Hi I'm 16, have no cashflow, and have a closet full of beat-up equipment and structures along with a mountain of flextrack and scenery. I'm going to try and build a sectional layout using the Heart of Georgia benchwork plans that can be stored in my closet when its not set up in my room. My goal is to make a railroad with personality while buying as little material as possible. The line runs to a large coal mine in WV from a town along the Norfolk and Western Mainline. Along the route there is also agricultural industry as well as a ski lodge/resort served by the N&W and the B&O which interchanges with my RR as well.
First, I need your help, the B&O interchange or the Resort can be included, not both. Which should it be?
When I get the time I'll post some pictures of the Heart of Georgia benchwork etc.
What I'm looking for is feedback, ideas, anything that would help me. I need a good name too along the lines of Gorre & Daphetid cuz its gonna be a run-down sort of affair.
thanks
flyngsqurl wrote: Along the route there is also agricultural industry as well as a ski lodge/resort served by the N&W and the B&O which interchanges with my RR as well. First, I need your help, the B&O interchange or the Resort can be included, not both. Which should it be?
I agree with the other posters that an interchange will provide more operational interest to your layout. Now, if you already have a big mountain with snow and a chair lift, that's different. Otherwise, building a ski resort is not an operation a low cashflow line would be likely to do.
I tend to agree with Gandy Dancer that cute names get old fast. I am building a layout with a shortline that interchanges with..well...just about any railroad I have equipment for. Since I live in Prattville, Alabama but am originally from the north, I named it the Prattville Northern. Sounds kind of pretentious, just like most short lines that have one 70 tonner and a combine/caboose as their only rolling stock.
Regards, Jim
First to Flyngsqurl, . As for naming your line, how about either a real or even fictious town on some where along your line. That's what the prototype that I based my freelance did. West Point, GA is approximately midway between Atlanta, GA and Montgomery, AL and was the name given to the two lines that operated together to form the West Point Route ----The Atlanta and West Point and the Western of Alabama.
Second to Jim in Prattville, AL.....you're just down the road from where I grew up, along AL Hwy 14, near a small town called Notasulga, AL where the West Point Route passed through. Still sees a lot of CSX traffic these days.
You may be originally from "up North" but I bet you've already been asked to choose your alligance now that you live in Alabama, so..... War Eagle!
Sapper82 wrote: Second to Jim in Prattville, AL.....you're just down the road from where I grew up, along AL Hwy 14, near a small town called Notasulga, AL where the West Point Route passed through. Still sees a lot of CSX traffic these days. You may be originally from "up North" but I bet you've already been asked to choose your alligance now that you live in Alabama, so..... War Eagle!
Bob,
I drove from Prattville to Auburn on 14 today to visit the one crummy hobby shop we have within 50 miles or so. Total number of trains seen...one...the tail end of a local passing through Prattville. I don't know if I'm just unlucky here or what but I rarely see any trains unless I'm down by the Montgomery yards.
As to the second question, I'm actually a Buckeye's fan but I have to pretend I care about the Tide wining or losing to keep peace in the house.
Lets just say I have a good amount of passenger equipment that needs to be used....I've got ideas to "recycle" some of them but I still have a substantial fleet. I think I'll do the interchange with a made up NW train that ran on B&O to Chicago or St. Louis or something
Jim,
Granted, the CSX run from Montgomer north isn't that busy (and I've been to that one crummy HS (there's a pretty good one over in Columbus, GA, but that's another 50 miles from you). If you find yourself heading back to Auburn, head just a little further up the road to Opelika. They've restored the depot as a landmark and you can see the interchange (90 degree crossing) where the NS (old Souther RR) crosses the CSX (old West Point Route) line. It also has an old concrete coal tower.
Didn't they tell you about the state law that requires you to pick Auburn or Alabama?
Dang, I was going to go to Opelika too but we started getting thunderstorms so I headed back. I will say that the crummy hobby shop had Athearn coupler box covers in stock, something I haven't seen for a while, and exactly one blue box Athearn Birmingham Southern outside braced boxcar in stock. I snapped that one up along with a (shock!) Bachmann DCC equipped CSX GP-35 for $30.00. I know some people hate Bachmann engines but they run great for me and the DCC decoder is worth almost as much as the whole engine. I've heard about the store over in Columbus so I guess I'll have to make a day of it and get over there sometime. I'll check out Opelika next time, thanks for the tip.
Believe it or not, you can now get license plates here with the legend "A House Divided" with one half red and the other orange. I thought religion was a big thing here until I spent my first football season in Prattville.
I live in Smiths Station, AL just outside of Phenix City and Columbus, GA. The HS in Columbus does not have a lot of stuff. I model N-scale and the HS as a small amount of motive power. They have a little bit more of HO.
I ususally go to Duluth which is North of Atlanta to get most of my stuff.
If you happen to come this way maybe we could get together and discuss MR.
I have a 14x28 foot room with a N-Scale layout.
Craig
Flyngsqurl is probably saying to himself, "who is this Alabama gang and why have they hijacked my thread?" Sorry Flyngsqurl....last one, I promise.
Jim, Craig....nice to meet both of you. I'll shoot you a note here from the MR forums the next time I'm in either neighborhood, visiting relatives.
Get to know where the new construction is going on in your area. Talk to the contractors about scrap pile priveleges. Mention a "diorama project". (This won't work during the summertime when school is out.) Do NOT raid the scrap piles after hours, they put you in JAIL for that.
