I've learned to never say never. The minute you do, your 11 year old buys you something for christmas that does not fit at all with the layout, but looking at their beaming with pride, happiness, and love face, on the layout it goes.
Mike
Water Level Route I've learned to never say never. The minute you do, your 11 year old buys you something for christmas that does not fit at all with the layout, but looking at their beaming with pride, happiness, and love face, on the layout it goes.
Yes, with kids, all bets are off! I never thought I'd put a MILW loco on my layout but the ST SDL39's are so cool, I am going to have to invoke rule #1
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
One thing you will absolutely never, ever see on my layout is handlaid track. I've never had an urge to even give it a try. Pre-fab track works just fine, thank you.
John-NYBW One thing you will absolutely never, ever see on my layout is handlaid track. I've never had an urge to even give it a try. Pre-fab track works just fine, thank you.
I learned to hand lay track and scratch build turnouts at a young age. My first layout, built for me by my father when I was 10, had TruScale milled wooden roadbed track, some of which was their "kit" version, and I learned how to spike rail on that, making some changes tothe layout at age 12-13.
By age 15-16 I was member of the Severna Park Model Railroad Club, and the masters there taught me how to scratch build turnouts.
The second layout I was then building at home was all hand layed track and turnouts.
But not any more. These days I reserve my track building skills for special turnouts and crossings only.
And even at that, I have developed methods to curve regular manufactured turnouts, and to use the points and frogs of manufactured turnouts to make custom turnouts when needed.
Sheldon
riogrande5761Yes, with kids, all bets are off! I never thought I'd put a MILW loco on my layout but the ST SDL39's are so cool, I am going to have to invoke rule #1
Kind of similar, I saw this brass RSD-12, and even though it is too new for 1954, it was so cool (like the SDL-39), that I had to invoke rule 1 and buy it.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Ah, but being able to hand lay switches opens up possibilities. You can start a siding in a curve, making it much longer.
What's this SDL-39 I'm suddenly seeing come up? Couldn't find it in a google search.
Edited in: I found it. Nice!
Southgate 2 Ah, but being able to hand lay switches opens up possibilities. You can start a siding in a curve, making it much longer.
I've never found the need for a custom turnout. My track plans are drawn on graph paper and are just a starting point. Once I start laying track, I have to make slight adjustments anyway. I'd rather just tweak the plan than try to build a turnout to fit the plan.
As for starting a siding in a curve, I'm doing that right now using curved turnouts from Peco. I just laid one end of the siding and am building toward the other end of the siding which will also use a curved turnout. So much easier than custom building a turnout. I had to shorten the siding a bit because there will be a grade beyond the siding and I wanted to keep it at a max of 2%. The siding will still be long enough to hold any train that will run on this branch.
John-NYBW Southgate 2 Ah, but being able to hand lay switches opens up possibilities. You can start a siding in a curve, making it much longer. As for starting a siding in a curve, I'm doing that right now using curved turnouts from Peco. I just laid one end of the siding and am building toward the other end of the siding which will also use a curved turnout. So much easier than custom building a turnout. I had to shorten the siding a bit because there will be a grade beyond the siding and I wanted to keep it at a max of 2%. The siding will still be long enough to hold any train that will run on this branch.
Southgate does have a point, but for learning and building good turnouts is a hobby within a hobby so like you, I try to make commercial turnouts work.
I tried handlaying, with Fast Tracks. It's just not for me - but at least I tried. People sometimes say I'm a picky eater, too - but there are few things I don't like that I haven't at least tried first.
Actually, the FIRST turnout I made came out fine. Ugly, but it was reliable - no amount of tryuing to force a truck to skew would cause it to pick the point or derail. Operational about as good as it gets. So I figured I was all set to spend a little time and save a lot of money by handlaying my turnouts. But after that initial success, I couldn't get a good frog no matter what. No idea how the first one worked so well. Eventually I gave up and went back to commercial turnouts. I've sonsidered handlaying a smalls ection of regualr track, just so I can say I did it - I have the materials. But other than the satisfaction, what would I gain? 3 feet of track that takes as long to lay as running 30 feet of flex track? So you probably won't be seeing any handlaid track on my layout.
Unless someone brings one over and asks to run it - you will never see a Big Boy on my layout.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker 3 feet of track that takes as long to lay as running 30 feet of flex track? So you probably won't be seeing any handlaid track on my layout. Unless someone brings one over and asks to run it - you will never see a Big Boy on my layout. --Randy
3 feet of track that takes as long to lay as running 30 feet of flex track? So you probably won't be seeing any handlaid track on my layout.
Exactly my feeling. What do I gain by doing things the hard way when it is so much faster to use prefab track. I don't churn my own butter either. The store bought butter is good enough for me. I do make my own maple syrup because:A. I have lots of maple trees.
B. It's easy to do.
C. It tastes so good.
D. Store bought maple syrup is so expensive.
Getting back to track, flex track looks plenty good to me. I've started to weather my track but I don't think it adds that much. I really don't even notice the track when a train is running on it. I don't see much sense is spending lots of time on it.
As for the Big Boy, you probably won't see one on my current layout but my old layout was a freelanced UP layout. My roster included a Big Boy, two Challengers, and two Northerns, all with the Rivarossi pizza cutter flanges. Just won't run well on code 83 which is what my current layout has. I'm thinking of selling all those old Rivarossi steamers. I hate to get rid of them but they aren't doing me much good on the shelf. I see on ebay they are still selling for between $100 and $150. I'll have to clean them up a bit and the roof of one of my Challengers has as chip out of it that needs repair but last I checked on a code 100 test track, they still ran well.
Southgate 2 Ah, but being able to hand lay switches opens up possibilities. You can start a siding in a curve, making it much longer. What's this SDL-39 I'm suddenly seeing come up? Couldn't find it in a google search. Edited in: I found it. Nice!
Again, from my earlier post, I have learned how to curve conventional commercial turnouts for a number of such applications. My curves are broad, 36" and above, and it is easy to cut the tie web and make large radius curved turnouts from #6 and #8 Atlas turnouts.
And even though I have experiance building trurnouts and had laying track, I prefer to do what I described above or actually using the points and frog of a commercial turnout to make a special turnout.
Things you'll never see in my train collection (I'm in a modular club so there's no layout in my house).
Weathered Containers
Weathered Diesels
Walthers Goldline Bilevel/Trilevel Auto Carriers (They're so difficult to find and extremely pricey)
Orange Schnieder Trailers
BNSF Locomotives (Black/Yellow/Orange - Phase 3)
Cars with truck mounted couplers
Cars with horn hooks
Rapido Coaches
Broadway Limited California Zephyr Cars
Any Brass Coach Yard (TCY) or Challenger Imports Limited Passenger Sets
Any Brass Hallmark Steam Locomotives
Open Auto Carriers
Plastic Wheel Trucks
UP Gas turbines
Cheap Life-Like Stuff
ATSFGuyThings you'll never see in my train collection (I'm in a modular club so there's no layout in my house).
There were some awfully specific items on your list.
Is it just Orange Schneider trailers, or are the silver, white, and gray variations of Schneider trailers allowed?
reasearchhoundNo flying witches at Halloween or Santa in a sleigh at Christmas - or any other time.
I have a seasonal Santa, but he stands at a street corner like the Salvation Army Santas we have seen around towns for decades. No witches, flying or otherwise. I do have a mermaid and Dorothy, the Tin Woodsman, Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow, plus Elvis outside the Heartbreak Hotel. Silly things like that are found in nooks and crannies for viewers to find.
And there's just a sign to the Gump Forest National Park on a road going out of town...
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.