Indoors and outdoors.

[RR Redneck]

This has nothing to do with the other thread on indoor track plan. REALLY

But for years I have wanted to have an artical in MR. But I have not tried very hard for along time.

 

This past weekend we had to travel so when my wife and I stopped at a book store I bought and Model railroader and Great something ideas. what ever. Can't even remember.

After flipping through both magazines page by page twice before we arrive to my outlaws home.

Then looking page by page  during the weekend .

 I realized us outdoor folks really don't have anything in common with the indoor folks. Largescale or not. 

The construction, design, reasoning is really very different.

I get more out of CTC or TRAINS mag studing 1:1 RRing than I do indoor layouts.

 

Yes we (I) can say we love the hobby as a whole. But making something work and run outdoors is SO very different.

 

I'm just sharing thoughts of this weekend. We even stopped and visited another GRRer on the way home and the whole theme evolved around "outdoors" and building things to with stand the outdoors.

 

I can understand why many folks would wonder, " what is GRRing doing in MR??" 

Big reason why I like it. I also model in N scale and O guage (three rail), and I can tell you it is nice goin hands on with the plants and I like the difference in the way things are done.

[DMUinCT]

Am I typical? How many followed this course?

As a child I loved trains and was introduced to Lionel. As a teenager I moved to HO. As an adult I returned to Lionel (Collecting, not operating). As I approached retirement I built an operating layout, outdoors, in "G" gauge.

Are HO people more interested in Modeling? Are Lionel people more interested in Operating?

I am not a "Rivit Counter", I run what "I" think looks right, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I find 1/29th and 1/32nd can be freely intermixed, if I like a "Dash 8 or Dash 9, does it really matter if my favorite railroads never had any?

Have fun, do your thing!

[Anonymous]

I used to buy Model Railroad magazine to feed my jones between issues of Garden Railways.  Aside from admiring the layouts, I found nothing to ease my cravings.  There really isn't much we have in common, other than a love for trains.

[Marty Cozad]

I'm a fan of the "why not do both?" method.  There's stuff in HO that I don't do in G, while there's stuff I'd like to do in G that I could never do in HO.  I think it's fun watching a FA-1 pulling an old-time passenger train excursion (with coal car for heat) on the HO.  I'll never plow snow, though.

 

Just a quick survey questions for the "both" guys:  Would you rather buy a building in kit form and assemble it or buy an already assembled building?  (Assumimg equal personal value.)  Personally I'd rather buy the kit, I'm just wondering if that might be a common trait.

 

Kit form or scratchbuild. not to many structures to pick from in 1:29 modern. 

[kimbrit]

Apart from my obvious love for American RR's and model railways the RR makes me keep the garden nice. I want to play trains, I have to do the garden as well. If it was in the house? Well Gail does most of the housework, I wouldn't do the garden and I would probably spend more time in the pub.

Now there's a thought!

Kim

[Puckdropper]

I'm a fan of the "why not do both?" method.  There's stuff in HO that I don't do in G, while there's stuff I'd like to do in G that I could never do in HO.  I think it's fun watching a FA-1 pulling an old-time passenger train excursion (with coal car for heat) on the HO.  I'll never plow snow, though.

 

Just a quick survey questions for the "both" guys:  Would you rather buy a building in kit form and assemble it or buy an already assembled building?  (Assumimg equal personal value.)  Personally I'd rather buy the kit, I'm just wondering if that might be a common trait.

[grandpopswalt]

HI marty,

I know, there is a lot of manual labor involved in prototype switching. But then they also had to shovel coal almost constantly and were stopping for water every 50 miles (obviously I model the steam era). These too are things I prefer not to have to do on my model RR. That's the main reason Ive never considered live steam, way too much interaction with the equipment. I realize that this is a personal thing but I just get turned off when I have stand over my train and have to poke around with a 2 foot long screwdriver to uncouple the cars or to try to fit my ham sized fists into a tiny cab to turn a miniature valve.

Different spokes for different folks. I guess that's why there are about a hundred different ways to have fun in this hobby. 

Walt

 

[markperr]

There is a guy in Commerce Township, Michigan who has an "O" scale layout that is built inside an old grocery store.  The store is approximately 20,000 square feet and it's filled to near capacity.  He regularly runs 150-200 car coal trains.  It's an absolutely awesome site to see.  HOWEVER, it is still static, even though it's exceptionally large, probably somewhere near an actual mile of laid track.  To do something of that magnitude in "G", you would probably need about an acre of land (and a few rich uncles, and a construction crew, and some heavy equipment, etc., etc., etc......).

Mark

 

[Marty Cozad]

hi Walt

" What you said about the coupling part I guess I don't understand.? Manuel is how the real RRs do it. Switchmen many times have to pull the coupler to center to get them to work.

They get out and hand throw switches, etc. 

Thats more realistic when spoting cars. Hands off isn't even at hump yards.

As for being up close and personal I totally agree. thats why I bought this property so my trains can run chest high and ever a foot over your head. 

 

Someday i may have to go indoors, when I'm old and gray, smelly and bad teeth.

