I really enjoy this subject, and it brings to mind a really excellent magazine dealing with it. It was one of the MR annual mags and was all about roadbed and right of way modeling and was published a few years ago. Really good information for anyone interested in the topic.
As an aside, one thing that's always caught my eye is the huge tunnel portal clearence layouts usually have. Even 19th Century settings seem to have double stack capable tunnels. Granted, some tunnels were built with generous dimensions, most were not. Same with bridges. In reality there was a great fuss when Pennsy introduced it's round roof box cars with ten foot interiors as so many routes couldn't handle them. Even wealthy lines like NYC and C&O had tight tunnels, barely 16 feet in some cases. Dome cars were rare in the East because of this, and the B&O's had special low-profile dimensions. I'm intentional skimping on my tunnel portals to reflect a 1950's secondary mainline and face some of the same equipment restrictions. Just adds to the fun.
B.P.
b60bp As an aside, one thing that's always caught my eye is the huge tunnel portal clearence layouts usually have. Even 19th Century settings seem to have double stack capable tunnels. Granted, some tunnels were built with generous dimensions, most were not. .........I'm intentional skimping on my tunnel portals to reflect a 1950's secondary mainline and face some of the same equipment restrictions. Just adds to the fun. B.P.
As an aside, one thing that's always caught my eye is the huge tunnel portal clearence layouts usually have. Even 19th Century settings seem to have double stack capable tunnels. Granted, some tunnels were built with generous dimensions, most were not. .........I'm intentional skimping on my tunnel portals to reflect a 1950's secondary mainline and face some of the same equipment restrictions. Just adds to the fun.
We think the same way. I scratchbuilt my portals from prototype drawings. Watch out on curves, you won't get the necessary clearance due to our sharp model curves and big overhangs. I had to re-do a couple a little wider.
Tunnel portal scratchbuilt -
BRAKIE Guy,The photo of the 9 spot fooled me..I had to look closely to ensure it was a model and not a period photo.
Larry,
thanks for the kind words
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
Every modeler is different,
Some prefer the past, some the present, and some do a little bit of both.
Some guys have trains from 2 or 3 roads, while others just foucus on one road only.
Larry - THANKS ! Well said.
Cuyama wrote - " If the Original Poster wishes to model in this way, that’s terrific. Incorporate these features in a section of your layout or on a diorama and post some photos. That would be informative and interesting (more so than yet another thread asking “Why don’t other people model the way I think they should?”) -- Cuyama that is not the intention of the post. I absolutely do not believe we all have to model thgis way. How boring it wouyld be ! I believe I stated that multiple times that "I understand" that others may not model this this way. I was speaking more to the subject as a hobby in general, not specific. There are way more reviews of locos, engines, than there ever is of equipment being proto typical. When was the last time you saw a review of a water tower and how it functioned, did it match the proto type? Is it period accurtate ? Or an article on a mow building matching the proto type ?
Dave H - There are many modelers that belong to this forum that are from other countries. I know some that are from Germany, Great Britain, Australia, Canada ...Thus that example. Happily train nuts are ever where !
BP - Thanks I am glad you are enjoying this thread.
YGW
Guy,
Nice looking scenery base! When you get that finished up it'll look like SP territory for sure. Thanks for the photo.
BP
Never mind.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
On the general topic of aiming for greater fidelity and accuracy in modeling elements of railroad engineering, I dug out my copy of 57 Plans Compiled in the Office of the Chief Engineer of Maintenance of Way for the Pennsylvania Railroad, a 1967 era softcover book put out by Boynton & Assoc.
The very first page is a cross section of first class track -- a four track main line with and without sidings.
From the outer rail of the main to the rail of the siding it says "Not less than 11' 3 1/2"." Somehow I find that 1/2 inch to be almost funny. But the standards get even more precise: distance from the top of the tie on the outer rail through the stone ballast to the botton of the 12 inches of cinder subroadbed is exactly 3' 4 1/8".
Clearly no matter how determined you are to "nail" this you are not going to get your subroadbed to the eight of an inch!
Nonetheless the book, from plans dated 1906, is a treasure trove of information much of which can be studied with benefit by modelers. I see I paid the list price of $3 for mine but copies available online seem to be running in the $14/$15 range. Well worth it.
Dave Nelson
When was the last time you saw a review of a water tower and how it functioned, did it match the proto type? Is it period accurtate ? Or an article on a mow building matching the proto type ?
Those articles do exist of course, but lets face it, trains are what interest many the most - they are the main stars so they get far and above the most attention. If you want to get into water towers or bridges, some do, then by all means. But don't be surprised that engines get all the attention. Heck, thats my gripe in most RR videos and photo's I see - I want to see some of the freight cars but barely get a chance because, once again, engines are the star of the show. Hopefully that is a clear enough answer to the "whys".
