October 2006


A photo of my planning model. Following Malcolm Fulrow’s San Juan Central, one of the return loops spans a deep canyon with a bridge that also completes 118 degrees of the loop.

Here we see the yawning gap where the bridge, river, and a canyon will be built. While I was cutting out roadway I carefully cut a piece of 1/2–inch plywood to be a template for the bridge. Below I’ve clamped it temporarily into place.

 

I’m building up my scenery from Styrofoam but I decided it would be nice to have a base to work up from so I cut a couple pieces of foam core board to fit the area. Before attaching to the frame I traced out where the underlying studs were and traced out an 8-inch wide semicircle where I would lay down plywood to be a firm footing for the bridge.

Using construction adhesive and drywall screws I attached the foam and the wood to the bench work and weighted everything down with books until the adhesive set.

Using the bridge template I can see that I’m really going to like how the is going to look.

Next step is to get the river and scenery roughed in. Below I’ve placed the planning model below the bridge template.

Agh!

It is so hard to keep making progress on a big “spare time” project like my model railroad in the face of life’s distractions. You know: work, family, chores, sleeping, new computer games, etc.

I generally hate posts of other people’s posts but a guy at work passed this link around recently and it has really helped me. Summary: just grab something, anything, and do it: Rands In Repose: Trickle Theory

The examples are geared towards software developers (my day job) but I feel this appraoch is applicable to anyone who feels overwhelmed by the tasks in front of them.

As an example, this morning I was kicking myself for not getting “more” done. There are two issues in that statement: I actually get a lot done, it’s just that I spend a lot of time doing things that are not really that important in the long run.

Just Grab Something and Do It

This morning I spent 30 minutes and processed images I shot in July and got them ready for posting to the blog as a layout building progress report. I feel better already.

I need photos and pictures handy when I model. I’m building turnouts right now and I found these two pictures somewhere on the Internet.

These next I took of an industrial siding right outside where I work. I find even a few pictures really helpful to get an idea of weathering and color.

What make a great issue of a magazine? In this web age magazines are having a tough time. It’s easy to gripe so now I’ll do the hard part. What works? What makes a great magazine issue that I’ll put post-its into the pages and come back to 30 years later?

Here are some examples I find flipping through all the marked articles I tagged for this series of blog postings.

Great layout building series. I’ve mentioned the bad ones. Here are the good ones I remember from the last 40 years.

  • Brandywine Transit series by Walter R Olsen — a traction / trolley layout from the mid 70’s. I’m sure some of the techniques are a bit dated but I think this would still be a reference point for starting an HO traction layout.
  • Jerome & Southwestern by John Olson – I still look at the book collection of these articles.
  • San Juan Central by Malcolm Fulrow – obviously I liked this since I based my layout on this one.

What was good about these was that they were visually inspiring (or at least technically inspiring in the case of Brandywine) and you really got the idea you could do it yourself.

Great model building techniques. These could be in the form of how-to articles, cover photos (discussed in this post), or simply drawings.

Here are some examples:


August 1966: From Timber to Tidewater by James Sabol. A great article describing operations on logging railroads.


August 1976: The transofrmation of a caboose by Merk Hobson. How to scratchbuild in wood. Timeless good techniques.


August 1982: Building your first wood structure kit by Bob Hayden. I read over this article every time I start a wood craftsman kit.


August 1998: The HO scale Lilliput Logger by Iain Rice. I don’t hate ALL 4×8 articles. I love Iain’s work and his track plans are inspiring. I have all his track plan books too.


August 2005: Painting and weathering plaster by Bob Mitchell. This is a simple article but I know I’ll want to review it before working on my next plaster kit.

Other good articles:
An article series from another magazine is currently saving by butt as I’m building my turnouts are Didrik Voss’s articles on measuring and adjusting turnouts in the September and October Scale Rails.

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 1

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 2

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 3

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 4

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 5

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 5½

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 6

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 7

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 8

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 9

I work in Point Richmond, California and we have a big BNSF yard (formerly Santa Fe) nearby. I have always loved trucks that have been heavily customized for their work and  this of course includes HiRail (or HY Rail) vehicles. This spanking new BNSF work truck is just too cool. I took these pictures over a couple days when this crew was working on tracks around town.

Front bumper and front rail wheels.

Rear rail wheels. Note the caboose style steps up into the truck.



Note the piece of rail up in the overhead rack.

What were the worst issues in the last 40 years?

Instead of listing specific issues I tried to get an idea specifically what it was that would make me think an issue was just not interesting.

1. A worthless 4 x 8 track plan inserted just to pad out the issue.

In several issues (at least three issues) that had NO interesting articles you could find a 4 x 8 track plan. Is it written somewhere that MR needs to publish a 4 x 8 foot track plan every year?

2. A (Stupid) Railroad You Can Model article.

The typical example is the Yancy RR described in the August 1974 issue. “You can model every track switch (both of them) on the prototype” And this is GOOD because …????

WHO wants to model a railroad that has virtually no traffic, no scenery and no significant history?

What I want are ideas on how to convey that I’m running the Santa Fe on 10 feet of bookshelf space. I want railroads pulling ore out of the mountains, lumber from the hills, or moving tonnage over the Rockies – NOT shipments of dog food.

In fact, the August 1979 issue is choice for WORST August issue. It has EIGHT articles about the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad, a stupid railroad nobody would want to model.

I’ll pay $1 to anyone who can prove to me they actually devoted an entire layout to the pathetic FJ&G RR.

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 1

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 2

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 3

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 4

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 5

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 5½

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 6

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 7

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 8

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 9

What were the best August cover pictures from the last 40 years?

My top five:


Number 5, August 1969. A cover by the late Ben King. Ben’s little layout, precise models and beautiful photos were years ahead of their time.


Number 4, August 1973. Another cover by Ben King. Not happy with available cameras, Ben is showing the beautiful photos his scratch built pin hole camera could take.


Number 3, August 1976. Irv Schultz and his St. Clair Northern.


Number 2, August 1967. An engine servicing area on John Allen’s Gorre & Daphetid RR. John’s work always had a spark that was missing from most of his contemporaries’.


My number 1 favorite issue of August in the last 40 years 1980: Malcolm Furlow’s Denver & Rio Chama Western. Malcolm’s model building was not as good as John Allen’s but the composition of his scenes was always powerful and inspiring.

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 1

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 2

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 3

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 4

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 5

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 5½

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 6

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 7

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 8

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 9

In the course of building a detailed layout, which takes professionals months and amateurs years, you can forget that there are easy and fun projects that you can knock out in a few hours.

My son is interested in trains but right now he likes cars better. So far his feedback about the layout has been “where are the freeways?”

Last time we were in a hobby shop he wanted a school bus — but not a yellow one, a white one. He ended up picking a Trident #90076 ($14.99!!) School Bus. They are really good looking models. I bought two.

I pulled off the front and rear bumpers which are mounted by long pegs and these also serve to hold the body onto the chassis. I painted the body with silver since white will not cover school bus orange easily. Next I painted the body a satin white and that’s it.

I have since mounted the clear red warning lights and I picked out the turn signals and running lights with Tamyia Clear Red and Clear Orange but my son is busy playing with it now so I’ll have to add pictures later.

Ok: got a hold of the bus for a nanosecond.