Big Little News, Little Big News

There are certainly more products available than ever in model railroading. This is true in all scales (OK, except maybe TT), but I pay the most attention to N scale announcements. I found it interesting that two recent announcements were at more-or-less opposite ends of the scale. Kato's NW-2 and Athearn's Challenger.

Beginning with the latter, what is it with Challengers and Big Boys? What are there, four Big Boys in production in HO now? Athearn's N scale Challenger has been reasonably well-reviewed and comes with on-board sound. Of course, most N scale layouts lack the 16" or larger radii required for this monster to really look good ... and it's out of place on all but a few layouts set in relatively narrow eras (UP, D&RGW, Clinchfield). Obviously, a big engine is interesting as a novelty, to a collector, or to someone who operates an eclectic motive power fleet.

On the other hand, the prototype for Kato's NW-2 sold over 1,100 copies, probably ten times the number of units and at least that many more prototype RRs than the Challenger. These operated for decades, sometimes as used units with a wide variety of later owners. The NW-2 could be found on terminal operations and on Class 1s. The model is only available in three or four liveries so far, but more will likely be added. The little switcher runs great, truly amazing for its size, and operates on 9 3/4" radius curves, making it suitable for the vast majority of N scale layouts.

So which do you think got more play in the model press? And which do you think I believe is more useful to most of us? The answers are in the title of this blog entry.

Currently listening to The Derek Trucks Band's Joyful Noise. What a pedigree this guy has. Joined the Allman Brothers in his 20s, recently toured with Eric Clapton, married to blues artist Susan Tedeschi. This album is jazz, rock, blues, fusion, afro/cuban ... a little of everything with a southern rock thing bubbling to the top every so often. Great listening for something different.

Sandwich Spread*

Like many of you, my wife and I are part of what's sometimes called the "sandwich" generation: at the same time that we have a child in school, our aging parents are beginning to need more of our time and attention. For the last couple of months, the demands at both ends of this spectrum have been high and our family's been spread a little thin.

At times like this, I start to wonder about the practicality of having a hobby. I have made little or no progress on the layout for weeks and the prospects for the next few weeks seem no better. The NMRA Pacific Coast Region convention is coming up and not only won't I be attending, I'm not even ready to host a few friends who wanted to come by and see my progress on their way to- or from the event -- because there's darn little progress to show.

It's easy (for me, at least) to begin thinking it's foolish to spend time on the hobby when there are so many more pressing needs that demand my attention. Family comes first, of course, and clients can't be expected to wait forever for their projects. And then there's the news of the day that screams for attention and action. Maybe the idea of a hobby is just not compatible with today's world and my current time-of-life.

… so after wallowing in those happy thoughts for a few minutes, I had the good sense to take a step back and look at things in perspective. Play and recreation has been a part of human society for thousands of years. Early humans made art and played games of various sorts. Sociologists have documented puzzle and gambling games played by adults in Native American groups and remote tribes untouched by modern culture, as well as myriad paintings, carvings, sculpture, and other art. Surely these peoples had plenty to worry about just staying alive (food, shelter, avoiding hostile clans and critters, et al), yet they made time for recreation.

In more modern settings, Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Successful People stresses the need for renewal through, among other things, activities to boost mental creativity and social interaction. Winston Churchill was an enthusiastic painter in oils throughout his life, even during periods of immense time pressure and stress. Model railroading can certainly offer the same kind of creative outlet.

Nope, I don't have a lot of time right now, and there are many other demands on that time. But maybe carving out a little of that time for some creative renewal in actually modeling would be a good investment.

* Yes, there is such a thing as sandwich spread, a mayonnaise-and-relish concoction that's a bit like slightly sweet tartar sauce. It was a favorite condiment of my late Father, who used it on everything from bologna sandwiches to leftovers.

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum …

… I didn't go. And haven't been back. And haven't really missed it.

Hello, my name is Byron and I've avoided online model railroad forums for over three weeks.

