Okay, this is getting nuts.

[SpaceMouse]

I was looking though a book that has some really good pictures from the time I was modeling, 1885 SP. The thing I noticed is that the platforms were built to the level of the track on passenger stations. Not to the level of the cars like I thought. So, what I need to do is cut the platforms off my stations and build the same structure with a wood base to rail height. Can do.

But the station is in a section of the layout, I've classified as done. I'm trying to move systematically West to East. IF I keep fixing things, I'll never get "done" so I can start the basement layout.

Is there no end?

[Anonymous]

That's the nature of the hobby. You build something, then latter more information comes to light that bugs you to change it.

If the model is finished, there's nothing wrong with saving changes for later.

[mikesmowers]

My HO MRR will never be ""done""
Mike

[Anonymous]

I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to do my next layout. I am less than a week away from having a vacant 24 x 24 area in the basement. I have seriously thought about building things in modules like 2 foot by 2 foot for buildings and the like. I don't know. I am not as accomplished a detail person like some of you guys, but I just think that if I could start out in little bits and bites that I could make something of it.

The Homasote Kid....

[pcarrell]

Welcome to model railroading Chip! [:D] Gotta love it, right?

The question really is, does it bother you so much that you just can't live with it at all and it must be changed immediately, or can this be saved until you reach the point where the layout has an overall "complete" feeling to it and you're just down to the details? Some people just have a need to make everything in one section right before they move on. This slows the overall process if you ask me. Others get the overall look they're after, then move on, knowing that they will return later to spuce things up and sweat the details. I'm not saying that slip-shod work will cut the mustard, I'm just saying that a general "feel" is what you're after on the first pass. To me this gives more of a sense of accomplishment as you can actually have measurable progress. But, that's just me. Those details not being "just right", even for the time being, would probably drive some people insane.

Now you have to ask yourself, do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya,.....punk? (oh wait, sorry, flashback!)

No, you have to answer for yourself, can you live with it knowing that you'll come back to it, or is it going to eat you alive?

[Anonymous]

I know what you mean, Chip.
I've found something like this would really bother me until I changed it.

I am building a freelanced railroad, and have a small brewery - I was planning on changing some Tivoli cars. Just making a new decal to put over the Tivoli billboard and leave the rest. But now the T.U.X reporting is bothering me and I will probably end up repainting the whole car. Why!? Who will know that T.U.X was for Tivoli Union? me...and I guess that is enough.

[GRAMRR]

Hey, Space -
Now that you mention it, I have never, in 66+ years seen a photo or movie of a train in a station where the platform was level with the doors. The train staff always helped folks up and down the little portable steps that they always put at the doors. Thanks for the big jolt to my reality. Now, I don't have to feel "wrong" if my platforms aren't up tp the door sills.
Yeah!
Chuck

[Anonymous]

You'll just hate this... How did you ever get high level platforms for your period??? Even hollywood gets that right!
Don't you just HATE some people!
Look at the pictures...Look at the pictures...Look at the pictures...Look at the pictures...

Are those nuts AMF, Whitworth, Metric?

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by David Foster

You'll just hate this... How did you ever get high level platforms for your period???

Uh, it came that way in a kit.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

QUOTE: Originally posted by David Foster

You'll just hate this... How did you ever get high level platforms for your period???

Uh, it came that way in a kit.

Sue then for trauma! [}:)][;)][8D]

[BRAKIE]

Chip,Heres what works for me..I make a note of the scenery error and move on to the next section I am working on..Once I fini***he layout I go back and correct the mistakes.You see that gives me a layout"project" after my layout is finish or as far I am going to take it..See how it works?

[SpaceMouse]

Thanks Brakie.

Let's make this constructive. Since I'm going to change the passenger platform what will be on it?

I'm assuming the freight platform will still be car door height.

Mail pouch hook. (I could use a picture of one)
Water barrels for fire.
A couple benches.
A luggage cart

What else?

[MidlandPacific]

Loafers. But Musket Miniatures can probably provide them.

[SpaceMouse]

The same is that I'm going to cut up a model that my daughter built. The only one she did and she did a good job on it.

[jxtrrx]

The joy is doing it, not finishing it.

[Jetrock]

Or you could just raise the level of the track.

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jxtrrx

The joy is doing it, not finishing it.

Yeah, but this layout is "temporary," something to run while I build pahse 1 and two of my basement layout. I thought I would start it his year. Now I see starting it 2-3 years from now. By the time I start the Redwood Empire, all the engines I have collected for it will be obsolete. [V]

[Anonymous]

Things on "platforms"...
First- only things that can't be walked off with and/or are low value.
Things will be placed clear of the edge... probably 6' for safety both to the things and to people walking on the platform.
Things will also be stacked neatly and safely so that they won't fall and break or injure anyone.
Fire water barrels aren't so likely unless you are in high fire risk areas. Train crews had strict rules to obey with regard to fire risks around depots.
You might have an early fire extinguisher on an office wall
Which raises the question... do you have a telegraph office or despatchers office?
Stuff on platform will be placed close to where caboose, mail car or combine doors will stop or on trolleys ready to be rolled up close. train stop times are usually short son the staff want to be able to open the doors, pile the stuff on and close the doors. they don't want to be carting stuff along the platform more than essential. this still applies. Watch any platform where luggage or mail is loaded: the staff know where to put things ready.
You can add a detail to this... where parcels or similar traffic may get re-directed to different destinations/trains there are often chalk marks or proper signs on wall desiganting where parcels for specified destinations should wait. Some trolleys are dedicated in the same way. TNT Fedex and the rest just carried on doing what the RR had been doing for ages.
Have you thought of egg boxes? fish boxes?... both were returned as empties in the days before everything was used once and trashed.
A lot of passneger parcels traffic was "smalls" If you ordered a hat from a catalogue it came in a parcel on the train.

