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Things you will never see on my ho layout

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  • Member since
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  • From: Lancaster city
  • 682 posts
Posted by cats think well of me on Thursday, January 14, 2021 10:47 PM

No shadow keystone or other railroad paint schemes dating after 1953.

No autos after 1954 (unless it's a kind that is barely different from earlier model years.

No locomotives without DCC and sound. 

No cats that are not 1/87th scale. 1:1 cats are a hard no near the trains. 

No commercial structures that are not modified at least a bit. I don't want building models to look exactly like they're out of an advertisement. No ready to go buildings unless I really love it. 

Nothing without a coat of dullcoat, and some weathering, even very minor weathering. 

No freight cars with identical numbers.

No plastic steam engines. Plastic diesels are fine.

No passenger cars without passengers. Though that may be very challenging for many cars like BLI P70 coaches.

No Kadee or Kadee type couplers. All Sergent. 

All metal wheels on virtually all rolling stock except on those with metal trucks.

No models without being weighted within a 1/2 oz or so to NMRA standards.

Alvie

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Posted by PM Railfan on Thursday, January 14, 2021 10:06 PM

John) I had a slew of funny-bone-ticklers to post but thought it prudent not to. So i will leave you with one more....

 

"You wont find me modelling houses on fire, or police riot scenes, or any other catastrophe.... accidents on my layout happen in real time."

 

Cheers!

Douglas

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  • From: Flyover Country
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Posted by York1 on Thursday, January 14, 2021 7:58 PM

PM Railfan
"You'll never see a business card from a MR layout photographer on my layout."

Now that's funny, and it's one that applies to me, too.

York1 John       

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Posted by mbinsewi on Thursday, January 14, 2021 7:50 PM

Scrolling through this thread, just to see what people are saying, I'm getting a real kick out of those "You'll never see that Tyco, or Life Like car." 

You can take a lesson on what excellent modelers, like Dr. Wayne, has done with those cars.

My 20 car raw frac sand train is refurbished Life Like hoppers, and they travel the rails just fine, at tack speeds.

Mike.

  • Member since
    January 2013
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Posted by PM Railfan on Thursday, January 14, 2021 7:33 PM

Ooooh, heres a good one! How about....

 

"You'll never see a business card from a MR layout photographer on my layout."

 

Hah! I bet thats a rare one to have indeed. I have never envisioned getting to that stage with my layout. Or even getting that good.

 

Clear Ahead!

PMR

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Thursday, January 14, 2021 6:07 PM

I have a police station, police cars, a fire station, and a rather impressive collection of fire equipment on the drive apron of the fire station.

The little HO scale police and firefighters just don't have anything to do except eat donuts and wash the fire trucks.

My father was a volunteer firefighter and my son is Paramedic and a volunteer firefighter.

Sheldon 

 

    

  • Member since
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  • From: Reading, PA
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Posted by rrinker on Thursday, January 14, 2021 6:03 PM

 Since the title of this thread is "things you will never see on my ho layout" the answer is simple:

 O scale trains.

 Laugh

                               --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Georgia, USA
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Posted by rayw46 on Thursday, January 14, 2021 5:47 PM
Car Cards setting against freight cars.
Shoot for the stars; so you miss, you are only lost in space.
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Posted by Shock Control on Thursday, January 14, 2021 5:30 PM

azrail
The Life Like cars in the 70s blister packs (remember those?) were originally Varney.

Yes, I have some Varney cars that were packaged as Lifelike.

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Posted by azrail on Thursday, January 14, 2021 4:25 PM

The Life Like cars in the 70s blister packs (remember those?) were originally Varney.

And the one thing you definitely will not find on my layout..any one wearing masks!

 

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Posted by Shock Control on Thursday, January 14, 2021 9:34 AM

FRRYKid
I will admit to having Tyco stuff on mine, but they have been repainted to something a little less shiny and the drives (for the engines) and the trucks have been changed to something better.

Oh, I have some 70s Tyco and Lifelike, but both still continued to manufacture the occasional realistic-looking car.  But those were few and far between.

I remember, as a kid in stores, combing through all the cheap Tyco and Lifelike crap looking for the occasional gem that looked more like a vintage Mantua or Athearn, and every so often finding something.

  • Member since
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, January 14, 2021 9:15 AM

I won't have a fire station or a police station... no room.

