Most layouts are focused on industry, passenger or both going through amazing scenery. We simulate yard operations, passenger operations etc.
I’m building an early railroad theme and the railroads were frought with hardships. Train robberies, falling rocks, destroyed rails and other hazards. Has anyone thought about operations and simulating essentially a train robbery or natural disaster? If so I would love to see pictures and ideas for inspiration. I think i want to have my operations center around a bridge out or maybe bandits or other attacks.
Presumably these are rare events and I don’t think many modelers want to model a permanently “out” bridge where the train just comes to a halt. Then what? Same with train robber although at least there you could remove the robbers and horse figures and the ties they put across the tracks from the layout for future operations.
Maybe one kind of natural disaster (or at least situation) that would be more interesting and challenging from an operating standpoint would be to replicate what happens during certain high water periods where diesel engines cannot go through water that is high enough to short out the traction motors.
One laborious solution the CP and Soo Line have had to deal with in Wisconsin is an area west of Milwaukee that floods in spring. they have locomotives stationed at either end of the flooded area and shove trains through the water until the locomotives at the other side can couple up and continue on with the train. You could model the “situation” without having to actually model the water on the rails and it would be interesting and challenging
At Savannah IL along the Mississippi River in 1965 the flooding was high enough such that no diesel locomotive could get a train through the yard and main. The CB&Q’s solution was to bring up their #4960 excursion steam locomotive, a 2-8-2, and for days every train that got through Savannah was pulled by steam through the water. Again that could be modeled without having to model the water - just create a situation card and let the crews and the dispatcher deal with the problem
I would think that a diorama of such a disaster might be quite interesting. A club module I see at local train shows has a dinosaur rampaging through a town and is quite entertaining. However, a washout, collapsed bridge or other similar disaster might get old on a permanent layout unless there is a way for trains to bypass the problem.
At an operating session I attended, the host wanted to simulate an emergency situation where a lumberjack was injured at one of the logging camps and so the host instructed one operator to make an emergency run of his train into town with the injured man. The trouble was that only a few of the host’s locos were sound equipped so the operating crews were not used to using or hearing whistle signals. The host told the operator of the emergency train to repeatedly blow his whistle to warn the other operators to get their trains out of the way. Unfortunately, the other operators just looked at the guy blowing his whistle with a “what the heck are you doing” stare. The host was rather disappointed and, to my knowledge, has never repeated the scenario.
I have also read about operating sessions where “situation cards” are drawn to introduce random problems into the mix. Such “situations” could include natural disasters that might be physically simulated using removable or interchangeable scenery items.
That all makes sense i think i might do is a diarama and simulate the train stopping at that point for example a train robbery. Maybe add some sound of a shoot out. Maybe have it hidden so it can revealed when I want to use it. The other one is a rock slide - i think i can simulate this similarly with some foam rocks falling and trains coming to an emergency halt. Until the tracks can be cleared.
A bridge out may be a portion of track that can be simulated by temporarily removing it and then replacing it when it is repaired or just but some blocking materials on each side of the track before and after the bridge negating the need to remove it.
Obviously with all the hazards on my railroad I’m not sure it’ll be all that profitable :).
Keep the suggestions coming this is helpful. I just want to get creative in simulating various scenarios that would be amusing, fun - but I don’t want it to be laborious or frustrating.
Granted my layout is only 11x11 in a small room so it would be just my self and JMRI operating maybe a friend so not a club scenario at least not yet.
Thanks so far - for the suggestions keep them coming :). I’m finalizing my layout in my software and will probably begin laying my template down soon.
I’m using railmodeler pro which is pretty simple on my mac.
Some people have modeled wreck damaged equipment along the right of way or down over a hill. Prototype wrecks are sometimes just pushed out of the way so track can be rebuilt and traffic resumed quickly. The final cleanup can take quite some time.
Equipment that is badly damaged or hard to recover may be left in place permanently.I know of a boxcar and a hopper that are still left in different locations after derailments that occurred in the 1960’s.
Somewhere I saw a photo of the aftermath of a steam engine wreck. They were carrying a dead crew member up to a caboose. As a doctor, I’ve seen enough death, I don’t model train wrecks, car wrecks fires or graveyards.
That said, I think all firehouse Christmas gardens have a building fire. But those guys get off on being in a room where the ceiling is on fire.
There are ways to add recorded sounds. Usually people use bird sounds or sounds of running creeks, but no reason why you couldn’t record some western gun fire for your train robbers.
The one “disaster” I have seen at local train shows is a large truck breaking through a wooden floored bridge. The particular truck is not far enough through to effect rail traffic. You could make it so it did or remove the truck leaving only the broken bridge. Rock slides wouldnt be hard to do, a few larger stones sitting on the track and near it. If you have the right scenery near the tracks, you could create a drop in landslide from a chumk of foam fit over the track. Basic, coarse slide material, a few larger rocks and a few broken trees on it, take off from the layout and the tracks would be clear.
