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Chicago Museum of
Science and Industry
I couldn't make it to visit George this
year, so my brother and I opted for a visit to Chicago instead.
While there we had to venture over to the Science and Industry museum to
see the newly constructed model train layout. I had heard that it
was big - and that it had many large structures, but I still
wasn't prepared for the mammoth scale of the downtown Chicago part of
the layout. While the layout is a far cry from a
"craftsman" layout and lacks the detail and interest of many smaller
more detailed layouts, the buildings were great in themselves.
Most of the large buildings are built
to fool the on looking eye. They are more like a theatrical set
than a model railroad; but I found a lot of the tricks they used in
construction can be applied to parts of our own layouts. For
example, many of the stone buildings do not have stones carved into
them. They are simply inked on or penciled in. A lot
of the detail on the buildings is also just painted on using 3D
techniques. Look closely. From the aisle you can't tell.
If you zoom in with a camera, you can. I think I will apply some
of these Hollywood style tricks to some background buildings when I get
to that point on my own layout.
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This view gives a sense of how big
the Chicago diorama is. It's huge. |
Here is a birds eye view I took
while riding on a Pterodactyl. |
The layout goes from Chicago to
the suburbs to the Midwest - thru the mountains and into
Seattle. |
Many modern reflective buildings
had to be modeled. |
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Some buildings have multi colored
windows and are made to light up when the room lights are
dimmed. |
This was a particularly detailed
building. The stone coloring is simply painted on. |
More nice stonework. Because
of the dim lighting I had to use a flash and the thus, the
colors are not exact. |
Most of the buildings on the
layout are done after prototypes - like this one. |
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Yet another beauty. |
I have a feeling they used their
fair share of plexi-glass... |
This is a great building with all
it's towers and details. |
In this closer look at the
building in the last picture, you can see that most of the depth
and details were added by painting. |
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Yes, they have the Sears tower.
I don't know if it's 100% to scale though... |
Another tower pic - the multi
colored windows add a lot. |
More modern buildings. |
They have added a lot of vehicles
to the layout, but they need a LOT more to represent Chicago!
PS- I hate to drive in Chicago. |
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They did a nice job of fitting in
the river and the drawbridges - which lift and lower
periodically. |
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