My world just got flipped upside down and backwards. I got inspired to do a "what if" layout based on Athearns not-so-soon to come out (November) AC4400 in Milwakuee Road paint. That was HO, and would require the entire 10 x 11 foot room, double decks, a helix to connect the decks, and removable bridge tracks to make it conituous. I planned a roster made of newer locos. AC44's, GP50's, GP and SD60M's, and just to make it tie together a few MILW FP45's and SD40's. Well that all go turned around.
I decided to do a search in N scale. Good thing I did. I found what I wanted and will now go with N scale. I can now fit basically my entire planned HO double track layout in a single deck around the room. No more double deck, no more helix, just a single removable bridge track to make it continuous. It won't be fancy, maybe a T-beam made from 2x6's I have laying around, some foam board so I can do some scenery, and probably a back drop to help block the door. But back to the point, I can do my hole entire modern day MILW in N scale, and all between 3 manufactorers. To tie it into what really did happen I will have some GP40-2's, FP45's, and SD40-2's on hand, and maybe even a GP30. Here goes the list.
Bachmann: GP50
Atlas: early and late style cab SD60M's, GP40-2, GP30
Athearn: SD75M, SD70M, FP45
Kato: SD90, SD90MAC, SD80MAC, SD70MAC, AC4400, and SD40-2
So now I have the wonder of figuring out which engines I want. All will be DCC, but I don't know about sound. The Athearn FP45's will come with DCC/sound but they're also almost as much as an HO one. I may just use the engines I want in pairs, have one straight DCC and the other with sound. Then I could get the sound and only half my engines would need it so it would be cheaper.
This also lets me take more advantage of the layout. With HO I wasn't going to get much. A log loading scene, grain elevator, and possibly a concrete plant. With N, who whooooooooo. I will have all three of those, a town scene with large scrap yard and lumber yard that get rail served, both modeled after very local (could walk there in 15-20 minutes) business, and still be able to have room to run long trains through scene passes. My world just got a lot better. I will now also have enough room to run more than a pair MU'd loco's and maybe one wayfreight. Now I can run maybe 2 long consits (I'm thinking a 'log' train and maybe grain train, both around 50 cars at most), and maybe do 2 towns and have 2 way-freights running. I will also now be able to do have an operating session with multiple operators (like 4 or 5) and be able to hold operating sessions, and have on layout staging. It would be hidden in the closet, but it's still on layout. The yard would be made big enough to hold all my rolling stock. With the HO it would have been all kept in a hundred pull out drawers, maybe some rubber maid bins put under the layout itself, and the removable bridge tracks would have been the staging.
It has also made me decide to go with the Digitrax Super Empire Builder starter set. I was leaning towards the Zephyr, but if I had all 10 or so engines I plan on having running on the layour, half with sound, I would rather just spend the extra cash and get the piece of mind with 5A's, instead of go with 2.5A and find out during a session that I have to now go spend another 200 dollars or so on a booster. Hopefully I can do this because with the number of engines, the sound, and the layout size if I had to go with the Super Cheif's 8A, well the SP isn't cheap. But the awesome ness of my layout possibilties just skyrocketed through the roof.
And on top of all this, there is talk about Holywood coming back to WI for a film. I guess it is something to do with a run away train. But of course, that movie tax incentive thing that made the producers of the soon to be released Johnny Dep movie filmed here, may get knocked off the block. Pretty stupid if you ask me. It hasn't been enacted for very long and we've already had one hollywood movie fimled in the state, another one possibly on the way, and a number of low budget films have been done too. I need to find that reffurendem to kick Doyle out of office, he's just screwing this state right up.
Don't you love it when a plan comes together?
I presume that you don't have a many kilobuck investment in HO rolling stock - or that you and E-bay are on good terms...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in HOj/twice-N scale)
Welcome to N scale! I love being able to fit so much into spaces b/c of the scale.
One thing though; the bachmann GP50 is their standard line, which isn't really up to snuff. I've always wondered about bashing the shell onto an atlas GP38-2 and using the Atlas handrails. If I do this, I'll tell you how to do it too.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah I love that show. There's a local channel called RTN (Retro TV Network) that so far is the only good thing about switching to digital TV. reception can be a bear to get, and it's more annoying now than with analoge. At least with anologue you still got something in, now with this digitral crap when reception is back it's like dish, it's there or it's not. Heck a few channels even cut in and out when an airplane flies over head. We live close to an airport, and one of the routes goes over the house.
tomikawaTT Don't you love it when a plan comes together? I presume that you don't have a many kilobuck investment in HO rolling stock - or that you and E-bay are on good terms... Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in HOj/twice-N scale)
Actually I'm going with N scale. 130-140 bucks for DCC engine, compared to around 280. But there is a snaffoo.
