The Town That Won't Stay Put

	Initial design 5 July 2007
	Interim design 9 March 2008
	Interim design 7 July 2008
	Interim design 4 August 2008
	Interim design 24 August 2008

It all started with the completion of the Naughtright Passenger Station. I was making the support for its foundation on the access panel when I noticed that the panel had warped rather badly. I should have just made a new one—it was only a few pieces of Foamcore laminated together.

Instead, I thought I might save myself some trouble by just trimming the supporting parts to match the curvature of the panel. But... I didn't get the shape right, so I did some more trimming... and some more trimming... and some more... and pretty soon I found I'd shaved off over a quarter of an inch. The result? All of the tunnel clearances were screwed. So I started hacking at the underside, and pretty soon I'd hacked away so much that I had to start adding back new replacement pieces.

In the end, I could have made two or three whole new access panels in the time I spent fixing the existing one, but I was so far into it that I wasn't going to give up. And when I was finally done, subtle changes had taken place that created problems for a couple of buildings, which initiated yet another complete redesign.

Ultimately it was a happy accident, because I like the new arrangement much better. In particular, Dot's Trackside Diner gets to be front and center, where people can get a good look inside, Spano's Service Station is oriented for better viewing, and the O'Malley's Triangle Bar is pulled in with the rest of the downtown buildings, rather than dangling on the perimeter, which is good as it was planned as a centerpiece model. The town as a whole is longer, stretched out closer to the river and angled in the opposite direction as before, all of which served to provide room for more buildings—the design below has a generic label of "Shops" that includes Jim's Trains/ Don & Stan's Barber Shop.

But the tinkering didn't stop when everything fit nicely... because, as it happens, everything didn't fit nicely. When I started making building foundations, I discovered that the warpage was making that process a near impossibility, requiring all manner of fussy shims to get structures to stand straight. So, the panel was ditched, and I did what I should have done all along: make a new one from warp-resistant Gatorboard.

As the new access panel progressed, plans for moving traffic got under way, and that meant planning roads with much greater precision; with the subsequent careful measurements, I found that the pharmacy and firehouse were no longer going to fit together in their block. So the firehouse took the pharmacy's spot, and presently I have tentative a plan to add an extension to the side of the firehouse. I also found that the laundromat wasn't going to fit behind the cafe, so it got moved tentatively behind the firehouse extension.

Although I could have let the pharmacy go, I decided that the back of the city block around the bank seemed kind of "wimpy" and lacked the congestion that city blocks in the middle of town often have. So, I moved the pharmacy over next to the bank to keep it company. As it is, the most interesting part of the pharmacy building is its side, so I wasn't too disappointed by turning its face away from viewers. Making this move, however, chipped away even more of the visible portion of Crooked Creek—pretty soon it was going to be entirely underground! (Which would not be outside the realm of possibility in real life.)

Current design, 11 September 2008

As construction continues, more changes are almost certain to come. All I know is this: I am not re-designing the F.W. Woolworth building again!

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