Back in the saddle

Firstly, thanks to everyone for their kind words of encouragement after last month's post. It was very pleasing to receive such support and sage advice. As a result, I have made a number of changes to the layout (and continue to do so), removing the second deck and much of the overall complexity to make things much more achievable, albeit at the loss of a significant length of run. I took the advice of a number of people, as well as from this publication by noted model railway builder, Lance Mindheim.

I was initially going to give a book review (something one would expect from the armchair), but I'll just comment on a couple of points that were relevant to my situation. The first thing I had to change was what I had initially thought of as my vision for the layout.

Essentially, my vision was based on my experiences in the US visiting and operating on very large layouts (some exceedingly large by Australian standards) with lots of operators. These layouts had long runs, often double-decked, and in massive basements. They had lots of towns and industries and many were wonderfully scenicked and landscaped. Even some of the "smaller" model railroads had lots of operating potential, with regular operating sessions (well, before Covid-19 struck), and a regular crew of good mates to run trains with. Lastly, and I conveniently forgot about this, all of these layouts had many helpers in the construction and operation of their basement empires. 

For example, Stephen Priest's massive layout, the Santa Fe St. Louis Division (see Railroad Model Craftsman, April 2019), had regular mid-week sessions where ten to twenty modellers would turn up to work on the layout. Can you imagine that? Ten to twenty people each week coming over to help you build and scenic your layout! Of course, Stephen is a NMRA Master Model Railroader and so are some of his friends, but still, building a HUGE layout (50' x 78') required a LOT of work. All those helpers certainly increased the achievability of the layout within a shorter time frame than otherwise the case.

Clearly, all of the above circumstances did not translate to me. It was what I wanted and it was my vision for the future, but it was not realistic or achievable within the context of my situation.

As Clint Eastwood famously said, "A man's gotta know his limitations". And this also crosses over to time, ability, and capacity to construct a model railway given that all three have inherent limitations. In Lance Mindheim's book, he warns of being bogged down as the modeller becomes "engulfed and overwhelmed because they underestimated the magnitude of their dreams". Quite....

The other problem compounding the enormity of the task was the garage itself, not an ideal environment especially in winter. While I do have insulation in the roof with a ceiling, some draft prevention around the garage doors, and an Aldi reverse-cycle air conditioner that I think I have fixed for some reliability (RTFM....ahem), it takes a while to crank up the heat to work in the garage comfortably. Consequently, stepping into the garage for the odd 15-20 minutes of work rarely happened. In addition, all the garage tools and paraphenalia added to the visual clutter (along with the modelling clutter on my second deck) to give the room that air of utter despondency!

Lastly, sometimes we can be too clever by half. I had a good idea of the trains and sequencing I wanted to run and this involved a lot of trains and some yard complexities which I figured I could sort out without too much trouble. There were four hidden staging areas and while I have the cameras and a screen to deal with this, I was never fully confident it would actually work in practice without causing undue stress. That was one thing I should have remembered from operating on layouts in the US - it can be very stressful at times and this was, and is, a truly unpleasant feeling. Sure, the hidden staging could have been overcome with cameras and informative control panels, but was all this complexity and possible angst actually necessary? Was I trying to find solutions to problems I actually didn't need? The answer was a resounding yes. I have removed two of the four hidden staging yards with one more to go! The fourth staging area will remain, but no longer totally hidden. In addition, I simplified the main classification yard, going back to Google Earth to check on a similar classification yard on my prototype to make sure my simplified version was believable...and yes it was!

I could go on but I'll finish up now. Suffice to say, I have been spending more time on the layout on weekends and in the evenings than ever before. It is still cold at times but I am more prepared to set up the heating beforehand knowing that I will go into the garage and actually accomplish something instead of being stuck by the enormity of the task. Reducing the complexity of the layout, and making the layout more manageable and achievable within the accepted limitations, means more time and energy (both physical and electrical) to progress the layout for a more enjoyable outcome.

This blog isn't really about building my layout, but I think my experience might be of value to others who are considering building a large layout and who may also need some encouragement. So, thanks everybody.

