hon30critterThe scene with the river running beside the track is really well done!
Thanks Dave!
Rob Spangler
To great lengths, and for me there's joy and satisfaction galore in continually pushing my boundaries. A master I may never be, but not for lack of trying. Lance Mindheim calls it "Attainable excellence," the exacting attention to color and texture, neatness, sharpness, perpendicular, cross section and detail that are essential to the creation of striking realism.
Regards, Peter
I go to the limits of MY abilities. After all isn't the goal to replicate a world at 1/87 its real size?
NHTX After all isn't the goal to replicate a world at 1/87 its real size? Add Quote to your Post
I agree with your comment about limitations, but it's my world, not the real world. Like the famous model railroaders Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, I get to say what is real in the world. Every Christmas train garden at every fire house has building on fire. Having worked in a burn unit, there won't be burning buildings ever on my layout. No car wrecks, funerals, graveyards, alleys filled with trash, g******, which is a prohibited topic on the forum or homelessness either. Can't talk about the h*** word either, but I think my uncle might have been one during the Depression, so I would not rule that out.
I once wanted to be a tug boat captain, but I got over that and I don't need port or harbor scenes.
After WW2 there was the rise of neighborhoods. Who wants to model suburbia? Ain't no trains there, but they are as common as dirt.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddythere won't be burning buildings ever on my layout. No car wrecks, funerals, graveyards, alleys filled with trash, g****** <SNIP> either.
Hmmm... for me...
NO: Burning Buildings, Car Wrecks, Funerals, G******
YES: Graveyards, Alleys Filled With Trash
I have an excellent cast resin ACW era graveyard that will look amazing on my layout. I also have dozens of cast resin rubbish piles that need an alley.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
the old train manIm just wondering how far other people go to achieve realism on their layouts....
Apparently not that far at all....no sound, no smoke, no lights (other than those lighting the layout room), no timetables, no multiple operators, mostly freelanced locomotives and ditto for about half of the rolling stock. I have no compunction about including rolling stock that's likely a decade-or-so too modern to be seen in the late '30s. Most of my passenger equipment is devoid of passengers, the locomotive crews are, for the most part, amputees or otherwise horribly disfigured, as are most drivers and passengers in vehicles. Unemployment is rampant, as most businesses have non-working doors and all of my LPBs are homeless, as there's not yet even one house on the layout. The city services (water and sewers) are represented on the surface of some streets, but don't actually work, which is just as well, as the rivers don't have any real water in them to supply drinking water or to carry away the sewage.
In a last ditch effort to save my model railroading status, I have installed windshield wipers on "The BEE"...
I am, however, ashamed to say that they don't actually work...just as well, I suppose, as my rainmaking skills are shot, and likewise for the blizzards.
Wayne
LOL!!
doctorwayneApparently not that far at all....no sound, no smoke, no lights
Thanks for the laugh Wayne!!!
doctorwayneI am, however, ashamed to say that they don't actually work...just as well, I suppose, as my rainmaking skills are shot,
Don't you have a garden hose and a fan?!? If you were to use those you could model Port Dover in real time today!
(For those of you who don't recognise the reference to Port Dover, Ontario, the town is on the shore of Lake Erie and was totally flooded earlier today due to extremely high winds and rain coming off the lake).
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
doctorwayneI have installed windshield wipers on "The BEE"... I am, however, ashamed to say that they don't actually work.
One day at a railroad crossing, under clear blue skies, my wife and I saw a train go by with the windshield wipers going back and forth.
I commented that the controls must be broken. Then my wife said they must have sprayed windshield washer fluid to clean the bugs off.
That got me thinking... do trains have windhsield washer fluid? Do they get bugs on the windshield?
Will this be the next feature on Scale Trains Museum Quality models?
SeeYou190 Do they get bugs on the windshield? -Kevin
Do they get bugs on the windshield?
I can attest to bugs on the windows. When I road in the Cab of an SP Cab Forward in 1951 the engineer told me not to stick my face out the open windows (that was air conditioning in 1951), I had desert flies stuck to my teeth. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
the old train manDo you have to have wiindshield wipers on your windows,lift bars ,a engineer in the cab,,windows that work on the engine,see thru fan blades,the right kind of horn or bell sound,grab irons that are not molded on,the right rail size,ditches on each side of the tracks for drainage,smoke for steam and diesel engines,lines on your telephone poles,birds on your telephone lines,curtains in all the windows,lettering that is so small you have to have a magnifier to read and sometimes even that doesnt help,paint eyebrows and other features on faces of the people on your layout,piles of to scale dung in cattle yards, smoke coming out of all of your chimneys,see thru lift rings not molded on, etc.
OK, first...did anyone else think of Roseanne Roseannadanna reading this?
I think all of us make decisions regarding what makes things more realistic for us. When I was a three-rail "hi-railer" sometimes someone would point out my layout wasn't as realistic as theirs, because their HO layout had two-rail (usually brass) track whereas mine had three. I would point out that I've never seen a power company plant power poles and then leave them empty like on their layouts, where my poles were all completely wired - even having wiring going to the buildings.
Some people make highly detailed models, then leave them pristine. I weather pretty much everything - engines, cars, buildings etc. - because to me that makes them more realistic.
On my diesels, I like to find one or two details that seem important to me, and add them. For example, M-St.L and NP diesels in the 1950's often used 'recycled' steam engine bells, so my M-St.L RS-1 and NP RS-11 have those type of bells added. Otherwise, the models (Atlas) are basically stock. I'll add a more accurate diesel horn if needed, although most early diesels just used the single chime 'blat' horns.
I'm OK with molded on grabirons, but I always put a crew in my cabooses, and in the 'lead' engines of diesels...since I run some engines together all the time, the ones designated trailing units don't get crewmen generally. Steam engines all get crews.
Robs got the scenery genes!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Having thought about this a bit more, I would say there are several things very important to me for realism.
The track arrangement must be realisitc. To me that means long and linear and not sharply curved or stumpy.
The proper type of loco should head the train.
Cars should have roadnames that are consistent with the area modeled and consistent with the industry receiving the spotting (I wouldn't put a Clark Oil tank car in front of a Corn Syrup processor).
Model the common, not using the one off "there is a prototype for everything" excuse. As a free lancer, plausibility is everything.
Buildings need to be large enough. Land and lots on which the buildings reside need to be appropriate for the area modeled (more spread out in the suburbs, etc.)
Everything must be weathered, dulled down, muted colors like sun fading.
I'd have to say that way down the list of important things that add realism is the actual detail level or even accuracy of the models, within reason.
- Douglas
1) The track arrangement must be realistic. My layout will model basically two cities. I do not have room to model the connecting trackage, so I will not have long and linear trackage. It is a better option for me to not have the connecting track than to resort to short and stumpy.
2) The proper type of loco should head the train. This is also a must for me.
3) Freight cars should have roadnames that are consistent with the area modeled. Since I have become non-specific about the area I model, this is no longer important to me.
4) Freight cars should be consistent with the industry receiving the spotting. Yes, yes, yes. No oil tank cars in front of a Corn Syrup processor here either!
5) Model the common, not using the one off "there is a prototype for everything" excuse. I agree 100%. Model the world as it is perceived.
6) Buildings need to be large enough. I don't do this. All my industries could not fill a forty foot boxcar in a month.
7) Everything must be weathered, dulled down, muted colors like sun fading. Yes, I apply at least a little weathering to everything. If not, it looks too toy-like for me.
8) The actual detail level or even accuracy of the models, within reason. I just need them to look good enough in photographs.