rrinkerIs that a Canadian thing, calling the layout a "set-up"?
I guess so Randy. We use the term 'set-up' to describe pretty much anything that required some assembly. It's application is far broader than just model train layouts. I never thought that it might be a Canadian colloquialism 'eh'.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Nice. You interview better than I do. Or at least are more photogenic.
Is that a Canadian thing, calling the layout a "set-up"? Like it's only there for a while, and it will be taken down. OK for the sectional portable layout you have, but the permanent club lkayout? Of course, Howard Zane has mentioned that a visitor or two to his wonderful layout asked if he took it all down and put it up again each Christmas. We called the one we used to set up when i was a kid the "platform" because, well, that's exactly what it was, two 4x4 sections of plywood sitting on sawhorses, no frame whatsoever.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Here is the Barrie Today article:
https://www.barrietoday.com/local-news/model-trains-steam-into-downtown-library-this-weekend-14-photos-1174846
We also got onto Barrie CTV local news.
https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1574765
The library show was quite a success. We had people lined up before the library opened and there was usually quite a crowd around the layout.
We only had one idiot knock a train off the rails! That was me!
Time to start a train TV channel - you can cover model trains in Canada, I can cover Amtrak travel in the US...
I got interviewed by the media today! No, it wasn't the New York Times.
We are doing a two day show at the Barrie library on Saturday and Sunday, and we were contacted by a local on-line community news service, Barrie Today, to talk about the show. We invited the gentleman to the club to talk about the show and who it would appeal to, and to see our layout in progress. He was quite interested in the layout. He took a bunch notes and lots of pictures, and even made a couple of videos of trains running. It will be great publicity for the club.
Of course a couple of the cars on the first train we showed him derailed seriously! Murphy's law.
I'll post a link to the article when it's out.
carl425What if you took the power plant out of the industrial area toward the bottom and put it roughly the same place but connecting to the mainline on the side of the aisle? I'd prefer the right side, but it could be on the left as well.
Hi again,
There won't be any space on the right side because the area is sloped up to the mainline which is about 6 1/2" above the surface that the power plant will be sitting on. There will be just enough room to the right of the power station as it sits now for a sub station. I'll add some elevations to the diagram and re-post it.
We could put the power station on the left as you suggest but we were hoping to have have a couple more industries in that area.
Edit:
Here's the drawing with elevations.
I know the first thing that you are going to think is that the terrain is following the track. I really wish that the room was a lot bigger but it isn't, and the mainline track is laid so we have to live with what we've got.
hon30critterthis is a club layout and we want to create as many opportunities for operators as we can
I thought that might be the case. Oh well.
What if you took the power plant out of the industrial area toward the bottom and put it roughly the same place but connecting to the mainline on the side of the aisle? I'd prefer the right side, but it could be on the left as well.
That would get rid of the corner cutting issue and establish the power plant as a separarte place which IMO is more realistic since they tend to be by themselves.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
Hi carl425. Thanks for your feedback.
carl425Remember that you have to make it look like the scenery was there first
Totally agree. Having the track look like it was carved into the scenery as opposed the the scenery coming after the track is a major goal.
carl425I'd encourage you not to be so anxious to fill every square inch of space with track. Before you know it, you'll have the dreaded "bowl of spaghetti".
If this were my own layout at home I would agree with you. However, this is a club layout and we want to create as many opportunities for operators as we can. In fact, we are deliberately putting in track configurations that don't necessarily make a lot of sense, but do provide some switching opportunities. If the track looks like a 'spaghetti bowl' so be it. We are not building the layout just to look pretty. I hope our reasoning doesn't offend too many people.
As it is, besides the yard, the service area and the passenger stations, there are only seven tracks coming off the mainline into industrial areas. That's not a lot IMO.
hon30critterAny comments?
Is this layout going to have any scenery? If so, do you care if it is believable?
The problem with cutting across the corner with the track for the power station is you're now on the spot to do something with the scenery that shows why the mainline didn't just take that route in the first place. Remember that you have to make it look like the scenery was there first - and in the case of industry tracks, like the mainline was there first.
I'd encourage you not to be so anxious to fill every square inch of space with track. Before you know it, you'll have the dreaded "bowl of spaghetti".
We have been working on ideas for the industrial area that sits under the long bridge. We are thinking of putting in a shortened version of Walthers Trans Load facility as well as a power generating station. They will be the main industries but there is lots of space for other stuff too.
The initial design has one run through track. We could put in a second one on the lower left by joining the two spurs but I'm not in favour of that option. To me it would simply be redundant track. There are already two mainline tracks following the same route. The track would also be curved throughout most of its length which would make it awkward for spotting industries along it.
