Hello all!
I am new to the hobby, and am just beggining to get into the grit of tracklaying, building the landscape and scenery.
I hope this project will eventually blosom into an HO scale replica of my local railroad museum in St. Louis.
Does anyone have tips on the best way to measure the model track, and how to build the landscape up/down?
Thanks for all the help!
S. ConnorI hope this project will eventually blosom into an HO scale replica of my local railroad museum in St. Louis.
Does anyone have tips on the best way to measure the model track
and how to build the landscape up/down?
P.S. My favorite part of the museum is the wooden Rock Island caboose right of the gift store, so I'm telling you that you have to model that part! :-)
The St. Louis Museum of Transportation has an interesting collection judging from the Wiki entry. I can see why people would want to model it, to include a Bipolar, an Aerotrain, a Zephyr and so on.If this is indeed what the OP wants to model (Google Satellite View), they're gonna need to work on those tracklaying skills, seems to be a lot of switchers there.
chutton01(Google Satellite View)
Man, that is some kind of tight radius on that balloon track.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Texas Zepher:
Thank you so much for the information!
I will be modeling the museum (Yes, the St. Louis Museum of Transport) as it currently is (With one or two custum touches of course!). This is a long term project of mine. It will involve no doubt, lots of custom construction of the sheds there, possibly hand built switches, and rivet-counting accuracy.
I hope to include the mainline track next door to the MOT, so that I can use this as an expansion point, if I decide to build on.
My current plan is to model from the UP mainline down to the first parking lot. I have already built a 4'X8' bechwork, if it isn't long enough or wide enough I will attach "wings" onto it, where I can continue to expand.
Texas Zepher P.S. My favorite part of the museum is the wooden Rock Island caboose right of the gift store, so I'm telling you that you have to model that part! :-)
The RI caboose is no longer next to the gift shop, It has been moved up into one of the sheds. But I don't think I will put any models of the equipment on display, as it would likely turn out to be the never-ending undertaking! (And very expensive, No doubt!)
BATMAN chutton01 (Google Satellite View) Man, that is some kind of tight radius on that balloon track.
chutton01 (Google Satellite View)
Yes, that is the "Streetcar Loop" where the streetcars we run turn. It is very tight radius due to our unfortuanate posistion limiting us on space.
I am worried that the may even be too tight for flextrack......
S. ConnorBut I don't think I will put any models of the equipment on display, as it would likely turn out to be the never-ending undertaking!
Up to the first parking lot? That will still take a lot of space - maybe settle from the mainline up to past the sheds (the trolley loop?), and represent the rest in the backgroup via photo-mural or equivalent.
I looked at the Wikipedia link in this thread. A few of the locomotives are commercially avalible at a reasonable price. Athearn has recently released an SD45 painted for Erie Lackawanna for about $120. I have seen prices fall abit for DDA40Xs. Walthers has GP30s for reasonable price.
I would also suggest maybe buying a few pieces of rolling stock. On ebay and at swap meets you can get some for really cheap.
I would regular check eBay for the items you want at a low price.
I do have to agree that modeling all of the equipment, especially the rare ones would be too time consuming, expensive, etc.
However that is just my .
If there was any misake, I should specify that I will build *up to* the Southern most parking lot, but will not be going past that.
I will build as far as I can on my 4X8, but like I said, if I need more, I will build extensions.
I might even consider donating it to the museum as a year-round display. Many visitors are disapointed that there are no model train displays there, except around Christmas, but even then they only operated 17 days this past season. (A lot of disapointed visitors turned out, and paid the $8 addmission to not find what they were looking for.)
If I can find commercially available models that are reasonably detailed and potray the artifacts at the museum, then I will go for it. I might re-paint and detail some cars. But if I do end up donating it, I will go out the wazoo to get prototypical models!
chutton01 looks like some of the equipment nearer the mainline tracks is in a state of so-so repair, so you could buy some used rolling stock/locomotives for that, and have some fun working on your weathering skills.
The Satalite image Google has showed you is nearly 6 years old, many of the things you saw in so-so look much for the better.
But thanks for the ideas everyone! It'll be fun to see how this turns out!
First visited the museum about a year before it came under the museum district tax bill back in the 1970's. Moved from the St. Louis area by 1975 and did not make a return visit until four years ago. To say the place had changed is an understatement. In the 70's they still had some engines and cars stored in the old railway tunnel which I believe has been completely filled in and closed. When we visited four years ago it was about this time of year and very cold. While visiting the gift shop one of the employees was so impressed we would visit a couple days after a snow storm he gave me a permanent one day pass for a future visit on a nicer day. If you have not visited this museum and you are into steam, its worth a visit.
The tunnel has not filled in, but that doesn't mean it's in good shape either. It last collapsed several years ago, crushing a streetcar. That collaspse was from a pillar, though, you can still see from end to end. Tell me, was the tunnel open to visitors then? (It sure isn't now)
If there was a 6 figure donation, we could restore it to it's full potential, and possible run our streetcars through. Althouhg, I would rather see an0-6-0 or 0-8-0 run on the tracks.
It's all in the money, sadly.
S. Connor, no the tunnel was not open to visitors but you could walk up to the entrance and look in and see a couple of engines and cars stored in the tunnel. In the 1970's, the tunnel had a flimsy field fence to keep out visitors. I knew that there had been some sort of collapse from the conversation I had four years ago but was uncertain as to how bad the collapse was. The museum is one of my favorite places. I really enjoyed seeing the parlor car Truman used to campaign. I also was impressed that they saved a front from the old Coral Courts motel as it had such a notorious reputation when I lived in the area.