Oh, it started innocently enough. A brief pop-in on a Sunday evening to see if there were any folks needing help on the LD SIG list. A quick check on the eternal "the hobby is dying, it hit me on the head!" discussions over at MR. A short read of the "never operated but I've got all the answers" thread on the OpSIG forum. But then the visits came more often.

Finally, there I was, tired and cranky on Groundhog Day reading the same inane comments by the same handful of self-appointed experts. And becoming more frustrated by the minute. And then I remembered the Bill Murray movie featuring the same date -- you know, the one where he repeats the same day over and over? I suddenly realized that it was describing my personal on-line forum experience.

Turns out there's only so much pompous posturing, ceaseless self-promotion, and arrogant arguing that I can take. Let's face it, if someone is posting thousands (or tens of thousands!) of times each year on various forums, maybe their hobby is really on-line forums, not model railroading. They're enjoying their hobby, apparently -- but it wasn't helping me enjoy mine.

Of course, it's not just model railroad forums. On-line forums and lists in many hobbies and vocations are filled with the same pointless debates, tired bon mots, and displays of self-importance. In fact, it almost seems that it’s the same people, just with different IDs and different themes.

One of the reasons I got in the habit of visiting on-line forums was that I didn't have better ways to spend small chunks of time. Five minutes here, fifteen there. No time to start a big project, obviously. But with a little advance planning, there is a lot that can be done. With reference materials for my design jobs organized in plastic boxes on new shelving in the office, I can grab one and sketch out a new staging design in CAD while waiting for a conference call to begin. With a couple of extra files in a tray with some track components, I can quickly sit down and prep some turnouts for the layout. The planning and organizing is taking time, but being able to spend those "found" minutes doing something productive instead of raising my blood pressure reading drivel has been great. (But never fear, I have time for writing drivel ... so there will be more blog entries.)

There are probably many of you who get much benefit from time spent in on-line forums. But for me it just became wasted repetitious time spent away from family, fun, client projects, and my own layout. Perhaps one day I can return and use on-line forums in moderation, with enough good humor to just chuckle at the goofballs. But I'm not yet that far along in my recovery. One day at a time.

Currently listening to: Casualties of Retail by Enter the Haggis, a Celtic-Roots-Metal- … well, actually I don't know what you'd call it, but it's sure fun. Bagpipes and power chords -- cool!

We have liftoff

Yeah, it’s just a simple wall outlet. Two sets of plugs, one controlled by a wall switch and one always on. High on the wall above these, another switched circuit for layout lights.

But it's what's missing that's important … a clunky surface mount box and a load of previous-owner-installed conduit that was at the exact location I needed for the Oakland Harbor Belt's main staging yard.

For a number of reasons, this has taken weeks, even months, to be completed. But now that the job is done, the last external constraint to continuing layout construction is removed.

There's still a lot of day job work on the schedule, two huge layout design projects to complete, and a bunch of smaller design projects in the backlog, so there won't be a lot of time in the next couple of months. But I'm excited … time to get moving!

Currently listening to Soundgarden's A Sides. When you're contemplating a big construction project, you need big metal!

Notes from an accidental railfan

I hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday season. While returning from our Christmas visit to the ancestral homeland in Southern California, I had the chance to do a little accidental railfanning.

I grew up in Palmdale, less than a half mile from the SP (now UP) line from L.A. over Tehachapi *. As a kid, I often listened in the night to the passing trains blowing their horns for the crossings of Sierra Highway and Avenue P (yep, just a letter). During the summer we'd ride bikes into town and sometimes wait at the Sierra Highway crossing for a train to pass.

Then, as now, I wasn't much of a railfan. I do enjoy seeing real trains in their natural environment, but I generally have spent my hobby time in other ways. So much of what I like about railroading has passed out of existence that railfanning today's rail scenes doesn't generally hold a lot of interest.