As of last night my "brother from another mother" best friend had problems with his father. He took the option of moving out. I've been in that situation before (lived on a buddies couch for 4 days, used his basement as a storage unit) so I offered to let him live with us. We're really close so it won't bother us at all. So now my plans have been swapped. I still plan on having all the engines I said, just a lot less operating, and no realy big scenic hauls. He did say I could still build the layout in the other bedroom, he would even help "build trains together" as he put it (he doesn't realize the scope of things) but I can't. I don't want to intrude on his soon to be livign space, not to mention he needs the closet space. My layout went right across the closet. So now I will end up going with something much small than a point-to-point/continuous around the room layout with a penninsula in a 10x11.5 room. It will end up a shelf layout. Size is what I have to figure out, depending on if it will go into me and my fiance's bedroom or go into the living room. Either way my idea is to have a double deck design with at least one helix, I'm hoping two. The way I see it if I can work something out to make a few roads removable and attach the buildings to the layout wiht magnets, I can take all the structures off, have my train start on the top deck and run down it, run down through the helix to the bottom level, run down the bottom deck, and then either go through a return loop or get back to the top deck with another helix. Do this once or twice, then slow the train down real fast so I can quick put my structures in place and there I go. So I will probably end up making it mostly scenery. I am highly interested in modeling Walthers Superior Paper mill, prototypically mind you, and basically an LDE from my fiance's home town where right smack in the middle of town they have an area where wood cars get loaded. I don't remember seeing log cars so I think they were pulpwood bulkhead cars. I figured I could do the pulpwood loading on the top deck, maybe a cement plant or something to add some more stuff, and have the pulp mill on the lower deck with a small town scene.
Now I wish I lived in a house though. My original plan had the pulpwood mill, a pulpwood loading scene, Walthers diary complex, concrete/cement plant based off the one down the road from use, complete loco service facility, car shop facility, grain elevator, pretty big lumber yard, cold storage warehouse, a brewery, a coal fired power plant, and possibly a normal warehouse plus one other thing which I just forgot what it was. It was all going to be designed for operating based on the near book size (bout 40 pages, single space, 8 font, 1/2 inch margines worth of) of info on how to design for realistic operation. It wasn't that published book though, basically some guy sharing info on the net. I forget the website. Had it all worked out. Approximate number of cars needed for maximum (everything that can have cars spotted gets switched) operating session, how many trains I would need, number of operators for multi-operator sessions. Now it's pretty much all back down the drain. Half it was anyways because I found more locos. Now I need to decide which one's I want from a AC4400, early and late style SD60M, FP45, SD75M, SD70M, SD70MAC, SD70ACe, SD90, SD90/43MAC, SD80MAC, SD40-2, C44-9W, GP38-2, GP40-2, MP15AC, and GP15-1. Quite a few of these I can get straight from the manufactorer in MILW paint and even a few right away with DCC. Some will be easy as I'm trying to model a 'what if' scenario and going modern times, so I'm looking at the newer locos like the 60's, 70',s and the 90's. No matter what I have to have at least one AC4400 because I first came up with all this when I fell in love with Athearns HO scale MILW AC44. After this whole thing with my friend I realized it would be smaller and I would probably have to add some more 4 axle locos and maybe switchers. The SD40-2 I only really have on there because at one point in time Athearn made one in a MILW bicentennial paint scheme. A picture of that engine is now the background on my cell, and I will probably end up making a collage of all the pics of the MILW painted engines as a background for my computer back at home.
So now basically everything except the engines is shot out the door. I know I don't need all the engines, but it is sort of turning into a collection too, not just for operating the layout. It also pondered me because now my layout will small and more closely spaced, so now the need for 6-axle locos has fallen below the level of the need for 4-axle locos. Hense the addition to the GP 38's, the 40's, the switcher, and the GP15-1, which I may just buy from Atlas in the CNW paint and have it 'patched out' to MILW. I also had the idea of doing this with one of the newer ones such as CNW SD70 or something. Was also a tad inspired to do a GP30 slug after reading the caption to this months pic in the Trains magazine calander.
Well I guess let me know what ya'll think. I will be measuring and planning this weekend so maybe by monday I will have a basic plan I can post up for forum analysis. I wouldn't count on it though, my friends moving in saturday and we do alot of stuff with each other. probably be more now since he lives one room over instead of across town. Need to get off here and do some research on the LDE's I think I want to use.