Committing to a Theme

I haven't been working on layout infrastructure lately as I feel I'm getting really close to the point that I need to settle on some key pieces of the layout, specially theme.  Theme encompasses locale, era, industries, etc.

I had previously presented three "finalists" for themes:  southern backwoods, snowy rugged, and pacific island (Palau).  I've been thinking through these from some different perspectives.  The most obvious is "Which do I like?" but also important are, "Which is the most do-able considering available resources?" and "Which is the best choice considering my current skill level?"  I can dream up some dramatic and exciting themes and matching scenery but can those ideas actually be executed on?

At some point we all have limitations in terms of time, money, and skill.  Conceptually I feel that embracing these limitations and designing around them will produce a better outcome in the long run.  To that end I took a second look at themes.

The last factor for consideration in choosing a theme is plausible operation.  Some themes have nice scenery but weak operational potential.  Something pacific island-ish comes to mind here.  I really really really don't want to do sugar cane.  It's just not something I like.  Making sure a theme has solid industries that fit with it is key for me.

The strongest contender for the past few weeks has been a pacific northwest layout set somewhere between 1930-1949 with industries primarily of seafood, cranberries, and cut lumber.  The scenery would be a bold, rugged landscape; lots of pine trees.  I had imagined that the smaller of the two main towns would be very wharf-like, with a good portion of the town actually built out on the wharf with of course a good portion of track too (including turnouts and such).

It sounds like a great idea but considering the reality of it I'm worried that A.) building such a complicated wharf on my first go at a full size layout might be too ambitions, B.) I'm going to be really sick of building pine trees let alone paying for them all, and C.) there are a lot of supporting pieces I'm not yet comfortable scratchbuilding. Things like mid-sized fishing boats and such.

With that I've begun considering what fits into my ideal budget of time, skill, and money; is interesting to me; and has a strong concept of industries that will lend itself to 1-2 man operation.

Turns out I don't have to look too far as I had already started planning on such a theme last year:  Oklahoma  "western agriculture" theme.  Without diving into what the theme is (I'll do a separate blog post for that), there are lots of  things that make this a bit more realistic:  A.) it's much flatter; I have to worry less about vertical scenic faces and can focus on structures and track layout more, B.) because it's set in a more "plains" type of locale I won't have the burden of thousands of trees, C.) since I've moved to CO I've begin to like the slower-cowboy-ish feel that agriculture places provide.  Perhaps I'm feeling more Wyoming here but cowboys and trains do go together a bit, one must admit.

So with that, it seems like my layout is headed for Oklahoma.  The name?  Longhorn & Golden R.R.  More details to follow.