I’d like to see MR publish some articles on the building and
operation of small shelf type layouts. I like looking at all those
beautiful medium and large HO layouts but for my space availability I
can only fit a small layout in my house,something around 30" x 7’ long.
That is about the max. I can fit.It would be of course a switching type
layout with a possible connection to a larger layout should the
opportunity present itself down the road. I like this forum and have
learned a lot reading the various postings. Good luck with all your
layouts. Bob[:D]
I really enjoy looking at the med and large layouts but I would really like to see more pics/articles of layouts in progress. I want to see how folks build their benchwork, scenery details, maze of wires underneath etc. I want to see what it looks like in the early stages before the final touches. Lots of pics of the unfinished layout. I can learn more from that than seeing a really nice manicured layout already completed.
Terry
Guys,
MR has published a lot of what you ask. It may be thats it’s been a while but you can find them in back issues. I’ve seen many 12" wide by 6’ long joined with another of the same in an L shape. You get the idea. If you belong to a club they may have back issues. My club has almost every mag of MR, Trains, Railroad model craftsman since the 1950s. Ask around.
sfrailfan - I am sure there are numerous articles showing progress on a layout. I just don’t recall seeing more than a couple in the five years or so I have been getting MR. My point was I guess that for me seeing a layout in progress is more informative than a completed one. No club here as far as I can see in the Gainesville Florida area. Even if there were we live quite a ways out in the boonies. Had four doe and a buck eating grass in the back yard yesterday. Between the deer and the wild hogs I may never have to mow the back yard.
Terry
I would like to see more “Railroads You Can Model” articles on short lines and branch lines that can be built in less then a full basement and bigger then a 4x8.
As far as “layout in progress photos” those are the norm in the annual Model Railroad Planning issue.
They’ve done a few step by step small layouts in the last year or so. There’s a lot of time saver layouts out there the size your talking about. Just Google “time saver layouts”.
They have the small layouts in the MRP. Why last year they has 2 or 3.
Hi, Have you tried to type in “shelflayouts.com” in the box before the word “Search” at the bottom of the page ?
I am not interest in a TIME WASTER…We need UP TO DATE SMALL layouts and those step by step layouts you pointed out are 4 x 8 footers.
Why can’t MR do some “Railroads You Can Model” articles with a layout plan? Is that asking to much? Maybe they should do another "Pike Size Passenger Train-twice this article as been ran in the last 2 years so,why not make it three? Maybe a guy telling us how to clean track (again) and other basic modeling knowledge.
A fine example was the Ohio Southern article…Thats what we need more of.
The subject of this topic is :Articles I’d like to see in MR…So,that has nothing to do with searching the forum for past topics…Nothing at all.
I’d like to see an article that gets into some “compare and contrast” depth on the various wireless controllers out there - those for DC as well as those for DCC.
For a possible topic on Andy Sperandeo’s ongoing Operations series, I’d like to see a variety of ideas of disciplined car forwarding systems that get cars off the layout (and fresh ones on the layout) for a while versus just shuffling the same cars over and over.
I think more articles that take the Jim Six approach – redetailing plastic freight cars while not disturbing the factory paint jobs – are always welcome.
And to beat a horse I have been flogging for years now, I am still looking for a really detailed discussion of the very interesting Signal Research microprocessor alternative to DCC.
http://www.signalresearch.com/
Their own materials are just not clear enough and the MR review from a few years ago was too short to really assist my decision.
Dave Nelson
You mean, like the one using a grass mat?
Or the one using cut-and-fold paper structures?
not to start an argument , but i think that’s pretty much a dead horse you’re beating .
the system hasn’t been reviewed since 2001 , i just checked the latest MR and RMC and they don’t have ads in either , and if you click on their ‘Links’ they have no links to layouts using their system , not even their own . it dosen’t support sound , walk around control is ‘coming soon’ , and you’re looking at $450 for an 8 block starter system .
on the positive side if you have a DC block layout and you want to get rid of the switches and add automatic slowing and stopping for signals it’s a really interesting product .
but it’s not going to replace dcc , and i can’t think of any reason why someone building a new layout would choose it over dcc . given the way the mags puch dcc i can’t see them re-reviewing a non-compatible system
I have always liked that series (I have both the books that reprinted a number of those). I’d like to see them do it with multiple trackplans, maybe one in the less than a room size, a bedroom size, and one larger single/double car garage size. They had a few in the past where they did that.
Enjoy
Paul
Granted that most modelers model the 50’s & 60’s…
I would like to see models of the early 20th century. It seems that every other issue has a darn F3(or look-a-like) on it.
I’d just like to see more copy in the layout articles. Given the amount of work that goes into the layouts featured, there surely must be far more information to share about the building and lessons learned.
I would just like to see more modern era layouts and also less monster layouts. Every month it is steam or a huge 40’x75’ layout featured. I would like to see the regular modelers layouts that are more in the 15x15 size range. There must be more of these than the montser layouts. I myself have a sorta monster layout at 25’x35’ but I still want to see the regular layouts and as I said less steam era layouts.
I would like to see an article on kitbashing a UP 4000/4884-1 Class Big Boy from a Varney Dockside.
Quoting Douglas MacArthur, “The world has turned over many times . . . . . . . . . .” and the wheel has been reinvented many more times since I got in this hobby forty-five years ago. In the early '70s RMC published a series of technical articles on the F3 followed by several modeling features; I do not know whether it was a coincidence of timing or reactionary but MR soon spasmed into their own series on that early covered wagon unit. You should have heard the bellering; “Who cares about F3s; give us more articles on kitbashing Big Boys from 0-4-0 switchers.” Ten years later the lament was, “How come you never publish any articles on F3s? I have had it up to the eyeballs with articles on kitbashing Big Boys from 0-4-0 switchers” ad nauseam. Ten years from now your lament will be, “I’d sure like to see an article on F3 modeling. It seems like every issue has an article on kitbashing a Big Boy from 0-4-0 switchers.”
Timesavers? I’ve never thought of them as layouts. Just games that use models as playing pieces. I agree with Brakie, a modern version of the old “Railroad You Can Model” articles would be of interest to modellers of different skill levels.
Cheers,
Mark.
The magazine needs more copy, period.