What's going on on your layout ?...

[Anonymous]

I've noticed that a lot of model railroaders will build really nice layouts with lots of well laid scenery, buildings, roads, vehicles and so forth, but very few of them have much going on when it comes to people or animals...

On my layout, there's people talking and shaking hands and saying good bye at the station. Some guys are repairing a roof on a business. The town gossip is filling the ice man's ear with the latest local news. A man is in a hurry to get some where and is running to his truck. An elderly lady is standing on her front porch waving at cars that pass by. A cop is giving someone a ticket for speeding. There are kids playing baseball in a vacant field. Railroad employees are doing repairs on a side track. Hobos are standing around talking at their camp down by the city dump. A couple of old guys are playing checkers in the local fire house. A guy is patiently waiting for a station attendant to finish servicing a customers cars so he can look at his van at the gas station. A mountain lion is standing a top a hill watching two deer in a clearing in the forest down below. Etc.

So what's going on on your layout ?...

trainluver1

[SpaceMouse]

Right now I have a blacksmith fixing a broken mine cart. Another blacksmith working on a horse shoe. I have old Brakie teaching Harry Potter about being a brakeman. I have a couple guys standing around. But I really have more action going on in my signature right now. I'm just throwing structures at my layout to get a feel for how the landscaping is going to be.

But don't tak about it...Throw pictures at us.

[tstage]

Not a whole lot. The engineer has been on vacation for the past week. But, once he finally returned, he has managed to move a 11-hopper load of coal out of the yard and on it's way to its final destination.

Tom

[Anonymous]

Only two figures on mine to date are a couple of guys talking outside the depot building (which started life as a Model Power work train caboose...) - I agree about trying to arrange cameos like this. I also make sure to place them in situations where they look "natural" - standing rather than frozen in mid-stride, for example. I've seen quite a few otherwise superb layouts (particularly European ones - the figure manufacturers here seem to be keen on "moving" people) where the presence of persons with assorted upraised limbs makes it resemble a bizarre incident involving liquid nitrogen (anyone else seen the last few scenes in "Goldeneye"? Some of the figures look not unlike Boris...)

[ac4400fan]

Right now,,,im lloking at differnt figures to get ,,cant seem to find the right peaple, for my settings in differnt things any good sites to find some veritiy ????

carl

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ac4400fan

Right now,,,im lloking at differnt figures to get ,,cant seem to find the right peaple, for my settings in differnt things any good sites to find some veritiy ????

carl

I found I had to get creative. It seems like every other figure you get is a kid selling papers. I have one of those guys flagging a train. Another I cut the arm moved if forward and now he's a painter.

I got a lot of construction workers for cheap on eBay. Nothing fits the old west, but with a little filing, a little cutting...

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

Right now I have a blacksmith fixing a broken mine cart. Another blacksmith working on a horse shoe. I have old Brakie teaching Harry Potter about being a brakeman. I have a couple guys standing around. But I really have more action going on in my signature right now. I'm just throwing structures at my layout to get a feel for how the landscaping is going to be.

But don't talk about it...Throw pictures at us.

I've tried posting pictures before Mr. SpaceMouse, but have never been successful. However, even if I did, I model N scale-and my camera isn't all that great so it would probably be a waste of my time and yours. You'll just have to stop by and see it for yourself in person when on vaction through here one of these days...

trainluver1

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by trainluver1

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

Right now I have a blacksmith fixing a broken mine cart. Another blacksmith working on a horse shoe. I have old Brakie teaching Harry Potter about being a brakeman. I have a couple guys standing around. But I really have more action going on in my signature right now. I'm just throwing structures at my layout to get a feel for how the landscaping is going to be.

But don't talk about it...Throw pictures at us.

I've tried posting pictures before Mr. SpaceMouse, but have never been successful. However, even if I did, I model N scale-and my camera isn't all that great so it would probably be a waste of my time and yours. You'll just have to stop by and see it for yourself in person when on vaction through here one of these days...

trainluver1

Okay, I've been properly scolded. What's your adress? I'm just passing through Baton Rouge right now.




Just kidding. I can't imagine painting Lillputian Hobbits. I have enough trouble with Lilliputians.

[cbq9911a]

The wedding party has just stepped out of St. William of Stratford Church for photos before going to the Knights of Columbus Hall across the tracks for the reception. And a couple of railfans are out taking pictures at the RR station beside the church. Meanwhile, the garbage trucks of Lawyer's Refuse Service ("Call a lawyer to take your trash") are headed back to the garage.

[selector]

Thank-you for asking, because I just had a bi**h of a night last night. I inadvertently programmed my locos (cuz I left them both on the track at the same time...DUHHH!) in page mode when I wanted to change my QSI volume on the Hudson...only...and when I entered a value of "zero" on CV 49, everything went dead. for over 90 minutes I sweated and tried inputted and hard resets on both locos, and got nowhere. Just immobility and silence from both. Finally, after getting to the point where my back was literally knotting up, I placed one at a time on the track, with power, and they ran perfectly. Most unsettling, because my meter showed that the programming track was getting no power from the Digitrax controller when I tried that mode.

I am still at a loss, but the locos are fine.

To answer you question, my people activity is confined to the roundhouse and table area, and one nearby bridge where a worker is waiting for the train to cross before he resumes his duties, at a mine shunting trestle, and various people are waiting for the train at my station. A young lady is off to shcool across the street from my station, and 'grandpa' is holding her son on the porch, seeing her off (hey, this is the way it is nowadays...daughter interrupts Grade 12 for nookie, has child, asks Mom and Dad to provide daycare, and then resumes her studies.)

Yes, I am jaded.

[Anonymous]

Trainluver1, thank you for bringing out a, all too often, over-looked deminsion of this wonderful hobby. I am involved in the more "seamy" side of a city scape for too many reasons to post here. Some of the "mini-scenes" portrayed on in this tapestry of city life (as I see it) are: A guy and a gal on a serious date in a 1948 Ford convertible [top down]; both are dressed in "graduation" attire, parked on "lovers lane;" another involves a poor wretch of a fellow passed-out on a park bench; I have a car dealership with a man bartering with the salesman while his wife and child look on; a kid clinging to the rear "fender" of a Peter Whitt street car; a portly woman leaning from a second story "row house" window barking at her inimidated spouse "on the run;" then the proverbial peek-a-boo gal on the 3rd floor taking a shower (forgot to pull the shade). There are too many more scenes of the expected e.g., passengers hustling on a platform (conveyer belt); broken down 1939 Ford coupe with the hood up, driver laboring on the motor with a Cop "over his shoulder" and traffic piled-up behind; a painter on a suspended "seat" finishing a deck overpass (primer red to sliver finish coat. Then the usual train personnel: Chef at a "dutch door" on the Dining car, Porter taking a smoke in open vestibule; folks taking air on a open observation car (standard) platform. On and on it goes. All said, I have too much "going on" for most visitors but it is intresting to observe which guest espys a particular "cameo." "That's life," and ain't it grand? Enjoy this "under played" feature, as I know you must. Happy rails to you.