I do have fire trucks and police cars in my collection, and I will used them for posed scenes, but nothing will be glued in place.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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  • From: Miles City, Montana
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Posted by FRRYKid on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 11:45 PM

hon30critter

Any material that will attract mice. No papier mache

That reminds me of one of my first attempts at scenery. I used flour & water paper mache on a hill. The building where I had that layout was an old chicken coop (9000-10000 birds). I had the mice eat the scenery. The next time I made the mix, I ground up mouse poison blocks in the mix to stop that from happening again.

mobilman44

Anyway, on my 1950s era layout you won't see.........

- prisons, jails or police stations

How about a sheriff's office... next to the local watering hole! You'll see that on mine. (As an aside the name of the water hole is the "Loco Lash." I'll leave you to figure out what that is anagramed from.)

CNSF

5. Taxi, ambulance, fire vehicles, or city-style delivery trucks.

I admit I have fire trucks on mine... in the station. (I grew up around a volunteer fire department so I felt that I had to put one both the old layout which was version 2 and this current version 3.1.)

Shock Control

Things You Will Never See On My HO Layout(s):

9. 1970s-era cheap plastic glossy Tyco or Life-Like kitsch.

I will admit to having Tyco stuff on mine, but they have been repainted to something a little less shiny and the drives (for the engines) and the trucks have been changed to something better. I also have a couple of a certain type of Bachmann caboose. One is painted for a prototype caboose. The other will get painted at some point as well.

As to the things you won't see on my layout (or at least as the current plan goes):

1) Steam engines (Too old for my era.)

2) Purple railroad equipment. (I have just about every other color family though, including a pink engine and caboose as a tribute to my late maternal grandmother.)

3) Already mentioned, but I don't think anybody can say their layout is "finished."

4) Me purchasing equipment with onboard DCC. (I was given a couple pieces that I think are DCC that operate in dual mode but I'm not going to install it on the rest. Too many locomotives. >20 I fully expect to have more eventually when I get my uncle's collection.)

5) Purchased bridges. (The two that will be on the layout are both scratchbuilt.)

"The only stupid question is the unasked question."
Brain waves can power an electric train. RealFact #832 from Snapple.
  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 10:03 PM

PM Railfan
a finished layout.

There have been five previous versions of my railroad, and only one of them, version #4, has been finished.

It was also the smallest!

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    January 2013
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Posted by PM Railfan on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 6:24 PM

"Things you wont see on my HO layout?".......

 

a finished layout.

 

PMR

  • Member since
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  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 9:13 AM

SeeYou190
Someday I hope to score a big collection of Rail Graphics decals someone had made for a real cool roadname, and that will become the main railroad the SGRR will interchange with.

Wow! I posted that comment back in 2017.

Then I scored a collection of decals for the DAWDLE AND DELAY, and now I have a famous ficticious railroad to interchange with.

It all worked out!

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 8:55 AM

steemtrayn
A single track main that goes double just as it enters a tunnel.

I might end up with this situation. It is a compromise. There is an area where I want two hidden staging tracks, and would rather not have the turnout hidden inside of the tunnel.

cowman
WW II tank can be a static display in a memorial park.  I have a 105 mm howitzer, if I ever get the layout going to put a park on.

If I put any military vehicle on display on the layout (which I 99% will not), it will either be a 1944 model of a T-34/85, or a 1910 Baldwin Steam-Tank from AQotMF.

I have not assembled and painted mine yet, but it is an impressive model.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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    June 2007
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Posted by riogrande5761 on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 8:51 AM

Cats.

Rio Grande.  The Action Road  - Focus 1977-1983

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Posted by Southgate 2 on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 3:37 AM

Oh, I'll chime in here. Not on my layout:

Whimsey? Not on purpose. 

Accidents? Also not on purpose. They happen sometimes, usually operator error. Whistling

Locomotives that don't run smooth. They HAVE to run smoothly. I just finally relegated a cog belt Bachmann 2-8-0 to the deadline. (Not picking on Bachmann, I got it years ago used and abused, who knows it's history. Maybe made it worse myself.) It looks too good to hide, and I do have a railroad owned deadline-scrap yard I want well detailed. Which also brings up...

(no) Solid lump cast junkpiles

UFOs, bigfoot, dinosaurs. Aircraft hanging motionless. Frozen action scenes like water skiing, swing sets with the person up in the air, etc.

Anything out of scale; Hot Wheels,etc. No forced Perspective 3-d items. 

No commercially made turnouts. I can make 'em faster and FAR cheaper in code 70 than finding and ordering.  No code 100 except in hidden stage. No plastic wheels. No brass track.  Real Kadees, no copycats.

