Next stop, Arkham.
December 12, 2015 8:07 AM   Subscribe

John Ott is a model railroad enthusiast and an H.P. Lovecraft fan. Perhaps inevitably, he has produced part of Arkham, Mass. in HO scale.

Working off a well-known map of 1928 Arkham created by Gus DiZerega (Lovecraft's own maps were rudimentary), Ott has meticulously recreated some pre-WWI landmarks of the city (the city is shown as it appeared in 1907), including the train depot (observe its similarity to the Salem depot), the notable Church of Starry Wisdom, and of course, the famous Old Squid Market, held every Thursday behind Obed Marsh's warehouse.

The Miskatonic Railroad, of which Mr. Ott is the proprietor, also calls at Dunwich.
posted by ricochet biscuit (27 comments total) 38 users marked this as a favorite
 
The horror was too much; it's dead.
posted by postel's law at 8:09 AM on December 12, 2015 [7 favorites]


Hunh. Still works for me.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:11 AM on December 12, 2015


I think the site's over capacity. Of course this means I have to watch In the Mouth of Madness again, so it's all good.
posted by Mooski at 8:29 AM on December 12, 2015 [5 favorites]


Anticyclopean!
posted by Artw at 8:34 AM on December 12, 2015 [5 favorites]


Actually that might mean it was built by beings with many eyes.
posted by Artw at 8:34 AM on December 12, 2015


This is fantastic and I really want to see a little train go around it in motion.
posted by selfnoise at 8:35 AM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Tiny GoPro show might be nice too....
posted by Redhush at 8:43 AM on December 12, 2015


Hmm, no Cthulhu train ?
posted by Pendragon at 8:48 AM on December 12, 2015


Delightful, but, you know, Pickman had his studio in Boston, not Arkham, nor would a painter (even of his dubious reputation) stoop to operating a gallery.

Also lacking in aqueducts or other ostentatious water supply systems from the famous reservoir.

One doesn't like to be a pedant, but, you know, Lovecraft would have appreciated it so.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:57 AM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


postel, dead but dreaming...
posted by The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas at 9:11 AM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


The SAN loss in building that...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:37 AM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


503 Sanity Temporarily Unavailable
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:06 AM on December 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


Not to be confused with this Jonathan Ott
posted by lalochezia at 10:42 AM on December 12, 2015


The Banality of Horror?
posted by ethansr at 10:52 AM on December 12, 2015


Hmm, no Cthulhu train ?

If there was ever a picture to go with the phrase, "It blowed up!"...
posted by lagomorphius at 11:02 AM on December 12, 2015


In his roundhouse on Sodor dread C'thomas waits dreaming of being Really Useful
posted by Spatch at 11:56 AM on December 12, 2015 [10 favorites]


I really want to run a Laundry Files or Call of Cthulhu RPG about this guy and his model Arkham now. You just know there's some Significant Reason to build this layout, and you'd certainly end up with minaturised investigators wandering around it Beetlejuice style...
posted by xiw at 12:39 PM on December 12, 2015 [4 favorites]


Just when I think the internet has run out of surprises. What an amazing find. Thanks for posting it.
posted by Beholder at 2:13 PM on December 12, 2015


This is beautiful modeling with a very creative inspiration. These ideas are implemented really well, and the 1900's and earlier are particularly hard to model due to the small size of the equipment, and limited kits available.
posted by nickggully at 2:35 PM on December 12, 2015


Oh look, all the little people are white.
posted by tommasz at 3:37 PM on December 12, 2015


But to be fair, not all of them are human.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:45 PM on December 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


"Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later."

posted by pjmoy at 4:06 PM on December 12, 2015


Have you folks considered that some people perhaps are not able to perceive the website others of us can see so plainly?

That said, this is a fine accomplishment. Delightful details abound.
posted by maxwelton at 4:55 PM on December 12, 2015


Very well done.
Thank you for sharing, ricochet biscuit.
posted by doctornemo at 10:34 AM on December 13, 2015


Very nice shout-out to _A Voyage to Arcturus_.
posted by doctornemo at 10:42 AM on December 13, 2015


Who would have guessed that Arkham was so darling?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:24 PM on December 13, 2015


Also lacking in aqueducts or other ostentatious water supply systems from the famous reservoir.

Considering what's under it, that's for the best.


I really want to run a Laundry Files or Call of Cthulhu RPG about this guy and his model Arkham now. You just know there's some Significant Reason to build this layout, and you'd certainly end up with minaturised investigators wandering around it Beetlejuice style...

I kind of want to build a McGuffiny Unknown Armies adventure around the hunt for a box containing the first printings of every HP Lovecraft story.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:01 PM on December 14, 2015 [3 favorites]


« Older how to look at the art of the British empire   |   MOVIE SIGN! Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments