Layout design
My friend Scott is famous - The Model Railway Show
My good friend and excellent modeler Scott Perry is on the latest issue of The Model Railway Show show talking about "small" railroad design, specifically his "HOG" layout. To listen to the episode and see more information check out:
http://www.themodelrailwayshow.com/
Pembroke II - The Plan
I should come clean: Pembroke I, the layout I described in Model Railroad Planning back in 1999 never really got off the ground. Oh sure, I built enough to take some photos for the article, but for a number of reasons, Pembroke it was unsatisfying. It languished in my new basement when we finally bought a home for it, and I could always find excuses not to work on it - there were other projects; I was unhappy with the height of the dam and the water; the modules weren't straight. You get the idea.
Chief among the excuses was that the room was not comfortable. I have just spent the past year and a half renovating and insulating the basement, and now it is a comfortable room. The renovation isn't quite finished, but the garage is cleared out, and the Proto:87 Posse has been itching to get started on construction, and so, we're making a start.
How high between staging and rest of the layout?
How high is ideal between staging and the rest of the layout? Obviously it has to be high enough to allow one to comfortably get their hands into staging, but what is good? I use 1 x 4s for the benchwork. The top of the benchwork is 42", which is good for me because I'm short. Still, 34"-36" seems a bit low. (As far as I know, I will be the only person operating since there are no other modelers close by.)
3.5 Wye - Help me do the math...
I need to understand the math to install an Atlas 3.5 Wye to connect two parallel tracks to converge via the wye into one track.
The center-lines of the parallel tracks will be ~ 3 to 4 inches apart, depending on what radius and length of track I need to make this work. I will be running passenger cars, so it is critical that I have good length and radii for this...
Alone on a big layout?
I find myself daydreaming about The Great Layout recently. You know the one. Giant space, no physical or financial limitations, modeling an entire railroad, room for a whole model railroad club, the works. I have a feeling that if I really want it, I could eventually have it.
Mainline Midtrain helpers : Emulating the prototype
Dear MRHers,
OK, here's one for the BrainsTrust.
I'm seeking at creating a layout scene which will feature mainline mid-train loco ops. As part of this, I'm looking for "typical" trains which make use of such distributed power systems. Grain and Coal come to mind, but are there others?
(visualise sitting at a grade crossing in your car, crossbucks flashing,
and watching a loco splicing 2x strings of autoracks or container-stackers roll past?)
FWIW, I'm focussing on BNSF and UP ops in the Grain states...
Progress and Practice
The weekend was spent building a concrete block wall along the front of the house to backfill with drain rock and divert some of the overwhelming amount of rain we had that turned everything into mud around here. Since the concrete takes a week to cure before I bust out the shovel and wheel barrow it seemed like an opportunity to get the layout room some benchwork.
"Silverton & Telluride" with a Pacific prototype? Has anyone run a Blackstone locomotive?
A previous thread on adapting the "San Juan Central" to a pacific coast theme got cluttered with a discussion about MF vs TK, so let's start over with a slightly different premise:
Negotiation of space in the home for our hobby
Obviously, layouts and modelling work requires space. Most layouts are made to fit the spatial constraints where they are, be this in a spare bedroom, loft, garage or shed. Modelling work can be rather messy at times as well as requiring some concentration.
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