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761Heck, thats my gripe in most RR videos and photo's I see - I want to see some of the freight cars but barely get a chance because, once again, engines are the star of the show.
Those are called mindless locomotive run bys.My few videos I took over the years showed the complete train as a run by but,that calls for going the extra step and carrying several fully charged batteries.
IMHO The best freight car research is found in photos of yards if one looks beyond the main subject of the photo.
Here's a prime example of the freight cars seen in '67. Note the tiny tank car.
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/149435/
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
dknelson On the general topic of aiming for greater fidelity and accuracy in modeling elements of railroad engineering, I dug out my copy of 57 Plans Compiled in the Office of the Chief Engineer of Maintenance of Way for the Pennsylvania Railroad, a 1967 era softcover book put out by Boynton & Assoc. The very first page is a cross section of first class track -- a four track main line with and without sidings. From the outer rail of the main to the rail of the siding it says "Not less than 11' 3 1/2"." Somehow I find that 1/2 inch to be almost funny. But the standards get even more precise: distance from the top of the tie on the outer rail through the stone ballast to the botton of the 12 inches of cinder subroadbed is exactly 3' 4 1/8". Clearly no matter how determined you are to "nail" this you are not going to get your subroadbed to the eight of an inch! Nonetheless the book, from plans dated 1906, is a treasure trove of information much of which can be studied with benefit by modelers. I see I paid the list price of $3 for mine but copies available online seem to be running in the $14/$15 range. Well worth it. Dave Nelson
Hey Dave-
It's good to have a sense of humor.
You know how carpenter's tapes have red marks every 16"? You know, for studs? I have a surveyor's chain. It is 100 feet long and made of a single flat piece of stainless steel. It has a mark at 2'-4 1/4". And not just 2'-4 1/4", but 2'-4 1/4" at 73 degrees of temperature and 40 pounds of tension; exactly half-gauge. Even though civil engineers build stuff out of dirt, we have our critical dimensions and tolerances just like everyone else.
BTW, when you fiddle with the mathematics of that not less than 11'-3 1/2" from outer rail of main to inner rail of siding business what you get is 16'-0" from centerline of main to centerline of siding. Still kinda funny, though.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
IRONROOSTERA 60 foot basement is only 1 HO mile long so you're protoypical 117 car long coal train takes up the length of your basement. Even with a basement layout and double decking you can only get about 8-10 miles of mainline.
LION does not have 60' basement. Him has a 24 x 27' classrom. Him has three levels, him has 4 track mane lions. Him has 14 miles of track, 9 miles of which are the Broadway Local (23 stations). It takes 20 minutes for a train to make the round trip from 242nd Street Station to South Ferry (loop) and back again.
IS subway Layout, Tight Curves are the norm.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
ROBERT PETRICKBTW, when you fiddle with the mathematics of that not less than 11'-3 1/2" from outer rail of main to inner rail of siding business what you get is 16'-0" from centerline of main to centerline of siding. Still kinda funny, though. Robert
Funnier is some of the largely long gone urban industrial "fiddle" yards you could stretch both arms out and touch the cars on both tracks.
While these industrial yards was only 2-3 tracks they was compact due to being surrounded by industries or industries on one side and a river or creek on the other. Needless to say these yards was leftover from wooden 30-36' freight car era.
First thanks all for the many wondeful comments. I think this has been a great discussion.
Rob Spangler - Thank you for the pictures I love your work. It is wonderful indeed !
Larry - Your earlier comment brings up another how to deal with question. In the event of mergers not every RR had the same specs. Does that mean that the new owner changed all of the other RR specs ? I also know from expierene that stds change and many of the old stds remain ( if it aint broken dont fix it attitude ) or money flo or crew availability would limit how fast upgrades were made. That would make for interesting modeling and story telling of he RR.
trainnut - How long did you spend researching before you begain building ?
ATSF - Hey guy ! I agree everyone is differnt. I know many RRers that never get past teh plywood because tehy only want the rail in place so they can run locos.
Lion - I knew you had a large RR but I didnt know it would take 20 minutes - that is impressive !
Larry why do you think the tanks were small ? Did it have to do with the techonology that the tank itself could support ? Or maybe teh weight on the rail bed itself ? Or some other consideration such as cost to build or end user needs ?
Doe any one have examples of the civil specs you have installed on your RR ?
yougottawantaLarry why do you think the tanks were small ? Did it have to do with the techonology that the tank itself could support ? Or maybe teh weight on the rail bed itself ? Or some other consideration such as cost to build or end user needs ?
I never seen that type of tank car so,it may have been used to haul wine or whiskey to a off brand name bottler. Then maybe the car carried heavy liquids. What got my attention was the size compared to the Burlington boxcar.Reminded me of a TT scale tankcar coupled to a HO boxcar.
Last year NS removed the last PRR style signals here in Bucyrus and replaced them with the newer PTC signals.
yougottawanta trainnut - How long did you spend researching before you begain building ?