Model Railroad Planning 2014

Just got my copy of Model Railroad Planning 2014 direct from Kalmbach Publishing. As usual, it is full of interesting articles and some excellent model railroad photography.

The first article is "operating a busy passenger terminal" which is based on the New Orleans Passenger Terminal (NOUPT). The modelled station is huge and exceptionally well done, including fully lit interiors. The layout is HO scale.

The next article is the "Southern Pacific's Siskiyou Line" in N scale. The layout size is 25 x 27 feet which is pretty big for an N scale layout. One of the things I like about the articles in MRP is the emphasis on the decision-making process in designing a layout. This article didn't disappoint in that department.

"Alice Street in 4x8 feet" is a prototypical track plan based on the Santa Fe rail-marine operation out of Oakland, California. There are some fascinating historical photos (B&W) here.

The next article is called "A moving experience" about a layout built for a newly purchased retirement home. The original layout based on Moscow, Idaho (I think the Americans pronounce it moss-cow) was featured in Model Railroad Planning in 2008.

My favourite article is "Switching for breakfast". This article describes the prototypical train operations for switching (shunting) the large Post Cereals food complex at Battle Creek, Michigan. A description of a typical shift switching the industry was very informative. For me, the best part of the article was a table showing the different spots (positions) within the Post Cereals complex that had to be switched with what particular product (receiving and shipments).  This table alone gave me plenty of food for thought in just what variety can be achieved with a single, large industry on a model railroad. A HO and N scale track plan accompanies the article providing suggestions for how the prototype can be modelled.

A short article on five layouts in four different scales that occupy 14 x 34 inches was next.

Lance Mindheim follows with an article, "Simple plan, plenty of action" based on a southeastern USA switching layout. Lance makes a nice distinction between planning and design - planning deals with more strategic issues that will inform the decisions about overall layout design (track arrangements, for example.). The suggested model railroad layout plan is for a room size of 12 x 13 feet. Lance includes both a plan of the layout and a plan showing switching options.

"Big train, small layout" has an interesting circular design based on a figure eight. It is a portable layout used for model railroad exhibitions and is a little bit different to the norm.

Byron Henderson's article, "North Western's Chicago commute" offers some thoughts about a model railroad track plan 8 x 20 foot in size. The layout is based on the Chicago & North Western's commuter services between the North Western station and the western suburbs of Chicago. Again, the thinking behind the layout design is what is key to this article.

"Slogging up to Locust Summit" is a model railroad based on the Reading Co.'s train operations over Locust Summit near Gordon, Pennsylvania. The track plan fits into a space of 31 x 40 feet and includes plenty of big hauling steam locomotives on this predominantly coal-hauling route. An interesting depiction of a typical day at Gordon gives a nice summary on operations. There are some nice model photographs in this article as well.

Tony Koester next goes out on a bit of a limb with an idea about modelling the same town on two decks and switching cars between them. This idea could be a way to save on available space.

My other favourite article from Model Railroad Planning 2014 is the article by James McNab: "Choosing the right place at the right time". The article describes the importance of time and place in consideration of design and the need for being selective about motive power and rolling stock. It is important to balance traffic levels for certain times of the year (for example, seasonal factors play a major role in agricultural production). James' layout is the Iowa Interstate Grimes Line. The article has both model and prototype photos. Videos of this layout are available on the Model Railroader website to registered viewers: see www.ModelRailroader.com

Model Railroad Planning 2014 ends with articles on staging yards, improving a published (Atlas) track plan, space-saving use of "wye-less wyes", dummy tracks, and modelling a passenger terminal in 15 x 18 feet.

While the focus of the annual is on US modelling and prototypes, there is enough information and thinking potential here for anyone interested in model railways to find something of use. As usual, this publication is of high quality and recommended.

Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year!

I am keeping my resolutions to myself this year as past failures have been rather embarrassing. But I am starting off the New Year with the desire to keep up-to-date with my model railway reading which lapsed last year (along with model railway construction and blog writing) due to other time pressures.