 OH!!! I guess I'm there now. 

[grandpopswalt]

Marty,

You're absolutely right. There is very little in common between the two forms of model railroading other than both are about running trains. However, each has unique characteristics that happen to appeal to me. LS outdoor is all about size and room and being in touch with nature. But, it has some serious limitations, in my view, regarding operation. Most LS RR's are ground level so we really can't get close enough to get that intimate "feel" when switching, etc. And coupling and uncoupling is usually unreliable unless done manually which, to me, completely destrys the mood. On the plus side, there is something magic about watching a large scale train making it's way through the garden, out-of-scale vegetation and all.

On the other hand, an On30 layout at 42" - 48" height puts you right in the action. And the level of detail possible indoors adds greatly to the illusion of reality.

So my future railroading will be, LS outdoors during the warm months with an emphasis on integration with the existing landscape, and an indoor On30 layout designed for operation during the colder months ..... best of both worlds.   

 Walt 

[Mike Dorsch CJ&M r.r.]

I can apreciate the time spent on a indoor railroad (I always loved HO) and they do look cool , however I don't think I can ever go back to it . There is something about three foot long 24 pound dash-9's pulling a train outside under "real" light over real roadbed that I have to maintain just like the real railroads . There is no comparison .

[Camaro1967]

Very perceptive Marty.  I love to look at indoor O scale railroads, but I really don't get anything out of them other than they are cool.  However, this weekend we visited the Huge layout at the New York Botanical Garden, a Busse layout. I told my wife, I wish I could have spent a whole day in there just studying how he did things.  His track plans are so interesting.

So for me, I keep pulling the weeds out from in between the ties.

Paul 

[Marty Cozad]

I was wondering if this would be positive or negitive responce.

Its funny how we have to be reminded of why we do somethings. 

[Great Western]

Greetings,

                 Yep!  I like the definition quoted by Kevin.  It is succint and of course true. 
 

[FJ and G]

I can understand why many folks would wonder, " what is GRRing doing in MR??" 

 

I can understand why many folks would wonder, "what is MR doing in GRRing"

 

(referencing the spate of recent indoor layouts like the indoor "toy" train looking one in Dec. issue) 

[kstrong]

Indoor railroader: Spends hours upon hours meticulously planting weeds between the rails.

Outdoor railroader: Spends hours upon hours meticulously removing them.

--author unknown 

Later,

K

[vsmith]

Oh, sorry, I burned that book along time ago

[Marty Cozad]

Vic,

the law is on page 1842, section 4, paragraph C ,subtitle XX in the rivet counters hand book.

[vsmith]

But where's the law that says you can't do BOTH?

[Anonymous]

Yes i have found this also, when i first moved to the Sunshine Coast i tried to join a model Railway club and i found that i was in a different world to what i wished to be in.

Now that my railway is well established i have had that club over for a barbie and a running day and they had to admit that what i had was terrific but they could not hope to get to anything like it indoors, with HO or O gauge.

Howver some ideas are interchangeable but not many. However the goodwill was certainly interchangeable

Rgds ian

[pimanjc]

Marty,

You are absolutely on target!  Even [or especially] creating mountains is radically different.  It would have been nice if I could have used styrofoam and plaster when making my curved tunnel/mountain.  Instead, I used blocks, hand cast concrete, rebar, real rocks, real dirt and hopefully, real English Ivy.  Roadbed techniques are totally different outside [and much more of a challange].  We get real floods, washouts, snows, and vermin disrupting track structures and figures.  I've even had a HedgeApple fall on a car mashing the body all the way to the track.

JimC.

[ttrigg]

Marty;
You are absolutely correct. Indoor and Outdoor folks have so very little in common. There are a few things we can share, 1) appreciation for the others workmanship, 2) common publishers, 3) the realization that what we are doing has atleast some basis to the 1:1 world, and not much more.

Indoors scenery is painted and glued, outside it is watered and trimmed. Inside the scenery is static, no change until something is ripped out and replaced, outside the scenery changes almost daily, especially with the strange weather we have been having of late.

[Marty Cozad]

This has nothing to do with the other thread on indoor track plan. REALLY

But for years I have wanted to have an artical in MR. But I have not tried very hard for along time.

 

This past weekend we had to travel so when my wife and I stopped at a book store I bought and Model railroader and Great something ideas. what ever. Can't even remember.

After flipping through both magazines page by page twice before we arrive to my outlaws home.

Then looking page by page  during the weekend .

 I realized us outdoor folks really don't have anything in common with the indoor folks. Largescale or not. 

The construction, design, reasoning is really very different.

I get more out of CTC or TRAINS mag studing 1:1 RRing than I do indoor layouts.

 

Yes we (I) can say we love the hobby as a whole. But making something work and run outdoors is SO very different.

 

I'm just sharing thoughts of this weekend. We even stopped and visited another GRRer on the way home and the whole theme evolved around "outdoors" and building things to with stand the outdoors.

 

I can understand why many folks would wonder, " what is GRRing doing in MR??"