on ocasion get asked to go ahead and build some of what I design.
Taken into acount that all of the Buildings of the cities of Chicago and Seatle are scratchbuilt (to 60% HO scale), The layout is over 3500 square feet, and that they paid people to build it at rates far handsomer than me, I can believe the 3.5 million was a bargian. However if your thinking about doing the work based off a personal level and want to do one for your self, I extimate the cost of materials to be about 35% of the total 3.5 million dollars.
Posts: 315 | From: Lander,WY USA | Registered: Jan 2002
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I have not seen this layout in person, I have only seen it in Model Railroader. I must say that I was not impressed when looking at the pictures and especially the the track diagram.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
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Although my opinion is based solely on a magazine article, it seems very clear: The emphasis is definitely on the scratchbuilt metro structures; which by the way are very impressive in their own right. The track layout is very simplistic. The layout is impressive due to its magnitude, but greater complexity in the rail system would have added so much more depth to the display. .....in my humble opinion. Posts: 4 | From: Mt. Holly Springs | Registered: May 2003
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I am only 18 years old, and i can remember the older layout ( NOT THE FIRST) at the museum. In my opinion, at least from an observational point of view, that layout was soooo much better. Not only was the track plan so much more complex and intrecit, but there were so many animations built in the the layout; like working car washers at a coach yard. Maybe I an\m just saying this because I had more years with the older layout, but I miss it. Trains on the older layout were a good 60 to 70 cars, with a few 10-25 car trains mixed in. That gave a more accurate protrail of midwest railroads. There were mostly grain silos and very smalls towns that dotted the layout and nothing but fields and trains. In my mind, that was a truley wonderful layout...
Posts: 9 | From: Rolling Meadows Il. | Registered: Jul 2003
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