Quote: “I don’t believe that the resistance on the MRR forum was territorial. What you see over there on the HO gauge forum is the striving for realism and prototypicality. A lot of those guys are rivet counters to boot. Lots of detail, correct detail, prototype signaling, museum quality construction and landscaping. I am sure that they view S gauge and O gauge as “toy trains” so they ignore it. That’s what Tim ran into over there.” End Quote
Rich:
BINGO!!!
Regards,
Timboy
Over the years, I’ve modeled enthusiastically in N, HO, O and even G (1:22.5) scales, and I have the boxes full of equipment packed away to prove it. But I’ve pretty much settled on postwar Lionel (with a smattering of modern rolling stock), now. It’s been a very long time since I’ve even bought a copy of MR.
I let my subscription to MR run out years ago, and no intention of renewing it, because in my opinion, they should rename MR to “HO & N Scale Monthly”. I still have a LOT of HO, some N and Large scale, but my main interest is in O Gauge 3 Rail, and I don’t expect that to change, although with a Large Lottery win I could easily add 71/2" gauge or larger live steam to my interests very easily[;)].
The Kalmbach forums were the first ones that I was active in, and I still check them out regularly, but I have found the “Other” main O & S forum to be much more active, by several times over, so I spend more time there, But Bob(Lionelsoni) is still the Electronics Guru, that I turn to for most questions, Thank You Again, Bob [Y][Y] and I owe you more than one[B].
Doug
I occasionally check out the MR forum but not very often. I really don’t consider myself a model railroader- I just put the things on the rails and let 'em rip. Not really into rivet counting or prototypical operation. I had plenty of prototypical operating as a conductor on the real thing.
I don’t. My interest is soley in postwar Lionel and Marx, although I do enjoy checking out other’s layouts in any scale.
I’d do that! I even went so far as to figure out where I’d have the right-of-way, car barn and engine house! It’s a fun experiment to map out your yard for those “if only” projects when you’re bored!
Becky
Yeah, but I’ll bet they don’t have catalog model numbers memorized the way most of us do! [:D]
Becky
[(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] I’ll bet they don’t! [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D]
I also let my subscription to MRR magazine expire. I found it hypocritical on their part to accept advertising dollars from S sponsors, yet refuse to publish any articles or information on S gauge. I can’t reward that kind of behavior, so when I dropped off the MRR forum, I dropped off their subscription roster as well. It won’t make a bit of difference to them, but I can sleep very well at night. Well, okay - the Scotch helps in that department. [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D]
Regards,
Timboy
I use to hang out there at first but mainly just in the elliots diner ( like our coffee shop but when they use to try to wow me with what they could do in Ho/n I would ask well tell me can you remotely uncouple from the engine anywhere on the track of coarse the answer was always no. i also ask them if they could turn smoke on or off anywhere while the engine was on the track again no ( not sure now if they have come up with either for HO/n but when i was in there the answer was no ) in fact I’m not sure if they even have smoke with there engines. [:D]
RT,
The MTH HO Steam Locomotives are supposed to smoke very well, but for the most part, the HO that have had smoke in the past, just didn’t put out the volume to look right. Also, the usual comments are, “It just looks too TOY LIKE” and “The SMOKE RESIDUE, makes a mess, and makes the track dirty” which even with the larger vollumes we get in O, neither of the mess or track issues seem to be issues for us. Smoke is basically just another item for the “SERIOUS MODELERS” in the tiny train scales to look down on us over.
In HO, there was a locomotive coupler that could be remotely uncoupled anywhere using DCC available, the coupler moved vertically, rather than opening the knuckle(That’s very prototypical for you) but I have not heard anything in quite awhile about it, so I don’t know if it is still available. I will give a nod to the Kadee coupler system that has become the defacto HO standard coupler. We do have the remote locomotive couplers, but to seperate cars, we have to be right over an uncoupling section, then the cars are right there. With the Kadee couplers, by doing the KD Two Step(Back up after uncoupling, then push forwards) it is possible to spot cars away from the uncoupling ramp. They also have the advantage of the couplers operating more smoothly, allowing for gentler couplings, where we all too often have to hit them fairly stoutly to get a good coupling.
I can see the future possibility of command uncoupling happening sooner(Much Sooner) in O than HO, because of the available space in the cars themselves. The three main drawbacks that I see to command uncoupling are;
The COST.
The complexity, seeing the cars ID and entering the info and issueing the commands may slow things down enough to take the FUN out of it.
The 2 digit addresses of TMCC/Legacy (does DCS support 4 digit addresses, or only 2 digit?) For some the 2 digit address limitation can be a problem just for their Power rosters, never mind adding a bunch of ro
I’m only into TMCC so far and yes its only 2 digits but on the mth DCS and Lionel legacey I’m not sure. I knew of the uncoupling if you actual backed over a certain spot you all had a special part there but thats about all I knew of it. smoke was unaware of completely. did know you all had sounds and control from a remote but actually have never seen the set up. and I can’t imagine more than 99 engines on one layout. and for uncoupling of each car I know in O it would basically be cost prohibited as each coupler retail is about $10.00 and then you would need the electronics so for about $35 you can but the set for a dummy engine so you would be about the same for a car so you would have to add that to a already $50.00 car and make the cars to costly. And main reason O gauge hasn’t gone into that. We do have uncoupler track for our cars as you all do.
