Lets Have fun with this one!

[Anonymous]

Its time to see what type of Railroader you are! Be honest![4:-)]

[Anonymous]

Capt Carrales, Historical approch if I'm every financially able to start. wayesburg and washingtion railroad in south western PA.

[bman36]

Hey all,
In building and running my railroad I have tried to capture days gone by. To date I have never tried the "Schedule" approach to operating. This year I will to see what it is like. Watching trains go round and round gets boring for me. Have tried the switching and different scenarios. Time to see if I can do this "under a little pressure". As for my imagination, it's always going. Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by carpenter matt

Capt Carrales, Historical approch if I'm every financially able to start. wayesburg and washingtion railroad in south western PA.

I understand totally about the financial matters involved, I would love to model the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad (later a T&NO and Southern Pacific Line) that existed in my home town in South Texas when I was a boy.

I am a Teacher and Historian by trade and could, with time, actually scratch build the town of Premont, Texas in about 1908. I made a quick one in N scale out of Balsa that never came to fruition, but I had about 20% of the town (all the track side structures) finished.

Only the state of my Personal Economy and lack of apporiate Locomotion prevents this.

But Good Luck to you and hope you can make this happen. [4:-)]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bman36

Hey all,
In building and running my railroad I have tried to capture days gone by. To date I have never tried the "Schedule" approach to operating. This year I will to see what it is like. Watching trains go round and round gets boring for me. Have tried the switching and different scenarios. Time to see if I can do this "under a little pressure". As for my imagination, it's always going. Later eh...Brian.

Are you at the point in your layout where you can do this? I am stockpiling track and rolling stock before I actually lay my permanent lines. I would think that if one were going to to the Schedule method one would have to have the desired rolling stock and structures.

I plan to, for fun, run produce on my set from my garden to a spur that goes to my front porch. Hey, its all for fun. [4:-)]

[Anonymous]

i'm just happy to watch my trains go round and around...

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MICH CAL

i'm just happy to watch my trains go round and around...

There is nothing wrong with that. Never feel you have to defend yourself.

[smcgill]

Seeing a moving Item in a garden catches your eye! The sound of the metal weels on the track is soothing, just seeing the trains running is a joy!

[whiterab]

Let's see,
Normal schedule. Clean track, hook up power, run the train for a couple of minutes, then spend the next 8 hours building something new.

Sorry, I'm a retired engineer -[*^_^*] can't seem to stop building stuff.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by whiterab

Let's see,
Normal schedule. Clean track, hook up power, run the train for a couple of minutes, then spend the next 8 hours building something new.

Sorry, I'm a retired engineer -[*^_^*] can't seem to stop building stuff.

I was going to be an engineer, but I entered the vocation of teaching. Now I teach American History to 8th graders.

[bman36]

Capt C,
I don't really think I need to have everything in place to be able to attempt a schedule. I would be sending anything anywhere but doing it under a time constraint. I know this sounds odd but as I said I just want to try it out. Always adding to my line each year. Are they ever really finished??? Just like 1:1 scale, always growing and/or changing. Part of the fun! Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bman36

Capt C,
I don't really think I need to have everything in place to be able to attempt a schedule. I would be sending anything anywhere but doing it under a time constraint. I know this sounds odd but as I said I just want to try it out. Always adding to my line each year. Are they ever really finished??? Just like 1:1 scale, always growing and/or changing. Part of the fun! Later eh...Brian.

I like the idea of continuous changing lines and new additions, but first I need to build a fence to put around my backyard before the local vandals become regular passengers on my line.

[Anonymous]

I had a railroad all most in our back yard when growing up, now i have my own train in my back yard ,every thing suits me ,it don't have to be true to scale. I JUST LIKE TRAINS. I built my building and bridges and a pond which the train crosses at the one corner of it. [:D][:D] ben

[vsmith]

When I was planning the garden RR I was going to use loops and passing sidings with various birdhouses and other outdoor garden items for structures, ver whimsicle. Now I'm indoors and turning into a scale nutjob the more I develop and bult my layout!

[grandpopswalt]

My last couple of RR's have been temporary by design. This has given me time to learn more about this great hobby of ours. My next RR will be permenent. After a lot of study and experimentation I'm pretty sure that to be satisfying in the long run, a RR should have a PURPOSE. Therefore, I'm planning a point-to-point with reversing loops at either end (for continuous running when I just want to sit, relax and look at trains running through my garden). A town will be located at each end of the line and there will be a central industry in the town (this gives the town and tracks a reason for being there). The cars that are switched into and out of this industry will feed and be fed from a related industry in the other town at the other end of the line. The track between the ends can be as convoluted as you like, but eventually the train arrives at a DESTINATION. If you are operating alone, you can run a train from town A to town B and then switch the local industry for a while and then make up a return train. If there are a couple operators, one can run the mainline while the other switches the industries, and so on. As for running on a schedule, I believe that kind of operation is better suited to a club layout with many operators. I think that operating on a schedule by yourself might be a little difficult. Although, making up, swiching, and running trains with a definite purpose in mind is a kind of schedule.

But no matter how you choose to run your empire, it's all about having fun!

Walt

[Anonymous]

I am really not interested in anything work related as i am retired and living in paradise, so I am into similar paradise things. Building to scale and fairthfully reproducing anything sounds like work to me and timetables are evn worse.I recal a few lines from an old poem.

"The wander lust is on me and my heart is in Cathay."