But I thought it might be neat to travel home from Palmdale to the Bay Area along a different route than our usual path up Interstate 5. And what better path to take than to follow the passing trains to Tehachapi? (Sorry, no pictures, just words -- remember, I'm an accidental railfan. But here are some others on the web.)

We started out on Highway 14, which quickly leads to Mojave. Now made more famous by Pelle Søeborg's articles in the model press, Mojave is a bit grittier and larger than suggested by his well-done layout. Most of the neat railroad buildings of my youth are gone, but the small yard was full of UP and BNSF trains, including some Norfolk Southern run-through power in a BNSF consist. The yard may have been more crowded than usual since we were traveling the day after Christmas.

Turning onto Highway 58, we were treated to our first train, running Westbound (roughly compass Northwest) through the sweeping curve near Warren. Double stacks and trailers-on-flatcars, with a four engine head-end consist including three different variations of the disappointing (in my view) orange and green BNSF livery and one glorious Santa Fe super fleet unit still in silver-and-red warbonnet. (Nope, still no photos)

The big cement plant at Monolith (others' photos here and here) provided the opportunity for me to share details of its history and function with my wife and daughter, whose complete silence indicated their rapt attention. Or not.

Through Tehachapi, we passed another BNSF train of stacks and pigs, again Westbound. Near the fabled loop at Walong, a very long UP train auto carrier train came into view, including some of the giant "Auto Max" cars I had not seen before in real life. Armour Yellow everywhere, no heritage power on this high-priority movement. And yet another Westbound UP container train just beyond the loop. A great show on a beautiful clear day. Since I am working on a design project right now that includes the loop, it was fun to have a reminder of how spectacular the area is in real life.

Eastbounds were in the hole all along the way -- obviously the Dispatcher was fleeting the Westbounds to get things moving on this day after the holiday.

A quick stop for lunch in Bakersfield (geez, those Happy Meals are sure an effective marketing gimmick!), then over the (compass) west end of the former ATSF yard. As we were working our way across the San Joaquin Valley on 7th Standard Road, we encountered the neat small industry (shown at left in a view from Google Maps) along the former ATSF line south of Shafter. This is a place called "Crome" by the Santa Fe, and "Hights Corner" on other maps.

I don't happen to have the Santa Fe CLIC Book for this area and my auto mates didn't seem so keen on a stop, so I'm not sure what industry is located here now, but there was still rail activity. Definitely a modelgenic size and the angled intersection of the streets and rail lines made for an interesting configuration. There also seems to be a bulk unloading facility running along the aptly-named "Santa Fe Way" road slanting from top-left to bottom-right in the view.

Our travels then took us briefly on Interstate 5 until we could leave the hordes behind for a scenic jaunt through Coalinga (no search there for remnants of the SP, though) and on to the west on Highway 198. Just before joining Highway 101, I took a side trip through the burg of San Lucas on the former SP Coast Line. A large concrete elevator had attracted my eye in the past, but the industry seems now dormant. One forlorn and rusty covered hopper was spotted at another industry in town, so perhaps there is still some rail activity here.

Night and the rain began falling at about the same time, so that put an end to even my (very) casual railfanning. With relatives and friends in So Cal, I've traveled from north to south and back again many times in the past. I've sometimes focused on areas along the way that represented specific modeling interests, like the SP/ATSF Sunset Railway and the route of my proto-freelanced Midland Pacific. But my experience this week suggests that maybe I should have a slightly more open mind on my next trip …. and get out the camera! That is, for any trip I make without my family of reluctant railfans.

*For more on railroads in the Antelope Valley, I recommend Phil Serpico's book Railroading through the Antelope Valley. John Signor's fabulous Tehachapi book, along with Serpico's, gave me a real appreciation for what was passing by through those years of my youth.

Sellios gets real

It was interesting to read about the changes George Sellios (of Fine Scale Miniatures fame) is making to his Franklin and South Manchester layout. OK, I'll start with the disclaimer: Sellios is an exquisitely talented modeler and I'll never come close to his skills, not that I feel the need to do so (thankfully, or I'd never have the guts to build anything).