And speaking about time, the people at Kalmbach Publishing in the US must be in a time warp of some sort because yesterday (31st December 2012) I received my latest copy of Model Railroader - the February 2013 issue. Since it is now the 1st of January, the magazine is a month ahead of the cover date. No matter - it's a good read over the January holidays while I wait for the January/February issue of the Australian Model Railway Magazine due out later this month with a cover date and issue date more in keeping with reality.

The February 2013 Model Railroader does have some good reading.

In particular, I am following the progress of the quarry branch series. Part 2 is in the latest issue. I am also following progress on the quarry branch articles with the video blogs that I can see as a subscriber to Model Railroader. I like this feature as the video nicely supports the article content.  

Model Railroader, like other model railway magazines around the world (e.g. British Railway Modelling and Railroad Model Craftsman) is also available in digital format. I haven't committed to the digital formats as yet as I find the hard copy paper editions easier to read. However, storage of paper magazines is a problem. I am sticking with the paper magazine for Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman for now, but I do buy the occasional British model railway magazine as a digital copy. And I do love Model Railroad Hobbyist which is digital.

Kalmbach Publishing and Model Railroader will be moving further into digital content in a couple of months time with the launch of its MRVideoPlus website which will become an additional source of regular information with video, 3D track plans, and how-to articles. My only concern is whether the new MRVideoPlus will become the prime source of content at the expense of the magazine. We will have to wait and see.

For now, it's sitting back with the hard copy of the February 2013 issue of Model Railroader and enjoying the read.

Model Railroader Sept 2011

I received the latest (September 2011) issue of Model Railroader last week. I have just finished reading the magazine. There were plenty of great articles to read in this issue.

There is a great N scale layout by Dan Lewis on his Milwaukee Road/North Montana line. The original layout had been a shelf layout. Dan was able to increase the size of the layout into a much bigger room (18' x 24') - about the size of a double garage in Australia. The article gave me cause to reflect that building a layout can start small before taking opportunities later on to expand the size of the model railroad territory. It's not bad advice as I scribble away with track plans for a master layout that hasn't actually progressed very far!

However, there were a couple of surprises.

The first was that executive editor of Model Railroader, Andy Sperandeo, was retiring after a career with Kalmbach Publishing spanning 32 years. Fortunately, Andy will still be writing the monthly "The Operators" column where he discusses prototype railway operation.

The second surprise was a short article from Pelle Soeborg from Denmark who has cut up his superb Daneville and Donner River HO scale layout. The layout was featured in a Kalmbach book, Mountain to desert: building the HO scale Daneville & Donner River, published in 2006. Pelle has been a regular contributor to Model Railroader over recent years and will be writing in the future about his new layout. I look forward to that. The short article in this latest issue of Model Railroader gives several tips on how to cut away and keep structures from a layout that is being dismantled. The article is supported by an interview with Pelle and some photos of his new layout on the registered users section of the Model Railroader website.

Lastly, while not a surprise since the news had been announced a couple of months ago, Model Railroader is releasing a DVD set of the first 75 years of Model Railroader magazine (1934-79). Whilst I do prefer reading the printed copy, my bookshelves are overflowing with Model Railroader magazines back to 1993 and they are simply taking up too much room!

Technology in the hobby - publishing

I susbscribe to Model Railroader magazine (MR). I have about fifteen years' worth of back issues plus some from 1978-1979. Only recently have I begun to look at actually modelling a US prototype railroad - the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern (DME) which I blog about at DME Down Under.

Yet my decision to renew my MR subscription earlier this year was not based on just getting a monthly magazine in the post box. The tipping point for me was the additional content one has access to from the Model Railroader web site. MR is really using the internet to leverage more of it's magazine content and provide new ways of delivering that content for subscribers.

This additional web-based content gives product alerts and reviews, model railroad industry news as it happens (I see Faller has recently gone into bankruptcy), additional layout photos, a track plan database, and a series of videocasts by Cody Grivno, David Popp, and others on various model railroading topics.