I have travelled a lot in the orient and am very interested in it, so why worry about the past, you can't change it and the present is much better than the past. New things to do with trains are happening all the time in this part of the world and in the orient and I want to do with what is happening now!

I actually run one of the later Orient expresses namely French, Golden Mountain carriages pulled by a Germen Mallet locomotive all of about the late thirties era and many trains operating in the orient today are of that old a design so I'm not living in the past, just in someone elses present.

I just cannot see the use of running any sort of goods train or the like, as the best runnings times are in the evening and passenger train all lit up with peolpe inside going about their lives is just great. Particularly when my Orient exoress pulls into a Thai Budhist temple complex or a Japanese Shinto temple area and then we can truly say that the Orient Express has reached the Orient.

Just because they are closing down railroads in the USA doesn't mean they are not building them elsewhere. Here in Australia we have just opened a new railway line 3000 km long with longest north south straight stretch of line in the world. The basic train is about 3 Km long and takes three days to complete the journey. I think this is pretty fast I don't know how it compares to USA railroads maybe someone can enlighen me!

Regards

Ian; kawana Island Tropical Railway.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by grandpopswalt

My last couple of RR's have been temporary by design. This has given me time to learn more about this great hobby of ours. My next RR will be permenent. After a lot of study and experimentation I'm pretty sure that to be satisfying in the long run, a RR should have a PUPOSE.

But no matter how you choose to run your empire, it's all about having fun!

Walt

Hummmm, I like the idea of your "practice" layouts. I may do a little of this to “learn the ropes.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by iandor


Just because they are closing down railroads in the USA doesn't mean they are not building them elsewhere. Here in Australia we have just opened a new railway line 3000 km long with longest north south straight stretch of line in the world. The basic train is about 3 Km long and takes three days to complete the journey. I think this is pretty fast I don't know how it compares to USA railroads maybe someone can enlighen me!

Regards

Ian; kawana Island Tropical Railway.

I would like the opportunity to bow down to your wisdom and travel experience. I have great respect for philosophers, railroaders and men of experience of travel; you Sir, seem to represent an embodiment of the three.

Sadly, the US rail network has been and is being gutted. The preponderance of the highway system and America's very “me generation” beguilement with the automobile has resulted in a situation where passenger service between major cities is subsidized by the government and all other passenger service is nonexistent.

Freight lines, the majority of what is left, is in bad disrepair. I recently saw a train of covered hoppers that looked little better than junk. Derailments in rural areas are plentiful, hence reduced speeds.

It is sad indeed. Be grateful that railroads are expanding in Australia, we (the USA) will pay for our short sightedness as the price of gasoline goes up.

[Anonymous]

Newbies, add your answer to this poll!

[underworld]

The exact answer isn't really there for me. I do like just running trains....but they are also real......and I do like to throw in something bizzarre! [}:)]

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[Rastun]

Capt,

I don't know what to tell you, I want to keep like pieces together so I don't want a NG engine pulling streamliners but I am also thinking of building up different trains like old NG frieght and NG passenger, but in that same thought I may put together a late steam passenger train. OK OK maybe that's a little more than a might. But anyway alot of what I put out will be cased as non descript areas, between population where the trains run with the land. So as long as 2 things that shouldn't be seen together never are it's all good.
[:D]
Later,
Jack

[Kiwi Down Under]

I voted for What models, there real", as there really is not an appropriate box to tick. Although my trains are as accurate as I can get them to 1900's New Zealand Railways, but I like making models that have something moving on them. Such as the leaping toad restaurant which has a ceramic frog on top, that goes up and down powered by a 6 volt tape cassette motor onto a fishing reel that has the shaft going up and down. Also the waiter is serving frogs legs to people seated at the table, and frogs (without legs) mounted on skateboards watch. ( refer gscalechuffchuff.com ) model page to see.

Also the pond is normally full of tadpoles that are turning into frogs.

Have just about completed an old peoples home that looks like horse stables, with a dog chasing some oldies around an old tennis court.
So, the train is not the only attraction. I have signs everywhere. 3 of these perform no other function than to retain some flowers from hanging accross the rails. The signs have sayings like, please, take no notice of this notice.
Unbelievable as it sounds people have gone away and come back with cameras just to take pictures of the meaningless signs.

So, its hard to say which is the most entertaining, the train, the models or things such as the signs etc.

At the end of the day, its all make believe and is only for entertainment.
Tony

[Anonymous]

I think it is nice to see the past right along side the present, ie a modern elevated railway right next to old castle.

This is not just whimsical it is fact in Europe, as i have seen a modern microwave tower right next to the original running track at Olympia, which is what about 2500 years old etc.

i have now bought a few peices of rolling stock for a goods (freight) train, very ineresting and colourful but it can't compare to a passenger train night running.

Rgds ian

[Tom The Brat]

QUOTE: *** it! I just like to play with trains! (The Kid in us All)

I was looking forward to midlife chrisis. Planning for it. Anticipating it. Wondering if I should get a camarro or corvette....

Now they tell me that somehow I never got past age 6[sigh] and have another 40 years to wait[|(]

So I play with trains instead[:P]

[TurboOne]

Being a kid wins again.

I don't care about scale, quality, I just like trains. I do appreciate a nice layout. I appreciate the hard work that goes into a layout.

But with a 6 and 9 year old I just like seing the trains run.

Tim

[Anonymous]

My father always talked about what it was like during the Great Depression so I try to capture the feeling of that era on my garden railway.

Regards,
Bill C.
South Jersey