Here’s one for those who say my cliffs are too steep or do not have enough foilage. As for 4x8s, I have built three of them and I have two now connected with a big loop so I can watch trains run.
There’s strategy involved. It’s mostly pre-race. Setting your air/fuel mixture for current conditions. Tire and suspension settings for track conditions. (which are always changing) The driver has to find the best “groove” in the track for best traction.Drivers can’t do much if the crew chief sets the car up wrong.
In the lower classes, you can have the best car, but if you steer out of the groove and miss your shift points…you lose! No making up laps in drag racing. It’s not a very forgiving sport like roundy round. Two nitro powered cars produce the same horse power as 20 Nextel Cup cars.
Go to a drag race and stand by the finish line as two 7000h.p. cars blow by you at 330mph. It’s a RUSH!!!
It is simple.
We are attempting to simulate real life in miniature.
If I was trying to simulate a NASCAR race, I’d build an HO scale model of a track in which cars run in circles. Maybe Bristol.
But the operation of a railroad, which we are trying to simulate, does not happen in a loop. And should you choose to build a layout in which the loco chases its tail–and you’re welcome to do that–you will discover that operating it will get boring very, very quickly.
To a point it does. But that’s why I have industry spurs/sidings, and an up coming staging yard for LOTS more operation. [:D]
Hey Squeaky,
Not really on topic, just saw that you are from my hometown and wanted to say hey, so, “hey”
Awesome pics, Arthill, they make me miss jeeping in Colorado, it’s been too long. Do you know where those roads are? I’d like to drive them if possible.
Squeaky Wheels, don’t let the grumps get you down. You’re never going to please them.
If your layout doesn’t look as “real” to them as their own does, they will use your “failings” to help convince themselves they are superior.
If your layout looks better to them than their own, they will nitpick it to death, to excuse their own shortcomings.
That glass has always been half empty, and it’s always going to be half empty, the leopard simply isn’t going to change its spots.
You can let it eat at you, or you can accept that it’s never going to change. It’s not about you. It’s about people who do not live by or even trust their own judgement, and who do not hold their own standards above all others. In essence, they do not actually exist until they have someone else to measure themselves against. Spend all your money, and take thousands of manhours doing everythoing exactly the way they tell you too, and they’ll just double their efforts to prove you still have it wrong. It’s about their ego, not your work.
You can tilt those windmills till it consumes you, or you can surround yourself with truly superior people, those who put their best into what they do and look for, and recognize, the best in other people.
Choose wisely, because you only get so many years either way, and when you’re near the end, you
Are we? If so how much and to what degree?
Who determins that one part of life is any better to model or worse than any other parts of life?
Doesn’t that all depend on what part we are trying to simulate? You better believe that it does!
To me that part I’m interested in simulating, is watching a train go by some senic countryside, and thinking I’m on board for the trip - the thought of moving a few box cars from one point to another back and forth along the same 3-4 ft of track - frankly because my imagination is good enough, that I don’t have to sit down and try and controll every last little detail, in some little side yard. If I model Glenwood canyon along I-70, that’s because I want to be there again, and the same thing goes for
Who are you ( or anyone else ) to try force upon others that the purpose in life is to waste our time to moving a box car through a maize of 30 paralell tracks with 18 different connecting points, just to satisify your own personial opinion of how things should be done?
If you want to move a box car from one piece of track, to another, just pick it up and move it by hand, it’s a lot less waste of time than fliping a bunch of switches back and forth.
Me? I’m going to build a loop, and then sit back for a while and dream that I’m on journy where cell phones don’t ring every 2 minutes, no mail, and univerasal peace and no cares in the world for an hour or so - Thats
Hopefully your head would break the fall. [(-D]
First of all, you actually quoted the part where I said you’re welcome to build a 4x8 if you wish, so it’s hard to imagine that I’m trying to “force” anyone to do anything.
Secondly, you’re attempting to make the options to a 4x8 circle of track very limited (30 parallel track, etc.) when no one has suggested that’s the only (or even best) option.
You’re taking this very personally, when it isn’t meant that way. We express our opinions here, and if mine is that 4x8s limit that you could be doing in the same relative space, that is not an attack on you.
Midnight,
My appologies, I was fighting a migraine last night when I mis-read your post. At this time, I don’t even remember how I was understanding what I thought I read. [:(]
Me, I like 4x8 because it big enough to show some serious sceanery, yet small enough to move out of the way - at the same time I chose to work with N scale, since that openes up more possabilities with a standard 4x8, yet is not so small a scale that it becomes real expensive.
Again my appologies for mis-reading your post and acting on what I thought I read.
Well if you ever wanted to run a line down the side of your hallway…[:D]
Actually I can see this being an option on a lot of room layouts where space is iffy or as a interesting way to do something floor to ceiling without eating a ton of space…
I still think it would be alot of fun to do a 4x8 “racetrack”, soup up your old engines with wings scoops and airdams and paint them up in NAStyCAR gaudy colors and race them roundy-round for cash!
Come-on, doesnt it sound like a fun thing to do for like a trainshow event ??
Us “prototypical” guys do what we do because we enjoy doing it. We model the prototype railways. We spend countless hours researching, designing, selecting, building, wiring, troubleshooting, crafting, sculpting, painting and weathering. We take pictures, ideas, and memories and build a railroad in it’s own setting. The accomplishment and satisfaction of making a high quality scale model of a prototype is immense.
