Paul Scoles DVDs

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just received my order from MicroMark for the 3 Paul Scoles DVDs on realistic operation and scenery construction. Viewing them was a real treat and very informative and made me sorry I put off their purchase so long!

The scenery 2 DVDs were awesome and had many great ideas that were new to me for building scenery. He’s truly a master at making a model railroad look alive! I admit that when I saw him starting a couple scenes I had big doubts as to the final results but he brought everything together to create spectacular scenes. Many of his methods and materials are different than what we’ve become used to by the other masters…Frary & Hayden. Granted, California does look much different than the East.

I do have to say I was as disappointed with the operations DVD as I was pleased with the scenery ones. I expected better. Since it was a DVD using the great MicroMark car card system I expected to see it put into use and have some detailed explanations for the best ways to incorporate it into my layout. Paul mostly discussed the various train operating forms (19, 31, etc) and glanced over the car cards themselves. He did an excellent job from what I know of these forms. I still have a lot of questions about using the cards that I had hoped would be answered here.

Even with my lack of joy with the operating DVD I would gladly spend the money again just to see all 3 and the superb shots of his PBR&N in operation. His old time Sn3 layout (1890s) truly deserves an Allen Keller DVD. The engines were smooth running and his structures are equal to his scenery.

Many thanks to Paul for sharing these with us.

Roger Huber

2

Roger -you are not alone, I feel the about the same way. Really liked vol 1 &2 and felt vol 3 left me wanting. Still my second best video series - after Joe Fugate’s 5 part how to a 4 part ops session series.

ratled

3

I also have both scenery videos. And they are both very informative. My wife and I make our trees with his method. Although our we do our trunks with a different color. He does great work and I would recommend both of them to anyone who wants to improve their modeling. Also, having had the opportunity to see his railroad first hand, the videos don’t do it justice. I use the same car card system, but haven’t seen the video. It’s a very easy system to work, at least for me. But I operate in a group that has used a car card system for a while. One of our guys runs his basement empire very smoothly with it.

4

I haven’t watched it in a while, but I really enjoyed the Paul Scoles operations DVD. True, it was more of an overview than an in-depth instructional video, but the railroad is stunning and Scoles seems to have a really positive attitude towards the hobby. He’s balanced being a serious model railroader without being bogged down in the minutia. The production values were also very nice (a real sticking point with me as I do video production on the side). This video more than any other I would show to someone who had no idea what this hobby is all about.