General Discussion (Model Railroader)

SpaceMouse wrote:

Can you really do ops in N-scale? <sniup> But the idea of backing those little bitty suckers into a yard with a toothpick and jeweler's glass to build a cut is beyond my comprehension.

Chip, and I mean this kindly, there is still a lot about model railroading that you have not yet personally experienced, large post count notwithstanding.

There are a number of N scale operating layouts, some of which have already been mentioned. I've had the pleasure of operating at Lance Mindheim's once and the overall experience was better than a lot of the HO layouts on which I have operated. It was car card and waybills and we read car numbers. No problem.

Picks actually seem to work better for me on N scale MT couplers than they do on HO KDs. Rerailing does not seem to me to be tougher than with HO.

Reading car numbers can be a challenge. Lots of light helps. On my small N scale switching layout (which is sometimes run in low-light conditions), I've selected the cars so that there is only one of any roadname/color combination. (Thus, three WP cars, but one's silver, one's orange, one's boxcar red). The three rotating switchlists call out road name and color and it works fine. A photo in all its "plywood plains" splendor is below.

Don't be a scaleist, dude. N scale ops may not be for everyone, but it works for a lot of us.

Byron
Model RR Blog

Scaleist?

It's more like I want to believe, but...

I am giving it a go sort of.

SpaceMouse wrote:

Scaleist? It's more like I want to believe, but... I am giving it a go sort of.

Do or do not.

There is no try.

-Yoda

Dave Vollmer wrote:

SpaceMouse wrote: Scaleist? It's more like I want to believe, but... I am giving it a go sort of. Do or do not. There is no try. -Yoda

Succeed I will.

My hat's off to anyone who operates their model empire like a railroad, no matter what the scale.  While I do not model in either N or Nj (1:150 scale) I am planning to incorporate some nine millimeter gauge track on my 1:80 scale layout.  Does that make me an honorary N-scaler?

Dave, there's only one weak link in the idea of descriptions/pictures on car cards.  What if you own 20 box cars, identical except for the digits in the car number - plus an additional 14 that are identical to each other and almost identical to the first group?  I guess you could use one of those high-magnification monoculars that meter readers use to read the electric meter from thirty yards away.  Even in 1:80 scale with slightly oversize car numbers, 1.25 meters seems to be an outside limit for the Mark 1 Mod 0L eyeball.  (Mod 0L = Mod 0 after Lasik.)

Actually, my car cards have very precise descriptions of the cars they belong to - descriptions expressed in two Katakana characters and the first car number of the class.  (This is why, when Washington Mutual started referring to themselves as WaMu, I started referring to them as, "15 ton capacity box car.")

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

Chuck,

The only multiples I really need to worry about are hoppers, and they tend to move in clumps anyway!

All my cars are weathered to varying dgrees, so my several PRR X29 and X26C boxcars are all visually different despite similar paint schemes.

I operated my old N scale layout.  The new one I am designing now will also feature ops.

Three railroads, two with passenger ops and all three with freight ops.

The only problem is that no one makes an N scale ten wheeler, which is required to model early 1930's Norfolk Southern.  I don't mind scratchbuilding one, but I would need a few of them.

Yes, Chip, you can operate a model railroad in N scale.  In fact, you can operate a lot more railroad in N scale.  As was demonstrated in you 10x12 design exercise, in HO you can simulate a sleepy branchline, or a busy terminal.  In the same space using N scale, you can simulate miles of mainline running, as well as those branches and terminals.  Here's the operations I can run on my modestly sized layout:

This is the main line as it wraps around the paper mill.  There is a dedicated mill switcher that shunts about 20-30 cars during a typical operating session.

Here's an overview of the paper mill.  The mainline splits into two divisions at the Maryland Junction tower.

There's run-through traffic from the Laurel Valley, my fictional Pennsylvania highlands short line,

There's fast freight headed east to Shippensburg and the connection with the Reading...

There's room for some nice scenery

There's enough staging for (8) 20-car trains...

There's several opportunities for local switching...

There's mine runs,

and coal drags.

And there's a freight yard and engine terminal to keep it all moving. 

I like the way N scale fits in my space, and the way it looks doing it.

As for the mechanics of working with N, like any skill, it takes doing to get good at it.  I started out scared to death of knuckle couplers, now I'm installing decoders in N scale switchers. 

As for the oft cited eyesight issue, I think you'll find you have no trouble seeing N scale equipment as long as you're not looking down your nose at it... 

Lee 

Chip,

Let me offer some advice you can take or leave, and it may not come off as particularly friendly.

You've posted a lot about your foray into N scale, and that's fine.  I'm glad you're interested in N scale trains.

But in order to fully enjoy N scale, you have to stop looking at it as a seperate hobby.  I spent 20 years in HO before I switched to N.  I never considered myself as an "HO-er."  I was a model railroader.  I still feel I'm a model railroader.  But many folks want to put N scale model railroaders into a box labeled "N scaler" as if it's a seperate hobby.  It's not.  It's model railroading.

Yes, we kid each other about scale, but in the end there is nothing - I mean nothing - you can do in HO that you can't do in N.  That includes kitbashing steam engines, sound, scratchbuilding strctures, and operations.

loathar wrote:

What happened to the HO Pennsy layout?? Ya give up on it?

Nope. Just stuck on a research block. I know I need to visit my local historical society and they are giving me access to their secret files, but I have to take off work to go and so far I have not been able to.  My engines are getting sound installed, so nothing to run and nothing to build.

The N-scale layout should be simple to complete, but I am planning two scenes that will involve more detail. But it is basically a railfan layout. On one hand I know that as Dave says, size shouldn't matter (where have I heard that before?) and so far I have been able to pull off painting and making my structure look good.

But couplers and mini-decals have scared me a bit. I have before me putting 2 sets of 1/16 BPRR decals on 20 plus coal cars and I can't even imagine cutting them out let alone getting them straight on the cars.  

Perhaps, I'm just crying out for reassurance that N-scale is doable on a grand basis.

SpaceMouse wrote:

Perhaps, I'm just crying out for reassurance that N-scale is doable on a grand basis.

...and we get to the pith.

Chip, if the many quality, operations-oriented N scale layouts out there in MR, MRP, GMR, N Scale Railroading, N Scale Magazine, RMC, etc. isn't reassurance enough, there's nothing we can add that will assure you.

It's just model trains, man.  It's not like you're testing nukes.  If it doesn't work out, no one dies.  As we say "crap" or get off the pot.

By the way, I've been cutting out individual letters and numbers in dimensional data lettering a PRR X31a in the Shadow Keystone 1b scheme (nobody makes the correct dimensional data decals in N for the X31 class).  It's not easy, but if it were easy it wouldn't be worth my time.  I use an Optivisor, good lighting, and a white-painted workbench to make it tolerable.

Chip loves discussion.  I for one like to read many of the thoughts that come out of Chip's topics.  Let him talk out loud for goodness sakes.

Peter

I too use an optivisor when I need it; I also have a lamp with magnifier (great for detailing scenery,such as putting "No Parking Here to Corner" signs on stopsigns and such too). 

Repeat after me ...

 "I think I can...I think I can...I think I can..."

     (borrowed from the first train book I ever had).

modelalaska wrote:

Chip loves discussion.  I for one like to read many of the thoughts that come out of Chip's topics.  Let him talk out loud for goodness sakes. Peter

No one's stopping him.

But there's a difference between discussion and validation.  My point is he shouldn't need us to validate this decision for him. 

Chip's a big boy.  Either N scale works for him or it doesn't.  But we can't make that decision for him.

I enjoy discussion as much or more as the next guy.  But this is "fishing."