I have read most of the Sellios articles in the commercial press; I even bought his book on the Franklin and South Manchester. But to be honest, I never really enjoyed the pictures; and I sold the book shortly after buying it. I never could identify what it was that bothered me, sort of a hyper-reality that I have found vaguely disquieting.

After reading Mr. Sellios' article in the December, 2006 Model Railroader magazine, I've finally put my finger on what's bugged me. It's certainly not the execution of Sellios' modeling, it's his vision. And not the semi-run-down-cusp-of-the-depression vision that some have criticized. Instead, it's the way the scenes are compressed, almost as if looking through a telephoto lens.

When we look at a real scene, our minds highlight the interesting bits (tracks, a train, a station building), but don’t focus on the relatively non-descript space in between. We sense that the space is there, but it's not remarkable. However, it's that very unconscious sense of the empty space that clues our minds to the realities of the scene.

Artists talk about the idea of negative space. The concept that what is not shown helps to create context and interest in what is shown. The empty space around an object helps create the interest in the painted or sculpted object itself.

Many of the scenes on the Franklin and South Manchester contain all of the elements that one might see in viewing a real scene, but they are compressed, even amplified. They're too close together (at least for me) -- there's not enough "negative space". The clutter of a 500-foot-deep scene in real life is compressed into 80 scale feet of model railroad.

Sellios notes himself in the article that he has un-detailed some areas to make them look more realistic -- removing crowds from station areas and wall-to-wall clutter from loading docks. The new scenes are still a trifle too condensed for my taste, but they are certainly more realistic to my eye.

I guess it all goes to show how individual are our tastes and how unique is each of our visions. That's something I really enjoy about our hobby and look forward to exploring as my own (much more modest) layout building continues.

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Currently Listening to: Skip, Hop, and Wobble by Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg, and Edgar Meyer. Acoustic "newgrass" music (and much more) with a kick. I've become such a fan of Dobro through listening to Jerry Douglas.

Another new design in the gallery

I've been so busy with day job and model railroading projects that I have not spent much time on the website. But I did just add a short note on an interesting little design for someone here in the Bay Area. This was one of those rare cases where the benchwork ( a series of narrow shelves tucked in a corner of the room) absolutely had to be laid out first and the N scale layout designed around the benchwork. (And no, I haven't changed my mind -- "benchwork first" is still a Tricky Trap. This is one of those exceptions that proves the rule.)



All the same, the owner was interested in a real location (the Sacramento Northern's Yuba City Yard). No way to fit it all in, but I think we came up with a pretty good plan that's under construction now. You may read all about it here.

101 reasons for a change?

The book 101 Track Plans for Model Railroaders (Kalmbach, 1956) is deservedly a classic. The designs include a few neat early offerings by John Armstrong and some very skillful illustrations, most by editor/author Linn H. Westcott. 101 Track Plans is a great time capsule of layout design thought from the period. In fact, I believe the only updates since the initial publication are the addition of a paragraph on N scale (which did not exist as a commercial scale at the time the book was written), the inclusion of N scale in the size calculations, and a succession of new cover art.

Of course, there has been some progress in design thought in the last 50 years, and many of the designs in 101 Track Plans suffer when viewed in light of these new ideas. Many of the designs are based on the "Prairie Dog Village" system of scattered access holes for construction, operation, and maintenance. Most people today would find it troublesome to crawl under the benchwork and pop up over and over again. Many, even most, of the designs require built-in-place hand-laid track to fit as drawn, with very tight radii that don't work well with models of prototype equipment built since 1956. And many of the plans have inaccessible areas that would be out-of-reach if built as drawn. Of course, newer design ideas like multi-deck benchwork are absent, as well.

Unfortunately, Linn Westcott's clever renderings make each of the designs look good. Much better, in fact, than they would look if executed in plywood and plaster, in my view. But these plans are offered up to hobby newcomers without any disclaimers or suggestions in the book. And I think that does a bit of a disservice to both the model railroading neophyte and to these classic designs.