Trouble with a major disaster is getting the elements to look dented and broken like reality.
A train car, with one side pushed in (use heat) on it’s side next to the tracks with a large bolder next to it that did the deed.
As others may tell you, gag scenes tend to get old. The dinosaur tromping down main street. And maybe then a film crew nearby - oh look they’re making a movie. Oho and then a “real” dinosaur about to eat the film crew. A one time visitor finds it cute, or funny. But after seeing it all the time?
As a diorama, I think it is a great idea. On a layout, I have a humble suggestion. On many layouts, we have imaginary interchange tracks. You know, a foot or two of crossing track that really goes nowhere, but it is the “New York Central interchange” with your route. How about a bridge over a canyon on your main line, and a branch line trailing off from a switch, and the bridge on THAT branch is washed out. The branch is a fake just like my NYC interchange - just an excuse for your scene. But your scene won’t affect actual operation.
Landslide, bridge out, wreck, all could be treated on a fake branch track near the main line. ANother possibility. I love riding through Harpers Ferry West Va. The bridge across the Potomac right out of the tunnel is a classic scene. The line branches right at the tunnel, the main line across the bridge, and a smaller bridge for the branch. But what gets my eye every time is the row of old abutments where other bridges used to be. (Pylons? whatever they are called) There are two sets there: one parallel the existing bridges, and another crossing the Shenandoah river. SImple to add a scene like that across your river to lend some history without blocking the track.
Funny scenes are best left to modular layouts for public display in my opinion. The public at large loves amusing scenes.
Here in Florida, the S Modulators Fun And Disasters layout makes the rounds at trains shows.
The First Coast Society’s modular layour features… Sharks In A Tornado… A SHARKNADO!
Of course… funny things happen on the STRATTON AND GILLETTE also, but these scenes will by temporary for photographs only. Godzilla is a recurring character. Nobody seemed to notice him when I posted this picture in Show Me Something.
Our railroad club in high school started building a layout circa 1973. I thoght at the time the PC deferred-maintenance ‘thing’ was going to be the future for a while, so I started thinking about using one of those geared-down switch machines to pull a span of track vertically down against padding when the ‘weight’ of a train came onto it. If you left it there some of the cars might start to tip on their own just like in the movie that went to Congress… you could simulate low rail joints with a similar kind of setup (provided you had feeders to each small section of rail between joints)
I also planned to have a bridge with a couple of teens reposing on it, with an electromagnet underneath that could strategically drop scale cinderblocks, park benches, etc. For a while that behavior was so prevalent in parts of the NEC that Amtrak engines were fitted with barred grilles like an an Alphabet City apartment.
More seriously, you could model a deck bridge plus openable-bridge-like track structure so that it could be removed and a ‘broken’ oe substituted. I took advantage of the wisdom of contemporary water painters that little real ‘water’ depth was often needed, thinking you could simulate higher and higher water, and washouts, with relatively thin modular plates that could stack higher and higher, right up to simulation of wild white water or freshets, and plug-in parts of roadbed or track that could be swapped to fit.
When I got to college and first observed how a good D&D dungeon master could run things, I began wondering if club layouts should have an equivalent, someone who thinks up emergencies and simulates chance during an operating session, perhaps someone just a little cruel running the simulator. You might come in thinking you’re staged to run and find the equivalent of Hurricane Diane has made your life more complex without warning.
I could swear that Walthers made or marketed a burni
What would make sense and was an article in MR in the 50s was a temporary bridge around repairs or installation of a permanent bridge. Years ago 183d st in Homewood, Il was widened to 4 lanes resulting in tear down of the existing bridge and abutments so wider abutments andvs bridge could be installef. Traffic on the IC mainline was routed on a temporary bridge on piles resulting in dead slow train operation through the area. That could be a legitimate problem on a model railroad.
I think the problem would be preventing the layout from becoming sort of a tounge-in-cheek Hollywood / Disneyland version of the Old West, like today’s fantrip railroads that all seem to think that because their train is pulled by a steam engine, they have to hire actors to stage a “hold up” of the train. In reality, train robberies were incredibly rare, as were shootouts at high noon in the main street and bank hold-ups etc.
I staged this disaster on my Pacific East Coast Railway, after one particularly enjoyable Christmas here in Australia. There was a story that went something like this :-
The CEO of the Pacific East Coast railroad was showing his grandson around the railroad during the Christmas break, but left an obstruction on the track. This contravenes his own rules, but he employees don’t want to make a fuss in case they get the sack. What can they do? The obstruction it too big for them to remove with the company’s crane and too heavy for olde number 1 to pull off the track. Hiring a bigger crane or loco needs the CEOs approval. There was a suggestion of tilting the object, but with disastrous results. Hundreds of spectators had gathered on their way to the beach and the obstacle disintegrated as it was being tilted over. Some died quickly, some died happy.Cheers
Cheers