There is no fine line between what is a toy and what is a model. Basically a toy is something that is bought for the sole purpose to play with. A scale model is a recreation of something at a scale size. We just so happen to make a scale model of prototype railroading. To us, this is not playing with toys. We don’t buy to play with it. We buy to make a scale railroad. Why do we put the effort in? Because we enjoy it.
So? Whats your point? Some people like Nascar, others like running their trains in circles. I don’t like either. To me, both are pointless. I let the people I know that do either know it too. The thing is that the jokes that we throw are just superficial. If one of my friends turns to a Nascar race, I’ll watch it, drink beer and cheer on Jeff Gordon. (practically everyone hates him)
People do what they like and I respect that. What I don’t respect is people going around stereotyping people and proceeding to tear down what they like. This is exactly what you have done to me. There is being cute, then
Guess I need to apologize- didn’t mean to step on anyone’s toes.
Though not really an excuse, I was a bit tipsy while doing this post yesterday.
Usually things like this does not bother me, but the other day it just came across in such a way it ruffled my feathers, and although I kind of forgot about it, with the influence of a couple of beers, the subject raised it’s ugly head, and turned me into sort of a Mr. Hyde.
And my 4X8 is HO all the way. There is still the talk about cutting it up into four sections, tearind down a wall and two closets to make a 10X20 against the walls, and using the existing portions to build around the walls. It would seem like a lot of work though.
And it is true- it is fun just to cut the trains loose, drink a couple of beers, and think about the next scheme at hand.
Maybe I should have went with Z scale and a few popsicle sticks? The only problem is that detailing would be out of my eyesight- got enough problems seeing HO.
Sorry Greg about the migraine.
By the way, HI Stevearino - You on the East or West?
Anyway, for what it is worth; We will carry on with what we have to work with, and try to make the best of it.
Most part is to have some fun.
The migraines are one of the reasions that I’m trying model railroading as a hobby - I can take my medication, and turn my train loose, then just sit back and watch it run in loops, while I turn in to a vegtable for several hours - Last month I figured that since last Feb, I have ended up loosing on average between 30 and 40 hours a week due to pain and medication - makes life real interesting, to say the least.
Oh, I didn’t say I had never been to a drag race. I’ve been to plenty. My brain must be geared to get a rush from different things. I even ran some bracket style back in high school, but when I’m driving I’ve always prefered going fast for a longer period of time. I lived 35 miles from my high school and my mother never figured out that I walked out the door of our house at 7:30 but was sitting at my desk, on time, at 8:00.
I don’t know about the loco modifications, but I’ll bet the hosts of the shows like the Great Train Expo would love it if someone did roundy-round type of race.
Since we’ve been comparing motor sports and model railroading, why not a side-by-side comparison, with an added starter:
- Quick run action at the end, FINI!
- Test track (or programming track) - 2 yards of Atlas flex.
- Drag race - 1/4 mile in a (hopefully) straight line.
- Vault (gymnastics) - sprint, POP, (hopefully) no deductions.
- Small area, circular (or not) run:
- One or two laps on a 4 x 8 - can be made interesting (anybody remember John Armstrong’s Allagash and Penobscot?)
- Bristol - 43 cars chasing themselves around in a soup tureen.
- Floor Exercise (gymnastics) - all the action you can pack into a 40 foot square and seventy seconds.
- Enough area, prototypical or otherwise:
- A garage (barn, hangar) filler, with all the features the owner wants - possible for a small percentage, dreamland for most.
- Le Mans - 24 hours of French countryside, weather, fatigue, mechanical failures and (eventually) victory.
- The whole Olympic Games, from opening ceremony until the Flame goes out and the banner is furled for the next four years.
If the choice was available, most of us would take 3. Reality limits our choices.
My personal modeling world, for many years, was a module eight feet long and 16 inches wide - something like what Spacemouse is working on, but narrower and with off-module cassette staging. These days, I’m slowly expanding across a 2-car garage. I, too, had loops - and some REALLY small things carved from wood with an 0-5-0 for motive power. The one common factor - I was having fun!
If you aren’t having fun, you’re in the wrong hobby.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Tired of going around in circles/ovals ?
Try a switching micro layout, no huge space required 4 square feet is enough
As a fan of point-to-point layouts (and the owner of one,) I don’t oppose the idea of 4x8 layouts as a whole–but I do get frustrated by the idea that the 4x8 layout is the One True Layout Size. People get trapped into the 4x8 box and are afraid to leave it, and they get suckered into the whole panoply of 4x8 myths–my favorite of which is “I don’t have room for anything but a 4x8.” So while I don’t actively oppose the continuous run as an operation scheme, to me the 4x8 is a sorry compromise that too many people take as the general rule.
I also get bored of watching the trains go round and round a lot more quickly than I get bored of switching. When prototype railfanning, I tend to prefer watching switching operations, in a yard or an industrial area, to watching the trains go by: to me, that’s where the action is.
And yeah, I think NASCAR is pretty boring to watch too. I’m not actively interested in drag racing, but it suits my attention span more than watching a couple dozen guys make left turns all afternoon.
Rich…Please don’t take this personally…But isn’t it a little hypocritical to be telling SqueakyWheels to grow up when there are so many others that accuse others of being wrong for having a 4 x 8? Sometimes things just get to us for no reason; but Squeak is right, too many people critize the plain 4 x 8 and those “basic” layouts that come about for one reason or another.
And I agree with you 100% when you say that “what you do with modeling is what you want or are limited too.” Everyone should come to see this hobby as that. If more people saw it this way, then this hobby would be much more friendly to everyone.