Plate 288:  Concept-3 is fully up-to-date with an upper level, an outer-loop gradient, and an embankment level
(This plate added DEC 2003)

The accompanying picture shows the two components of Concept-3 joined together. The vertical spacers of the upper-level component (with the outer-loop gradient attached) is standing freely upon the embankment-level component. The two components are not glued together, because the designer sometimes wishes to remove the upper level, so that he can study the embankment level from many different viewpoints without needing to "look through" the upper level. The reason for this is that the designer visualizes the embankment level as the "domain" of cities, canals, and industries, while he visualizes the upper level as the "domain" of hillside pastures, mountain streams, and village life. --more--

Although these domains are not alike, they co-exist within the layout (as indeed they do in the real world). Sometimes, depending upon the observer's frame of mind, each of these domains exists entirely apart from the other, while at other times they exist together as a totality, as if seen from a great distance. The designer has heretofore drawn most of his concepts from the following three excellent books (the titles, when clicked, will link to our bibliography): Canals and Their Architecture Railways and the Victorian Imagination The Victorian Railway Go to top of page