Hope this helps.

[SpaceMouse]

I'm not sure of the SP, but the director of the Central Pacific ordered fire barrels on plaforms on the Overland Route. My layout is a mythical section of the time 1885, when the CP and SP just combined. I can't see the barrels having been removed. But, that is an assumption and can be shown the errors of my ways.

There would be a telegraph at this location, but no dispatcher. This is the mining town Rock Ridge with the station downhill from the main street. the dispatcher's office would be located in Train City.

[fwright]

Spacemouse

I feel your pain. I keep learning that my assumptions about how things were done 110 years ago have some serious and some not so serious flaws. As to when or whether you fix the platforms, if and when it rises to one of your higher priorities, I know you will do a great job taking care of it.

As for myself, I've been studying books to see how the dog-hole schooners were supported by the local railroad, and how they were loaded. Turns out traditional bulkhead wharves were only used in the biggest of ports. Loading chutes to an anchored shop were much more common, and piers built out into the water next (even though these structures seldom lasted more than a couple of years). Other questions to answer include whether piers had their own loading booms, or did they use the schooner booms for loading from the pier? How rugged did the pier have to be to support loaded freight cars?

yours in learning about and modeling the past
having fun on the Tillamook Head and Bethel Railway in foggy coastal Oregon where it's always 1900.
Fred W

[SpaceMouse]

Just further south in the Mendicino to Tinidad Head areas they used long cables to load boats that couldn't come in close to the shore. I thought about modeling that, but gave it up as too large a space for not-railroad activity. It was a hard choice.

[MidlandPacific]

CP was a wood burning railroad until after the turn of the century, converting only briefly to coal before finally adopting oil - this may explain the requirement for fire barrels.

[pcarrell]

Chip, if it's a temporary layout, why all the sweat? Learn the skills you're going to need for the big one, then when you transplant the station (I'm assuming that's the plan) to the big layout just fix the height then. As to the details like fire barrels, baggage carts, tie up posts for horses, tumbleweed, and so on, I wouldn't get too bogged down in that on a learning layout. I'd try a little of everything, that's what a learning layout is for. But I don't think I'd loose much sleep over whether the nails are all in a straight line on the passenger platform. ( I know you just looked at that, didn't you? [;)] )

[SpaceMouse]

Actually, I've built over 300 decks and had them in Sunset Magazine etc. Straight rows of nails are something I insisted on from my crews.

As to the other question. This will be my main running railroad for the next several years. I won't need any structures off of it until both Phase 1 and 2 are complete. Since both phases will be larger than this layout, I figure I'll be running the Rock Ridge and train City for a long time. I also am kind of attatched to the idea of the Old West, so I want to take it completion.

On top of all that, one of the skills I want to learn is patience.

[pcarrell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

Actually, I've built over 300 decks and had them in Sunset Magazine etc. Straight rows of nails are something I insisted on from my crews.

As to the other question. This will be my main running railroad for the next several years. I won't need any structures off of it until both Phase 1 and 2 are complete. Since both phases will be larger than this layout, I figure I'll be running the Rock Ridge and train City for a long time. I also am kind of attatched to the idea of the Old West, so I want to take it completion.

On top of all that, one of the skills I want to learn is patience.

Well OK then!

But the question still remains,.....are the nails straight on you HO passenger platforms? Inquiring minds want to know! [:D]

[davekelly]

Chip,

I don't know, but it appears that your Rock Ridge and Train City RR was way ahead of its times in terms of customer convenience and safety through its use of train level platforms! I'd use that as my official line until (if ever) you go back and change the height.

[ereimer]

this is your learning layout , use it to make mistakes and learn from them so you don't make them on the big layout . but don't go back and make everything perfect or you'll never get around to starting the big one . you have to decide where the 'good enough' line is , especially on on a temp layout

[selector]

I'm with Ernie on this one. If you know that something is not quite up to snuff, that is one thing, but to go back and redo it when you know you can seems to me counterproductive. If you can't, and need to master an actual skill, then by all means keep the learning going. But if you can already do it, move on and get closer to that patch of brightness at the end of the tunnel. Your pursuit of patience will become an exercise in madness as Ernie suggests, particularly on something that you are stuck with for reasons that you cannot control. Spend time on the important things, as you define important, and you will get the patience and rewards you want out of the hobby. Force yourself into the life of an ascetic, and you will turn sour.

Even an ascetic would like some sugar in his tea. [:)]

[SpaceMouse]

You know of course, I'm going to fix it. I'll build the other platforms right and maybe even at the same time.

[Jetrock]

Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff! HO scale stuff, to be precise...