Any of the banned-from-forum-discussion or offensive subject items. Probably some other little things too. Dan

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted by BEAUSABRE on Monday, January 11, 2021 8:14 PM

The M4A3 (76) HVSS was the backbone of reserve formations until around 1956, a few units got used M46's as replacements, but most got the tail end of the M47 production run. As far as the 105mm goes, I presume you are talking about the WW2 vintage M2, which was gradually replaced in the Regular Army during Vietnam by the M102. In spite of that, I remember firing the M101 (as the M2 was renamed) in 1962 in 1973 at ROTC Advanced Camp at Ft Riley. I'm not sure how long it lingered with reserve outfits - maybe into the Eighties.

(2) A Sherman is hit by an express train in Barberton, Ohio in 1951. 3 of the 6 crew were crushed to death, and the train was derailed. : DestroyedTanks (reddit.com)

 

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Posted by angelob6660 on Monday, January 11, 2021 5:58 PM

I'm going to try, since I thought I posted earlier but I didn't. 

1. Automobile that fit the appropriate era timeframe. So no 1950s vehicles with modern one vise verse. 

2. Change a building or station that no longer exists. 

3. Maxi-Stack containers in the correct period. Like in Sea Land or Neptune in the 20-- and written websites in the 90s. Just because the container didn't change in 90s doesn't mean the internet really exist for normal people. Who couldn't afford it.

4. Freight cars and locomotives that no longer exist. 

5. No superheroes, Godzilla, etc. I love Vicki Vale and Daphne Blake in cameo but nothing else.

More later I hope.

Modeling the G.N.O. Railway, The Diamond Route.

Amtrak America, 1971-Present.

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    June 2002
  • 569 posts
Posted by drgwcs on Monday, January 11, 2021 4:09 PM

the old train man

1 spider webs on the mainline

18 telephone poles with scale working wires

 

Was just pondering this- I have been trying to train the spiders to string the telephone lines for years..........Big Smile

Besides I live in the south some of our spiders are big enough to carry off a locomotive......Big Smile (well at least Z scale)

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    December 2016
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Posted by Shock Control on Monday, January 11, 2021 3:40 PM

Things You Will Never See On My HO Layout(s):

1. Any prototype dating from after the Kennedy adminstration.

2. Residents who drink cheap domestic beer.  They have to drink high-end cocktails, or they don't get to live in the residential section.

3. Any structure that is not mid-century moderne, unless it is something like a tool shed.

4. Weathered cars, as size and distance take care of the weathering by themselves.

5. A NYC car on a PRR train.

6. A locomotive newer than an F unit.

7. Any locomotive or car that can't handle an 18" radius curve.

8. A spaghetti bowl track plan.

9. 1970s-era cheap plastic glossy Tyco or Life-Like kitsch.

10. Disasters, injuries, deaths, crimes, racism, UFOs, conspiracy theories, and the like.

 

.

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Posted by mbinsewi on Monday, January 11, 2021 3:11 PM

SeeYou190
This topic was brought up in another thread, so I thought it was worth another look... sorry Rich... I am bringing back another one.

And such an interesting topic it is!  Laugh  Confused Mischief

Doesn't look like I responded the first time around, why start now?

Mike.

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    October 2020
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Posted by NorthBrit on Monday, January 11, 2021 2:37 PM

Not on my railway.

 

Any tunnels.  The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company only built tunnels as a last resort.    The line from Earlsheaton Junction to Leeds Sovereign Street was on low ground.   Even the line to Wetherby  bypassed the hills to the west of the built line.

Locomotives running out of era.    The LMS locomotives (bar 1)  are all preserved so can run as steam specials.

Out of era scenes.   The scenes portrayed on the layout have to be in the right timeframe.

No DCC.   Do not understand it nor want to

David

To the world you are someone.    To someone you are the world

I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought

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  • From: Canada, eh?
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Posted by doctorwayne on Monday, January 11, 2021 1:52 PM

"Things you will never see on my ho layout".

the old train man

7 a wye in a tunnel

8 a spur track in a tunnel

9 a turntable in a tunnel

Yeah, but just because we can't see them in the tunnel, that's no guarantee that they're not there.

Probably the worst thing anybody could have seen on my layout would have been me, laying on the upper level of the layout at the far end of this aisle, painting the rails with a brush...

There's all sorts of stuff on my layout that shouldn't be there, but since nobody can come to visit, nobody's gonna see it unless I post pictures of it.

