Well, I found myself with a DCC controller standing in front of the F&SM railroad… Wow. Last Saturday a small group of us joined in the first official operating session of the Franklin & South Manchester Railroad. George Sellios, Rich Jolsin, Thom Drigges, Dick Elwell, Bill Duffe, Vinny D’Angelo, Ben Streeter, Paul St Martin and myself, had the great fortune to be the first too operate the F&SM. George, Rich and Thom must have spent a huge amount of time and energy preparing the railroad for the session, and it showed. The car sorting and ID-ing itself must have been a nightmare, not to mention the car cards and waybills. Things were a little slow getting started, too be expected, but once things got going it was Wonderful! George ran two thru freights and the smile said it all… after all this time, a whole new experience! There were lots of smiles all around and we had a lot of laughs. Things did get a little tense in Colbert yard for a while, Paul and Bill had there work cutout for them, all the local freights came and went from Colbert, so it became a bit of a back-up for a while, but as the day progressed everyone got more comfortable and traffic leveled out. There were no real problems and things when very smoothly for the first session. We ended, and spent some time discussing suggestions and tweaks for the future. We do it again for Tony Koester in a coupe of weeks. It was a really great day! Memories that can’t be replaced, I’am sure all who attended would agree. My thanks to George for including me, it was wonderful! Hal
Yes, operating a layout is great.
But operating an excellent scenicked layout is top!
Wolfgang
Yeah I agree …a nice scenic layout that is not full of clutter like the F&SM.
I have heard alot of people complain at the Timonium show about the fixed contests up in New England where every board in a building has to have nail holes and everything modeled in the 30`s has to look run down.
And there was not trash lying all over the place …unlike today in the year 2009
Not everything was run down and beat up looking in the 30`s.
Zing!!! Heads down, incoming…
Funny how those initials stir the pot everytime they are uttered.
Since you are clearly a fan of this type of thing, here is a photo just for you…
Before getting too worked up about it, I should point out that it is O scale.
However, I would agree that the FS&M is not everyones cup-of-tea, but would suggest that it is one of the very best renditions of that style of modelling.
Hal, that’s awesome man. The F&SM is a great layout from what I’ve seen/heard, awesoem to ehar the first ops session went well!
I remember reading about the set up, nice to hear the outcome
Hi from Belgium,
Nice to se that the first operation session on the FSM had all togheter run well.
Some months ago in a comment in MR Mister Koester was not convinced at all that the railroad could supported a good operation session without some track changes.
I know that Mister Sellios had make some track changes because of some published photos…
Hope to see the new track arrangement and some more pictures of the changes made on this wonderful railroad.
Even here in Europe there are a lot of fan of this railroad.
Marc
I’ve never been too keen on the F&SM approach, but when I read Koester’s column several months ago that a more prototypical operating scheme was in the works, I took an interest in it. I guess one of the issues I’ve always harbored about the layout is that it was just a glorified roundy round with no real purpose other than to display George’s models and modeling.
While there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, to me it defeats the purpose of building a model railroad. Now that the F&SM is evolving into a functioning railroad, perhaps we’ll see the scenery evolve as well, where the elements will begin to serve a purpose related to the railroad. I had also read that George was in the process of scaling back the volume and intensity of the scenic “noise.” He already removed a number of the oversized, inauthentic buildings when he added the staging yard.
It’s always a process of evolution on all of our layouts, and it looks like he’s working on some very interesting and exciting changes.
Lee
What I find truly amazing is the George is one heck of a model builder probably one of the best we will ever see, but by far not one of the greatest model railroaders, believe it or not there is a difference. How ever he managed to pull building a really great model railroad ad from what I had been told didn’t need all that much changed to make it into a really nice railroad for operation. Yes George has a some what unique style all his own of maybe over weathering buildings to the point of getting depressed just looking at the shere gloominess of it all, trash in the streets, run down cars, polluted water ways and much much more that make his style unique. So why is it that we all get so critical when it comes to saying his layout is over crowded or over weathered and things really didn’t look like that back in the depression etc. etc. but when it comes to some guy building a what ever layout on a ping pong table or a 4’x8’ piece of plywood we all say with out hesitation it’s your railroad you build it the way you like and thats all that matters. Well George built his railroad his way and thats all that matters. Is it my style or choice if I had his ability, no not even close but I can still appreciate every square inch of it.
As far as nit picking at contest model building I have seen the same and worse at model shows in several genres model plane, model cars military models etc. If the contest is run by rivet counters then they are going to count nail holes in every board and thats their prerogative. I have never seen any awards given for a model of any kind that look ah ok or it will do etc. Simply enough if you don’t like the rules the game is played by take your marbles and go home.
I have been a long time admirer of the FSM but I always thought it was a model of a city with a little bit of railroading thrown in. I also always thought it was somewhat over weathered.
That is until I had the opportunity to see it in person earlier this year. It’s definitely a model of a railroad first, integrated into much city scenery. I also did not find it to be over weathered. I grew up in a working class part of a northeastern city close to railroads and industry and I really feel that he captures the feel. Alot of fun and whimsical scenes on the layout and many little details that I found fascinating. I am not at all surprised that it would be a layout that has really good operating possibilities as well, as the track plan is well thought out.
Count me in as a big fan.
Mark
Where’s the Op Session Video???
I’m a big fan on the F&SM, I’ve followed it for years. One of the things I admire the most is his dedication and focus on a huge project. I’ve never seen the layout in person ans due to my geographical distance I don’t believe it will ever be possible,but it would cool if I did. I was able to buy 9 FSM kits this past weekend along with a couple Campbell and a Scale Structures Ltd,stone roundhouse kit and consider my self lucky. I like building craftsman kits and will start on these soon. Hope to have sections of my layout loking like Georges.
As for contests,The same model with nail holes will out point the one without, all other things being equal. A hundredth of a second wins the marathon,Etc.
Mr Halrey the OP is a lucky guy. BILL