I never ran into negative comments about smoke when I was there. I personally don’t use smoke most of the times after quitting smoking It now irritates me normally. I know some like it to the point you can’t see across the room lol. I use to say I didn’t like the idea of remote control trains but it was basically introduced to me by a friend that set up a outside G gauge set and had a plastic battery train set that he was running on it. I didn’t see all the bells and whistles that we have with TMCC and I guess you all have with DCC.
It’s my understanding that fine-scale modelers don’t do smoke. Why? Because - in their words - you can’t model smoke. In my words, that is totally ridiculous because you can’t model a steamer NOT smoking! Totally absurd…
Regards,
Timboy
I actually agree with you on this Timboy.
Just how about not busting on us 3 Railers, hey we still accept You, even if your trains, and the real ones don’t have enough rails[swg].
Doug
Hi Doug!
I don’t bust on 3-railers on public forums and if I do, then I expect the forum moderator(s) to do their job and slap me and/or delete the post. If they don’t, then your argument is with them…
Regards,
Timboy
Hi Tim,boy,
Does this look familiar? Just playin with Ya, There were times in the past, that you gave us 3 Railers a bit of a hard time, but I’ll admit you been Pretty Well Behaved lately[(-D].
Doug
Oops. My bad. lolololololololololololololololol
I think one of the coolest things about vintage Lionel and American Flyer is their ability to produce smoke. As a kid back in the 1950s, I simply could not get enough of it with my American Flyer steam engine. I only wish those older engines had sound built in back then.
As for HO gauge, I suspect the absence of smoke is the result of the evolution of HO gauge. HO gauge started out as a practical alternative to O gauge based upon its smaller size, but in the 1960s it became a model railroading hobby as opposed to a kid’s toy train set. The stress was on realism and prototypical operation, but smoke were nowhere to be found in the HO gauge side of the hobby. I have no idea if this is true, but I suspect that since HO gauge primarily operates in DC the ability to produce a “realistic” volume of smoke is more limited.
Today, smoke in HO gauge is still virtually non-existent, and the purists continue to reject it. 'It leaves an oil residue on the engine and track", they say, and “we know oil on the track isnt a good thing in HO gauge”. As for me, as an HO guy, I would welcome smoke as an option, but I sure am not gonna run out and buy new steam engines just to get smoke.
Rich
Since I was an “HO” guy, I do look at the Model Railroader Forum now and then, mainly just to keep in touch with the smaller stuff.
That being said…On a couple of occasions I posted rather generic questions on the “Layouts and Layout Building” section with very little response. The answers that I did get weren’t of much help since they were slanted to “HO” and “N”. When I mentioned, in a separate post, about general building materials for layout that I was planning for “O”, two of the replies simply told me to go to the “Classic Toy Forum”. Thanks a lot !!!
See, I just hate that. Internet forums aren’t segregated, amalgamated, halucinated or any kinda “ated”! If the topic is something I want to discuss, I do it! And instead of going away, I remember who the offenders were and I keep my question up at the top of the list until either I get an answer or the question becomes irrelevant because I figured it out for myself.
Anyhoo. I have HO engines with smoke and they work OK. But since I’ve gotten accustomed to Seuthe smoke units the paltry HO output looks more like a motor fire than prototypical steam locomotive smoke.
We can thank the competition between Lionel and MTH born in the 90’s for all the advances in our O gauge world! And I hope we’re finally starting to see the same kind of shake-up in the S-Gauge world. Seeing how Lionel is producing more and better S-Scale equipment and re-releasing classic Flyer at the same time. It seems to me like they’re finally taking the threat from companies like S-Helper Service seriously!
Becky
Trouble is, it works both ways. If the forums aren’t to be segregated, amalgamated, halucinated or any kinda “ated”, then there would just be one big forum. How would you like to have everything thrown in together, HO, N, O, S, G? Who wants to have to look through, and sort through, everything that they are not interested in? When I come onto the CTT forum, I want to see what’s going on with American Flyer and post my questions about AF here where I know I can get some answers. When I need help with HO or am looking to help someone else with HO, I go onto the MRR forum.
Becky, when you quoted traindaddy1 on his venture onto the MRR forum, you left out a critical part of the quote to wit: "On a couple of occasions I posted rather generic questions on the “Layouts and Layout Building” section with very little response. The answers that I did get weren’t of much help since they were slanted to “HO” and “N”. When I mentioned, in a separate post, about general building materials for layout that I was planning for “O”, two of the replies simply told me to go to the “Classic Toy Forum”. If you go onto the MRR forum with questions on layout technique, you are going to get HO- and N-oriented answers and advice. It’s just that simple. Seems to me that the referrals back to the CTT forum were spot on.
Rich