One of the bridge towers blocks access to part of the trans load truck dock, but I think we can live with that. Either that or extend the dock so that trucks can access it past the tower.
Any comments?
I have wired two of the control panels.
This is the first one:
This is the second one. See any difference?
Both of them can be cleaned up with a couple of wire ties.
This is what the panel looks like. This is a temporary panel which will be used until we are satisfied that the track arrangements are final. Done with 3rd PlanIt.
Today I have been working on some of the turnout control panels. We planned on using bi-colour LEDs to indicate turnout position but now that I have the toggle switches in place I'm not so sure that the LEDs are a good idea. We wanted to keep the panels fairly small but that puts the turnouts quite close together in some places. The panels range from about 15" to 18" wide and they are all about 8" high. I'm concerned that it will be hard to see which LED is on which track unless you are standing directly in front of the panel. Part of the problem is that I bought 5mm LEDs. Either we have to make the panels bigger or we get smaller LEDs, or both.
Any thoughts?
We had a productive Layout Committee meeting on Monday night. We discussed terrain shapes for the southern half of the peninsula. The upper and lower tracks are pretty close together horizontally and we don't want the landscape to look like it came along after the railroad was built, so we were talking about putting some humps and hollows along the area where the tracks are closer together.
We also talked some more about the Hearst pulp operation that I mentioned previously. It will very likely go ahead but we want to find some pictures of the mill so we can come up with a reasonable resemblance.
We also discussed the area under the long bridge. The person who has taken the lead on that area had some Walthers structures in mind but we soon realized that they were too big for the space. One of them, the Walthers Transload Depot could be cut down by removing a couple of bays, but it still requires some space for the transport trucks to operate on. We are going to put a power plant and power station in the area since we already have the kits.
Tuesday night is our annual Christmas dinner. We are going to the Mandarin Chinese buffet. I always eat too much there and I always tell myself never to do that again, but I never listen!
Dave,
Just got caught up on the club build and it is coming along quite well.
Robert
PEDI have not maintained pace with all your posting
Yes, the post is getting a bit long winded, and there are also other threads associated with it. Maybe some day I'll do a condensed version.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the suggestion. We have a feed mill on the list of possibilities but nobody has made any suggestions about where it might go.
One of the guys has proposed a large pulp mill operation modelled on the (former) Tembec operation in Hearst in northern Ontario. We have some available space along the back wall of the lounge area which is only used to store folding chairs. It is about 18" x 11' so it would make a nice ISL.
It wasn't in the original plan because one of our more outspoken members insisted that we not intrude into the lounge area, but the space can't be used anyhow because of the surplus chairs. We can build right over top of them and the scene cqan be operated without interfering in the lounge area. His argument made no sense but thanks to club members reluctance to stand up to him he got his way, for a while anyhow. One of the joys of becoming President was having to warn him that his regular use of a raised voice to push his agenda was contrary to the club rules.
I have not maintained pace with all your posting but it looks like great progress. I knew you had been searching for industries earlier and I see that you still have some holes to fill. If it has not already been suggested earlier, you might consider a feed mill. I recently added one to my layout and it supprised me how much traffic it created. Needs lots of incoming materials (grains of many types, molasses, various chemicals, etc) as well as outbound shipments (bulk feed hoppers, bagged feed boxcars, etc) as well as incoming and empty cars to keep the workflow. Can also generate a lot of truck traffic if desired.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
We have broken new ground! We have just installed the first pieces of aluminum mesh between the upper and lower tracks. We are using the stuff that Brent suggested. It is a bit on the stiff side which is both a good and a bad thing. Once installed it is pretty solid, but shaping the bumps and hollows requires a bit of force. The easiest way that we found to form it was to have one person on either side with one pushing or tapping with a small hammer and the other holding the adjacent areas from moving. The stuff is hard on fingers. I've lost a couple of chunks already. Heavy duty work gloves are highly recommended.
Here's the mesh:
https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.175-gauge-galvanized-metal-lath-27-inch-x-84-inch.1000808020.html
We have also had a couple more members come forward with ideas for the industrial areas that don't have any themes yet. Getting that to happen has been like pulling teeth so this is a welcome development. Mind you, their suggestions have almost no detail let alone a track plan of some sort, but at least we now have more people who are actually willing to build something. We have a meeting scheduled for Monday night to flesh out some of the details.
Cheers everybody!!
Hope you have all your Christmas shopping done! I love Amazon!
Short update:
Most of the Tortoises are in and wired.