Sorry for the long response - It happened in phases. I found myself drawn to various west coast lines and ended up buying and building rolling stock for these lines. Around the same time I fell in with a bunch of narrow gauge modelers who liked to build models of specific locations and equipment, even if they were freelancing. Eventually this led me to a group of prototypes to combine on the layout.
I started out by designing the foot print of the layout – a double deck design with a third staging deck below. I divided up the decks into scenes and then started looking at the group of prototypes that I liked for scenes to model. This led to a track plan and an eventual designation of roughly 12 scenes varying from a few feet to 12 feet in length.
At that point I went scene by scene to adapt the basic track plan and scenic elements to fit. It took a year after I had the layout room built to design the track plan. I wanted a Point to point ops based plan with continuous loops on both decks. It took a while to work out all the details.
I then built the beast one deck at a time and finished the track work about three years after starting. Since then I have been going around the room scene by scene building models and finishing scenery. I will spend time researching specific models and scenic elements as needed,
The layout has been under construction for 11 years. The top deck scenery is nearly complete. I build in quick bursts and randomly jump from project to project. The layout is littered with half completed projects that I eventually circle back to and finish…
You can see some of the progress on the website in my link. Send me a private e-mail if you want the latest.
BRAKIE Here's a prime example of the freight cars seen in '67. Note the tiny tank car. http://www.railpictures.net/photo/149435/
I think modelers are a nutty bunch. We use slow motion switch motors, but run the layout on a fast clock. We worry that our boxcar is a scale foot too long, but it is OK that Phildelphia is only 8 feet from Baltimore. We build large layouts to look realistic, then stick one guy in another room to play dispatcher, out of sight from the trains. Gosh, you don;t even need a layout to do that. maybe someone already markets fake train documentation so a fan can sit at a desk and be a yard master. (Marketing opportunity there)
there are always some areas of detail that are overlooked or purposely ignored out of expedience. I agree more of the magazine content is devoted to things with wheels on them, but I can recall many fine articles about structures, scenery, roadbed, etc. Right here in Lansing downtown ther is a major power plant, I always look at it with an eye towards modelling it - though I never will. It has three 500 foot tall stacks. Imagine that on a layout. I wonder how tall I'd have to make them to look reasonable and still not poke up into the dining room.
dknelson BRAKIE Here's a prime example of the freight cars seen in '67. Note the tiny tank car. http://www.railpictures.net/photo/149435/ My hunch is that that is a bromine tank car - bromine being a particularly dense fluid element mined by locating ancient brine pools. It is so dense that the tank cars used to handle it usually handle nothing else but. There was a fine article in MR for February 2001 about scratchbuilding a bromine tank car. Dave Nelson
Ahhh! Thank you Dave! I believe you nailed the mystery.
Enzoamps I think modelers are a nutty bunch. We use slow motion switch motors, but run the layout on a fast clock. We worry that our boxcar is a scale foot too long, but it is OK that Phildelphia is only 8 feet from Baltimore. We build large layouts to look realistic, then stick one guy in another room to play dispatcher, out of sight from the trains. Gosh, you don;t even need a layout to do that. maybe someone already markets fake train documentation so a fan can sit at a desk and be a yard master. (Marketing opportunity there) there are always some areas of detail that are overlooked or purposely ignored out of expedience. I agree more of the magazine content is devoted to things with wheels on them, but I can recall many fine articles about structures, scenery, roadbed, etc. Right here in Lansing downtown ther is a major power plant, I always look at it with an eye towards modelling it - though I never will. It has three 500 foot tall stacks. Imagine that on a layout. I wonder how tall I'd have to make them to look reasonable and still not poke up into the dining room.
Interesting points.
And just like my opening post in this thread - not all of of us do these things.....
I only model one city and the activity coming and going from it.
My dispatcher has a birds eye view of most of the layout, never understood that seperate room thing either.
I long ago stopped obessing about the accuracy of each model, so long as they give a good "impression" of their prototype.
And my "large" layout is very simple and spacious in terms of trackage.......so that the civil engineering is at least believable even though still greatly compressed.
And even though I am a freelance modeler, I have created a set of standards to give the railroad that uniform look of the prototype - and I stick to them.
Sheldon
EnzoampsWe build large layouts to look realistic, then stick one guy in another room to play dispatcher, out of sight from the trains. Gosh, you don;t even need a layout to do that. maybe someone already markets fake train documentation so a fan can sit at a desk and be a yard master.
Nothing crazy at all about either of those ideas. The prototype dispatcher typically works from a location where he can't see the trains. There's no reason the guy working the CTC machine, computer console, or writing train orders needs a view of the layout to do his job.
I've also operated on more than one layout where the yardmaster managed a yard from a separate office location. He completed switchlists and issued other instructions more or less as an actual yardmaster would. It worked, and it was fun.
Rob Spangler