I think it would be great if there were a more modern equivalent of 101 Track Plans*. Many of the plans published in Model Railroader and Model Railroad Planning would be good candidates for a new book that explored current layout ideas along with the classics. I think there is still a place for 101 Track Plans, but it should be in the context of the times. Simply re-titling the book "101 Classic Track Plans from the '50s" (or something similar) would help newcomers understand where these designs fit alongside current thinking.

I enjoy reading through my copy of 101 Track Plans for a nostalgic view of the hobby, so I am glad it is still in print. But a bit of context could help newcomers avoid 50-year-old mistakes.

* A year or so after I wrote this blog entry, Kalmbach did indeed come out with a new book/magazine, 102 Realistic Track Plans. You can read my thoughts on 102 Realistic Track Plans here.

Currently listening to: Devlar Surf Sessions on Live 365 . Gotta love that reverb!

Saying my final good-byes to the Midland Pacific

Before I began working on the Oakland Harbor Belt concept for my layout, I was focused on a secondary mainline / branchline proto-freelanced concept called the Midland Pacific (MPC). I discussed the MPC briefly in an article in the Layout Design Journal (LDJ-28, Spring 2003). The real-life MPC was actually promoted in the early 1900s and a few miles of track were laid before the railroad vanished without a trace. It would have run from the Bakersfield, CA area to Port Hartford (now Avila Beach), as did my imagineered version. An article with a more complete discussion of the MPC is in production for an upcoming LDJ.

I had worked on the MPC concept for a few years, including buying appropriate equipment as it became available. Since I worked on the MPC concept for so long, that was an extended period of purchases. Many of the locos and rolling stock acquired for the MPC do not fit the OHB, so I've been selling them via eBay over the last few months. But the current "for sale" batch really signifies the end of the MPC concept. The MPC would have crossed and interchanged with parent Southern Pacific at Pismo Beach on the SP's Coast Line. I had envisioned a parade of SP through trains, including the famous "Overnight" freight service and the legendary "Daylight" and "Lark" passenger trains. Even though the limited-run nature of N scale is often frustrating, I had managed to acquire suitable consists and motive power for all of these trains.

But there's really no place on the OHB for any of these trains, except as static backgrounds for photos behind the Santa Fe Alice Street Yard or the Howard Terminal. The SP will still be represented on the OHB, of course, but it's the grittier workaday locals, not the glamorous mainline rockets. The Overnight cars went first. (For one thing, they are in more regular production now, so in the back of my mind I thought I could always replace them.) Then various other locos and cars went on the auction block.

But now it's the Daylight. And the Lark. These beautiful models from Kato are not "rivet-counting" accurate for the SP by any means, but their colorful liveries speak of an era and a place far better than words or (my) scenery ever would. Visions of these trains have been with me for a long time, through several layout plans and dreams: San Luis Obispo/Cuesta; Ventura County Railway (LDJ-26); the MPC; and the short-lived San Jose and environs concept.

Even though I'm a terrible pack-rat, there's only so much space even I'm willing to set aside for storage of models that won't fit on the layout. Sale of the ill-fitting equipment is also financing most (or all) of the track I'll need for the OHB. So I know this stuff has got to go. But like the end of any relationship, the parting is stirring up bittersweet thoughts of what might have been.

Tricky Traps # 5-8

Following up on my earlier entry about four Tricky Traps of layout design, here are another few to consider.

Tricky Trap #5: The Peril of the Prototype

Hey, wait, Byron, this can't be a Tricky Trap! Why, following the prototype exactly must be the best way to design a layout -- right? Sometimes … not so much. You see, the problem with most prototypes is that they are just so darn big. Relatively speaking, our layout spaces are pretty puny by comparison. So we can capture, at best, only a tiny sliver of the prototype when we set out to plan a layout.