That gets you track, trains (already done), benchwork and foam, you're down to wiring, power supplies, paint, plaster and greenery to finish the major expenses of the physical plant. Finagle the big ticket items as birthday or Christmas presents, like power pack, DCC if you go that route, and stock up on greenery and plaster cloth during hobby store sales, online or otherwise.
Lightweight spackling compound isn't real expensive, $12 buys a gallon and a gallon goes a long way. Walmart has acrylic craft paints for a buck a bottle, $15 buys a nice palatte. Look around art supply stores for small wood stockpiles and other doodads, be creative, and that should get you started.
I know this is sacrilege, but I was working at 16. I bought a sports car (Bug-Eyed Sprite) for myself because my parents could afford to get me one. Anyway, I bought the stuff I wanted using the money I earned myself.
McDonald's pays minimum wage, but one shift buys most any thing on your list.
Probably more efficient than scrounging.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I got too much on my plate with extracurricular to get a job until next summer....hopefully I'll be able to get one before then but my ma is blocking my job prospects.
BTW I have lumber from my last failed layout project in the garage, I can scavenge off of that for the most part.
I have a lot of Athearn+IHC passenger cars, aka too many. Any ideas how to make use of them since I can have them all in their origional capacity?
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
flyngsqurl wrote: I got too much on my plate with extracurricular to get a job until next summer....hopefully I'll be able to get one before then but my ma is blocking my job prospects.BTW I have lumber from my last failed layout project in the garage, I can scavenge off of that for the most part.I have a lot of Athearn+IHC passenger cars, aka too many. Any ideas how to make use of them since I can have them all in their origional capacity?
Since a job is apparently not in the works - is there a reason behind your mother's negative response? - how about enlisting your mother's help in selling some of your "mountains of stuff". That could go a long ways towards helping her see that you have learned from your past, and that you are making a much more focused (and modest?) effort this time.
Pick a theme, prototype, region, era and sell everything that doesn't fit, or that the proposed layout won't have room for. Even if it takes you down to one engine and 3-4 cars. If you could get your mother to assist you with selling on eBay this fall, that would bring the best return for your stuff. And you would learn a lot, both by having to do the photgraphs and descriptions, and by picking out stuff to sell and assigning values.
I really am impressed when any of my children (3 now grown, 1 teen, 1 preteen still at home) come to me for help with a plan that they themselves have thought through. Especially one that shows they have learned from past misjudgements.
just my thoughts
Fred W
Bob and Craig, that would be great. Sounds like you both have nice layouts. And sorry for what I promise will be the last thead hijack from Alabama.
Flyingsqrl, Fred has given you a lot of good advice. You can unload a lot of things on e-bay, especially passenger cars, which always seem to be in demand. The idea fo a theme for the layout is also important before you go any further. If you want to keep all those passenger cars, how about a railroad with a lot of commuter traffic? You could also run part of the line as a tourist railroad and use up a lot of passenger cars. I thought a lot about what I wanted my layout to represent before I went out and bought anything. I hope you do manage to convince your mom to let you get a part time job. Things you buy yourself are lot more satisfying than things you have to beg for.
Flyingsquirrel,
How about "Cheap River & Gudenuv RY"?
Note that most HO scale passenger equipment will look funny going around corners on anything small enough to fit in a closet. If you want to use them despite the looks, you could put the resort (or the dedicated station and a photo backdrop) in a corner of the table.
To the Alabama gang- dont sweat it, you're okay.
I'm under the belief that every railroad needs to have a purpose and explanation for why its there.
I've named my railroad the Martin County Ry. and is located in the Kentucky County of the same name. It will be set in 1956, with possible multiple eras. The railroad connects with the Norfolk & Western at Kermit, WV then crosses the Tug river to the yard at Warfield KY. The line continues through a fictional farming valley to Inez, the seat of Martin County. Warfield and Inez are the only incorporated communities(or only communities period according to Google earth and Wikipedia)in the county. The line now climbs out of the valleys and claws its way up 4 to 6% grades through the rural intersection of Justice, where the MC interchanges with the C&O. The line continues up to the summit and makes its way down the ridge to Wharncliffe and the Wharncliffe mine and processing plant, one of the largest in the county and also destination for over half of the processed coal in the county.
Later the Wharncliffe mine would be torn down and be turned into a mountaintop removal mine, eventually Big Sandy Regional Airport would be built on the old mine site. A loading dock would be built in Inez in 1979 to load the hoppers. Today the coal loading dock and shipping cargo from the airport is the only traffic on the line.
Heres a concept I came up with for all those cars. Cincinnati to Miami Train the Thouroughbred run by N&W, C&O, Clinchfield, and Seaboard using Martin County rail to speed up travel time. problems: the few N&W streamlined cars I have are MIA. Guess thats what you get for 3 years of armchair modeling. I could make it all heavyweight but heavyweight cars were extinct by the 60's right? Considering I'm considering multiple eras I need those streamlined cars.
Sounds like you've developed a very good scenario for your railroad. I don't know how much room you have but it sounds like you'll need a good bit of selective compression - plus a lot of trees.
Heavyweight cars had disappeared from named trains by the early 60's but heavyweight cars were still very much in evidence on secondary trains and locals. Any passenger service provided bu a shortline like yours would have uses heavyweight cars, sometimes even wood varnish, since they were available cheap by that time. It's pretty easy to slide your era from the mid 50's to the mid 60's by just changing vehicles and maybe some signs. There wasn't a lot of physical difference in towns during that period until the great "urban renewal" boom of the later 60's and 70's. Hope you find those N&W cars you're looking for.