Slowly but surely (well, slowly at any rate) we continue our journey through the neighborhoods of Rose City, a.k.a. my model railroad layout. Keep in mind that all of it is a work in progress: I won’t keep waiting until a neighborhood is complete (if it can ever be said to be complete). A month ago I showed Center City, Rose City’s northernmost and oldest neighborhood, both in the model and in the prototype; today we look at PowerTown, the southernmost and second-oldest neighborhood. Actually “neighborhood” may be a misnomer, as there are no neighbors: the entire area is zoned industrial and commercial. Nothing residential at all. Much of it is currently run-down, but improvements are slowly on the way. There’s not enough political pressure from the locals, since the businesses and industries are all owned by out-of-towners.

In our first shot below we see a mixture of old and new. Remember that the year is 1969, so that wind turbine that sits between the Center for the Future and the American Power & Light plant is merely a model of what’s to come. (Actually, wind turbines have been generating electricity for a century, but not with this futuristic appearance.)

Next we see an Esso station (1969, remember). Fortunately we can’t see the gasoline prices. Why did the franchisee choose to paint the lot blue? Who knows? Note that three pedestrians have been afflicted by an unusual case of RFK Falling Syndrome, apparently a result of following the medical advice of Dr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Here, next to American Power & Light, we see a couple of Shell gasometers, a water tower, and a Dakota Cabinet Works plant. Why Dakota? Who knows?

Major repaving is needed next to the city train station, where we see more people afflicted by Falling Sickness:

Finally, this abandoned commercial building (which currently contains nothing but the offices of the Center for the Future) is about to be restored with a massive investment from an anonymous benefactor:

Categories: Model Railroading