Cinderella

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Once upon a time there was a princess that was put to kitchen work by her mean stepmother. Once she got help to dress up and visit a ball where she met this wonderful prince. They fell in love. The girl had to leave the ball before midnight becouse the spell that had given her the nice dress was goiong to stop working. When she hurried out she lost one of her shoes. The prince looked for her but could only find her shoe. But it was a resourceful prince. He started to look everywhere in the country for a girl who had a foot that fit in the shoe. Eventually he came to the home of Cinderella. Her stepsisters saw that the shoe was to small for their feet but they really wanted to be a queen one day. One of them cut her toes but despite this the shoe didn’t fit, the other one cut her heel off with the same result. Suddenly someone saw Cinderella and asked her to try the shoe and it was a perfect fit! The prince married Cinderella and they lived happily for the rest of theit life.

I think everyone of you have heard this fairytale when you were a little kid. And now you wonder what this has to do with model railroading?

As a model railroader we have our givens and druthers and have to make compromises. One of the most common givens is space. There is a spare bedroom to use for a model railroad, a garage or a basement. All theese rooms have certain dimensions. Then we have the druthers, we want to run long trains, we want to have alot of operation, we want big locomotives and cars, we want to have nice scenery, we want the trains look good we want…

We model railroaders have a big advantage over the Cinderella stepsiters, we have the possibility to scale down to fit our given space. When we start fresh we have the possibility to choose a scale that will fit most of our druthers into the given space. Adding more or less creativity we can plan and build a nice model railroad that we will give us pleasure for a long time.

Are everyone doing that? No! A lot of new members in this forum

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Some people approach designing a first layout in a blissful state of complete ignorance:

I got a (fillintheblank HO toy) train, and a standard size sheet of plywood. How do I make them into a model railroad???

Other, more knowledgeable, newby modelers (usually railfans first) are more likely to start with:

Here’s this standard size sheet of plywood, I want to use it as a base to model the New York Central Putnam Division as it was when my father ran his first (full scale) train over it back when the standard loco was a Pacific…

Or, maybe, there’s a very experienced modeler who has never built a fully operational layout, but already has all the rolling stock needed to model the New York Central Putnam Division in April of 1952. Now, finally, he has some dedicated space to use…

Example 1 has chosen HO because that’s what his toy train is.

Example 2 may choose anything from G to Z, but is most likely to gravitate to N.

Example 3 may be locked into his scale of earlier choice, either because he isn’t willing to dump his collection on E-bay or because each piece of rolling stock has some associated fond memories. (OTOH, if he IS willing to sell everything and shift to a different scale, he probably will - and then find himself regretting the decision later.)

Fresh-caught newbies should be encouraged to consider all of their scale options BEFORE making any major financial committment. More experienced modelers have to help - by providing information, not by crusading for one’s chosen scale. One size does NOT fit all.

(In answer to the inevitable question, I am a 3 - and you would find it easier to change the orbit of Mars than to change my choice of scale and prototype.)

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in 1:80 scale, aka HOj)

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As I said in another current post, but in slightly different words, any field of endeavor is most successful when its contributing knowledge and skills are synthesized and integrated to the extent possible. We humans tend to have individual biases and preferences for approaching problems with a favored tactic, mostly because it is mostly successful for us.

The threads where folks debate the best way to do anything, as jeffers is saying in one of them, is merely posturing and ego stroking so that we can find if even one other person agrees with what we claim to have done. We are seeking affirmation. Unfortunately, with different backgrounds, personalities, and different levels of MRR experience and preferences, including getting enough other people to affirm our approach to the hobby, we are bound to run into disagreement about where to place the most emphasis to ensure success. For some, size does matter. For others, it’s all about the scale, stupid. Another insists that without curves wider than 26" radius, “…you’re wasting your time.” Someone else says DCC has nothing much to offer, and that he is perfectly happy with DC.

I think you are right, nof, that there is merit to figuring out one’s space limitations and constraints with an open mind that is even willing to jump scales. It is hard to do, though, when in receipt of a substantial and valued locomotive gift in a different scale than the best one for the space, or when a person returns to the hobby with perfectly good scale locomotives but tight space.

Lastly, some folks are like Heinz Pickles; you can tell a Heinz pickle, but you can’t tell it much (that is a play on words in English that I hope is not going to escape you [:)]). In other words, you can go to great lengths, personally, to point out what you feel are clear and serious flaws in a track plan, but if the listener is simply incapably of apprecia

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Our other problem, is that we are a somewhat mobile society. What we have now as far as trains and space, may not be what we have in a few years. If I were to start over, I probably would switch to N scale even though my new house is being built and it will have the largest layout space that I’ve ever had (I have HO scale). I know I will have to make compromises but in the end, I think I’ll be happy.

The three main reasons for not switching are that I like the detail in HO, not just the rolling stock, but the scenes as well. The money aspect, yes I could eBay all my stuff but it would leave me very short of what I would need to even come close to replicating what I have now. And finally, the wife would kill me so I would have no use for trains! Well, she may not kill me but she’d surely kick my rear and her foot definately wouldn’t fit in Cinderella’s shoe if you know what I mean.

Rick

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  1. Yep, I started in HO because that’s what my wife bought me. I had a ball - I didn’t know that Tyco and brass Atlas track were declasse so I bought more and had more fun.

  2. Then I moved to O and then to S as the perfect size (at least for me).

  3. But I didn’t dump anything, I still have all my HO, my O, and my son’s N, some G scale that I got as a Christmas present, and some 3 rail that was also a Christmas present.

I love it all and while S is my primary scale, I hope to set up something small in all the others.

Enjoy

Paul