On the other hand, nude women would be welcome if they wanted to drop in to run some trains.   I'm no prude. Smile, Wink & Grin

Wayne

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
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Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, January 11, 2021 1:00 PM

I Revisited my list of  things that will never exist on the STRATTON & GILLETTE:

6: Locomotives pulling more than 10 cars around the layout

I have since discovered I will have two staging tracks with the capacity for 12 car trains!

7: A night scene

100% change on this one. I will absolutely have lighted buildings and night scenes.

12: Curve Radiuses sharper than 24 inches

For the branchline I will drop down to 22 inches, and 18 in the industrial area.

15: Metal wheels on cabooses

I have since decided it is better to modify the caboose underframes and use Kadee trucks and metal wheels.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, January 11, 2021 12:36 PM

This topic was brought up in another thread, so I thought it was worth another look... sorry Rich... I am bringing back another one.

I need to revisit my original list... a lot has changed in three years. I also want to hear from new members in our group. I was very new when I posted my list.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    June 2009
  • 288 posts
Posted by CNSF on Sunday, June 11, 2017 10:11 PM

I've enjoyed reading everyone's submission so now I guess it's my turn to have a go.  For context, I am modeling the Santa Fe transcon in NW Oklahoma in 1964 using Garrison Keillor's "Mist County" method; i.e. stereotypical but fictional locations/scenes inspired by actual prototypes.

1. Any cute little scene ever marketed by Woodland Scenics.

2.  Any other cute little scene that might give Woodland Scenics ideas.

3. An outhouse, even if not part of a cute little scene, with a crescent moon on the door.

4.  Any kind of luxury car, such as Cadillac or Lincoln, or any import at all except for VW Beetles and maybe a minibus.  I wish someone would make a Rambler.

5. Taxi, ambulance, fire vehicles, or city-style delivery trucks.

6. Plastic wheels on rolling stock.

7. Onboard sound (because even if I completely change my mind someday and retrofit my 40+ locomotives, you still won't see it!)

8.  Anyone fishing, swimming, or boating in that certainly polluted and possibly hazard-filled waterway under the railroad bridge.

And finally, given my current rate of progress:

9. Fully finished scenery end-to-end.

10.  Half of my steamer trunk full of unbuilt kits.

 

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Sunday, June 11, 2017 9:52 AM

BRAKIE

 

 
NYBW-John
Bachmann has made the decision to phase out the Spectrum brand and market everything under the standard line and that makes it impossible to distingusih the quality merchandise from the junk. I simply won't purchase anything from Bachmann that isn't Spectrum which means I won't be buying anything new from them.

 

I think you may be looking in the wrong direction..DCC on board seems to be their "Spectrum" of late. My Bachmann DCC/Sound Alco S-4 is a very good engine.

 

It does amaze me sometimes how people are about "names" and fancy packages.

Like somehow the Bachmann 2-8-0 magicly became lessor quality when they stopped putting it in a big fancy box. It would make no sense from a manufacturing standpoint to "cheapen" the quailty. Any retooling to cheapen the model would cost more than any production savings they could realize.

What they did was smarter, they "cheapened" the part that does not matter - the box. Does the box run or your layout? Or just boost your ego because it is big and expensive looking like a brass loco box?

And by making the box smaller, they also saved on shipping, keeping costs down in an ever inflating global market.........

They also found that a great percentage of the market was actually happy with just a "little" less detail. So the newer steam, the 2-8-4, 2-6-0, 2-8-2 and 4-6-2 are reasonably well detailed, just not quite old "Spectrum" level, but with drive lines equal to any older Spectrum.

In fact, the Bachmann 2-8-4 has more correct and better road specific details than the MTH model..........

Well what has Broadway Limited done? Generic 2-8-2, 4-6-2, 2-8-0 with less and/or molded on detail, and not one small road specific detail change on any version. Bachmann can at least manage correct trailing trucks, different headlight locations, different tender versions.......guess they are all seeing the same trends in the market........

Except for a couple handrails on the tender, and no deck plate between the engine and tender, my regular line Bachmann 2-8-4's (converted to freelance heavy 2-8-2's) are every bit as nice as my Spectrum 4-8-2, 2-6-6-2, 2-8-8-4, 2-10-2, 4-6-0, etc.

One of my five Mikado conversions before the paint shop:

I added some weight, changed some details, added a bridge plate.....

You are all most welcome to pay more for those big glossy BLI and MTH boxes......

Like my daddy once said, A Caddilac is just a big Chevy with power windows and power seats - and in that business, if any of you had any idea how many different cars were/are build from the exact same parts........

Sheldon

    

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