Here is an overhead view of the whole Nimrod town extension. In my alternate reality, the freeway (I90) bypassed the town closer to the Clark Fork river, and Highway 10/12 still ran through main street. The gas station represents a station an uncle once owned in Hamilton. He was a car restorer/collector so I put a vintage automobile beside it. I once got to ride in one of his Ford Model T's in the Stevensville parade. My aunt drove one of the Nash Metropolitans in his collection.
The building in between the taxi and the Northern Pacific bus is the Stockman’s Bar. The real Stockman’s is in Missoula. Except for the First National Bank on the left corner, I haven’t come up with good names for the other buildings.
Some years ago, Woodland Scenics produced a station wagon with a luggage rack on the roof that somewhat resembled the 1966 Rambler station wagon with a home-made roof rack my family had so I bought one. There we are heading westward from a trip to visit relatives in the Dakotas. I think we visited the Custer battlefield that year. I also used a couple Woodland Scenics lighted automobiles in the mix.
When I was in grade school/high school, two of my classmates were fraternal twins of the man who had the largest outdoor advertising company in the area, thus the Woodland Scenics “sign painters” represent that company. I don’t feel comfortable naming the family here.
The fully functional traffic signals are from Walthers, and they are controlled by a circuit board under the layout.There is a lighted clock (made by Atlas) in front of the jewelry store, too.
I put one of Ngineering’s sound modules inside the tall building on the corner.
Underneath the benchwork, I have toggle switches to turn on/off the various lights and a pushbutton to start the sound module.
I haven’t strung the wires along the power poles yet because I have a lot of people to put on the sidewalks before then.
The little town of Nimrod did not merit a train station as large as the one I used, but this is my fantasy. It came about because Walthers, Rapido (Canada), and Intermountain Railway put out Northern Pacific passenger cars and an F7 A/B set that I just had to buy. So, if I have a passenger train (it has to be the Mainstreeter, not the North Coast Limited) it has to stop somewhere, and so I added a big station.
One of my design intentions is that each module/table-top I add has to have some type of continuation to another module that continues the theme. What I mean is that if I ever abandon my fledgling N-scale dream layout out in the garage, I know where I will go with my HO layout. A sawmill and a paper mill are just around the corner.
I know my modeling skills are crude, but I hope you enjoy my memories as I go along.
