I ran across this YouTube video that was taken from a great new railfan vantage point, the Rhode Island Avenue station platform on the Washington, DC Metro.
This viewpoint is just north of Union Station, and in addition to showing the full schedule of Amtrak and MARC trains headed to and from points north, it also shows switchers and deadhead equipment of Amtrak, MARC, and Virginia Rail Express running back and forth to the Ivy City coach yard. Beyond that, it has a diorama-like background. The building closest to the camera behind the track is, I think, the Morrow Hotel.
I keep being intrigued by prototype scenes like this, and I keep playing around with possible ways to incorporate them into a layout, especially given the flexibility of T-TRAK modules. So the first thing I did was print out a screen shot of a scene on the video that comes as close as possible to a 90-degree flat-on view of the building alone. Then I posed it behind an N Amtrak model on a T-TRAK module to see how things shaped up.
I assumed a height of 12 feet between floors, and the printout came pretty close in 1:160 without my needing to adjust the size any further.
I had a bare-table completed T-TRAK module base without track or scenery, so I took things a little farther. I mounted the screen shot I'd printed out onto a sheet of cardboard I liberated from an empty box of Triscuits. Then I built up a full low-relief builing flat using more Triscuit-box cardboard stiffened with used fireplace matches. I added a cheapo plastic N signal bridge to see what it brought to the scene. Kato plastic catenary supports would also work.
From the photos of this flat posed near commercial N photo style building flats, you can see that the appearance and size are generally in proportion. I took a test shot with a Kato ACS-64 like you'd see in Washingto
Well, maybe.
I'm still mulling over where to take this idea next.
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