We may copy a particular arrangement of tracks without knowing how they were operated by the real railroad. And that means that we may not know that a crucial element to the way the real railroad worked was to use the passing siding ten miles down the line as a runaround to make it possible to switch our chosen town. Sometimes changes are needed for our cramped space, relatively higher amount of traffic, or the realities of model railroading. One of those realities is that we cannot reliably "kick" or "drop" cars in the smaller scales, which leaves out many maneuvers common in the steam- and early diesel eras. So there are times when additional tracks or different configurations are needed on the model to make for a smoothly working layout.

In short, copying the prototype is a good place to start … but the resulting plans need a careful going-over with an experienced eye to insure that they will work as a model railroad.

Tricky Trap #6: The Published Plan Pitfall

Oh, the horror! The litany of errors in published plans is lengthy. Sometimes it's sloppy rendering, but often it's simply overly-optimistic planners. Curves are drawn much sharper than they are labeled. Impossibly abrupt turnouts (how about a #2!?) would never work in real life. Track-to-track distances are much too tight. And on and on.

This happened before the era of widely available model railroad CAD, of course, but it also happens now and will probably happen as long as track plans are published. Hope springs eternal in the eager neophyte modeler, only to be dashed when the first turnback curve sprawls inelegantly over the edge of the benchwork.

Track plan drawings of already-built layouts are not immune from this Tricky Trap, although there is, of course, empirical evidence to suggest that something fit in the available space. The best published plans, in my view, include the brand and model of turnout used in the design, or if hand-laid track is required, make note of that fact.

Tricky Trap #7: Devilish Division-Point Desire

I've been doing layout designs for friends and clients for a while now. But it never ceases to amaze me how many people begin their recitation of "Givens and 'Druthers" with: "I'd like a Division Point Yard of course, two coal mines, a steel mill, etc., etc. …". All in 14X16 feet. In HO. When I ask them why a Division Point yard, they say, "Because [insert well-known model railroader name here] says that's what makes a proper layout."
Well, OK, Sparky, but Division Point Yards for the most part are really, really big. And in the steam and early diesel era, they typically carry with them a need for lots of engine service facilities, classification tracks, and other space-consuming elements. Not to mention that the typical layout is a scale mile or two or three long.

After some discussion, it turns out what people are really saying is that they would like to do some classification of cars, maybe originate and terminate a couple of local trains, stuff like that. And they think the way to get that is a Division Point Yard. But in fact, there were (and are) lots of differently-sized yards on real railroads -- and some of these are small enough to be very modelgenic. Considering a branch junction yard, industry-specific yard, or interchange yard might be "just right" to fit into the typical layout space without overwhelming the rest of the operation.

Tricky Trap #8: The Straight Line Straitjacket

OK, this is more of a serving suggestion than a Tricky Trap, but I think it bears mentioning. Real railroads, to be sure, are mostly straight. And long. After all, most real railroad surveys are done as a series of straight lines joined together by the minimum number of curves necessary. That made the real railroads cheaper to build and to operate. There are certainly exceptions like mountain railroads and terminal areas, but compared to the typical model railroad, which has to keep turning back on itself repeatedly to avoid crashing through a wall and into the neighbor's side yard, real railroads are characteristically and (mostly) unremittingly straight.

So what happens when we try to put these long straight things into our confined rectangular (usually) layout space? All too often, we run them in straight lines exactly parallel to one of the walls in the room. Or exactly parallel to the line on another lobe of layout across the aisle, all of which screams "model railroad here!".

It's much more interesting, in my view, to set the long straight runs of track at slight angles to the room, to the benchwork edge, and to each other. These angles, even very subtle ones, help create a feeling of real locations. Gentle curves can work well here, too, but they somewhat compromise the feeling of realism that comes from having at least some segments of the layout on a straight line, hewing across the landscape as if that landscape came first.

I hope you enjoyed these Tricky Traps of layout design. I may add a few more over time.

Click here to read an introduction to the eight tricky traps

Click here to read 1-4

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