But for me, the History according to Hediger series has been terrific. The format is an interview style between David Popp and Senior MR editor, Jim Hediger. Jim has been with the MR publishing team for over thirty years and his Ohio Southern layout is one of the greats. Jim shares some anecdotes about the history of his layout (now thirty years old) in his gravelly voice and with his wry sense of humour. The use of this web format interview style really brings Jim's knowledge and character to life, especially for those of us living on the other side of the world.

And this is where Model Railroader magazine is ahead of the rest - the supplementary content for subscribers available on the internet. The web allows for so much more than just the monthly publication of text. The web allows for video and podcasting, it enhances the scale of content (e.g. the thousands of track plans in the track plan database), and it allows for more immediate news and interaction (e.g. the news and MR reader forums).

The MR reader forums can also be used by the publishers to see what the the current issues of importance are to modellers (often emergent issues that can be picked up before they become mainstream) and whether the magazine and website can cater for these interests ahead of the model railroad magazine competition.

I do think, however, that MR could use a blog based on Tony Koester's Trains of thought column (as could AMRM with Ron Cunningham's Branchline Ramblings). I realise that Tony's column comes out monthly with MR magazine and Ron's column is now irregular in the bi-monthly AMRM. Good blogs usually have content loaded more than once a month (weekly is a good consistency to aim for) but I think there would be enough comments and interaction to provide sufficient content changes to overcome this lack of weekly updating by the authors.

We often think of how technology is improving the hobby through digital electronics and more life-like scale model locomotives and rollingstock. Technology is also helping to deliver model railway and prototype information in more interesting, more personable, and more timely and interactive ways.

A time and a place

Having read the June issue of Model Railroader a couple of times now, I want to comment on one of the thinking pieces in it. The piece is a monthly article written by Andy Sperandeo called "The Operators". In the June issue Andy talks about choosing locomotives for operation and how time and place have a major bearing on those decisions.

The gist of the article was that Andy had selected a specific time period and location for his model railroad - the second half of 1947 in the Cajon Pass area of southern California. That decision reflected his strong personal interest for particular prototype locomotives, especially the 3800 class 2-10-2's, on this section of the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe. Andy concludes by saying that he has "arrived at a roster (of locomotives) representative of that particular railroad at that particular time and place".

Looking at my own layout, Winmar, I have selected a particular geographic area ("just" north of Albury on the Main South line), although my station name and town are fictional. I have also fictionalised a branch line leaving Winmar and heading east towards the upper reaches of the Murray River - the branch line, of course, being that future extension to the layout once I have a permanent place to house it all.

I am therefore basing much of my operation on Winmar on the real prototype that ran between Sydney and Albury on the Main South line. This allows for 38 class steam locomotives but not 57 class steam locomotives, for example. 57 class locomotives didn't go past Junee on the Main South.

My period of time, however, is much more flexible. I like the early 1960s but I also like the late 1990's as well. And in between, I have a few locos (422 class diesels) and rolling stock (PRX cement wagons, for example) that fit this "middle" period (1970-1990). If I was dedicated and disciplined, I should get rid of these outliers from my collection and concentrate solely on one time period. Having read Andy's article, I understand how such a decision makes decisionmaking on locomotive rosters that much easier (and no doubt, less expensive).

In terms of my collection, however, I just can't make that decision. Sure, in my 1965 period running sessions I will try and keep to the prototype. The 422's and PRY/X cement wagons are banished. Yet, for fun, I will run some of these out-of-period trains for the variety and chance to imagine, albeit imperfectly, that I am back in the late 1970's or early 1980s - but don't get me started on the beginning of the four digit wagon codes!

The outcome is that I have far too many locomotives and too much rolling stock for the time frame and location I am modelling. When I am in my serious operating mode, I can be pretty disciplined as to what I run on the layout and how it all fits together with the prototype.

So maybe Andy is right after all - limiting the locomotive roster to the most favoured time of your favourtite locomotives is the way to go. At least, it's certainly a more inexpensive option and will free up some space in the storage cabinet!