I am working on the control panels.
We decided to use Atlas #4 turnouts (Code 83 Customline) in the industrial areas, but we initially only bought two of them just for planning purposes. All of a sudden we need 14 #4 turnouts yesterday and of course the LH turnouts were out of stock. Our supplier, Cedar Creek Hobbys in Kingsville, ON (formerly Action Hobbys) went directly to Atlas and was able to get what we needed. The guys at Cedar Creek are great!
We have made a change to one part of the mainline that will make the Huntsville scene a whole lot better looking. Previously the mainline went behind the passenger station, which was neither prototypical of either standard railroad practise nor the actual track layout in Huntsville.
The brewery scene has given us fits because some track that led into the brewery wasn't laid where my drawings showed it should be. That made my drawings useless so the original scene that I drew up was a waste of paper. We have since got the drawings corrected and the final solution, which includes the mainline change past Huntsville, now fits where it is supposed to.
Finally, we managed to demonstrate our collective while trying to work out the wiring for the control panel LEDs. One LED would work fine but when we tried to add in a second LED we couldn't get the green indication anymore. So, we pondered all sorts of wild and whimsical solutions. Finally I asked the question on the forums and I got an answer right away (thanks Kevin). Put the LEDs in series dummies!! At the same time that Kevin was responding to my question our intreped master electrician figured it out too.
We lowered the height of the portable layout to about 42" and everybody loves the change. It was at 56" IIRC and that was way too high for public viewing. The reason the layout was so high is due to the construction of the storage containers and how they were used to support the layout when on display. After six or seven years we realized that we didn't need to put the layout on the containers, so we made up some tables that brought it down to a more appropriate height.
We had a Businees Meeting this past Tuesday. What started out as a short agenda grew into 1 1/2 hrs, but it was all important stuff. There is a lot going on besides building the layout. The key part of the meeting was to get funding approval for the next part of the layout construction. The funding was approved of course, what else were they going to say?!? Good thing too. We've already spent half of it!
I said that would be short. Never believe me when I say I'll be "short". I'm never short of words! Thank you for your patience!
P.S. Since I'm not being short, that should be signed 'David Roy Warnica'
deleted
Alton Junction
In real life somethings end up that are not logical even though the original plan was perfictly logical. Could be a zoneing restriction or part of the property was in a different juisdiction that would not allow whatever or unstable ground was discovered or a historic site.
We have finally made a bit of progress on the industrial areas, at least one of them anyhow. We have decided to do a brewery scene on the west end of the peninsula. It will be large enough to provide some switching opportunities so hopefully someone will be able to spend an hour or two just moving loads around the brewery. It will have its own switching engine and the leads will be long enough to accommodate several cars.
This is the kit we will be using:
https://www.walthers.com/gold-kits-whitewater-brewing-6-x-9-1-2-quot-15-2-x-24-1cm
Here is the plan. The red line is the fascia, the blue tracks are mainlines (the double mainline to the left is elevated above the single mainline beside it) and the black track leads into the Huntsville yard and passenger station. The location of some things like the grain silos and the CO2 delivery aren't particularly logical but that is done deliberately so that the operator will have to work at getting stuff where it is supposed to go. We had a much more logical plan but all that would be happening is we would have been bringing loads in and pulling loads out. Boring.
What do you think. Are you offended by the lack of logic in the plan?
riogrande5761did they make models for companies which display corporate office spaces in model form?
I'm not exactly sure what their models were for, but I suspect that they were making architectural models because we also scored a bunch of 1.0, 1.5 and 3.0mm styrene which I didn't know about until today.
hon30critter Sometimes stuff just falls in your lap. The club was given all of this for free today! The donor was the owner of a model making company that is shutting down. Dave
Sometimes stuff just falls in your lap. The club was given all of this for free today! The donor was the owner of a model making company that is shutting down.
What, did they make models for companies which display corporate office spaces in model form?
Looks like you hit the jack pot!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Nice. Every little bit helps. I know - that looks liek a lot of stuff - in one go, it is, but you do have a fairly large layout to cover, so it will take a LOT of trees and scenic material. But at least now you have a great start without dipping in to club funds.
JaBear,
When you get acclaimed popularity has nothing to do with it!
I'm tall enough. 6' 2", at least in the morning!
Cheers!!
P.S. Nothing from Ulrich.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Thanks Rich.
hon30critter As you may have seen on the Diner thread, I am now the President of the Barrie Allandale Railway Modellers Association.
As you may have seen on the Diner thread, I am now the President of the Barrie Allandale Railway Modellers Association.
Rich