[:D]1. 3 rail z scale 2. Black smoke coming out of model train smokestacks. 3. A completly finished permanent layout. 4. A permanent outdoor n scale layout. 5. A room size layout,with only one engine pulling 2 cars all the time. 6. A model railroaders wife that loves her husbands trains more than her own children. 7. Derailed trains that automatically rerail themselves. 8 110 volt track power. 9. Enough time to spend in the trainroom.10. All people agree on all subjects all the time. 11. Powered cabooses. 12. Working windshield wipers on engines.
2 things get my attention here more than the others… #8 and #12. I’ve had some impressive mishaps with 15 volts…can’t imagine what would happen with 110. But 110 would definitely stop roaming hands when showing off a layout. As for working wipers…give MTH time, they’ll probably come up with that.
Now…I’ve got a #13. A real diesel electric in HO.[:D]
Mark H
We had powered boxcars, and we have powered passenger car trucks. Powered cabooses ain’t that far fetched. And didn’t someone have 110volt power back in the day?
I’d like to dispute #2. I have heard of black smoke being produced an HO scale model train - quite realistically too! Of course, there was no shell or smoke stack on the (diesel) locmotive model at the time, and having decoders catch on fire is a very expensive way of generating smoke effects… Yup. One really defective decoder.
FYI, it was an Alco model too… [(-D] Smoke, flames, and all.
S&S
I have heard of using 110 volt power to run model trains. Back in a 1940s issue of Model Railroader, one column writer described visiting the basement railroad of an enterprizing modeller. Said modeller built his own cars and locomotives - 1/16 scale if I remember right - and powered them off a live overhead wire. The models were powered by motors taken from household blenders, and ran off of 110 VAC. I wish I could find that article…
S&S
John Page wrote in the DEC 1985 looking back article about that layout. The loco used hamilton beach mixer motors for propulsion. [li]
RMC or MRH will probably feature a animated “windshield wiper” sooner or later. Wouldn’t even require nano-engineering.
OK, here’s another thing you probably won’t see, which requires a lot of qualifications to quiet the peanut gallery
Actively modeled weather:
–On indoor layouts (obviously garden layouts get real weather)
–Real effects of snow, rain, ice, maybe fog (real effects - not simulated by lighting, not dumping some Noch snow powder on the landscape, not simulated by holo-projection equivalents when they arrive)
–Expected by the modeler - drain pipe or water main break, broken basement windows during floods or snowstorms, or cat piddle do not count.
Wind is of course already modelable with a fan. Tornado - well, the price of structure kits and rolling stock is too high…
I have no idea how it could be done on an active layout (yes, static dioramas can be set up for photographing with snow swirling a bit and models posed just so), but seeing trains operate in a real heavy snowstorm confined just to a layout would be wild as all heck…
Notice guys I said (probably) in the list. .May God Bless.
If I’m not mistaken, there was an April fools article on this back in 2011 or 12.
That’s easy to fix…Less time watching TV and other useless things that assumes time.
- Working windshield wipers on engines.
That could happen with today’s miniature electronics but,would the final cost of the engine justify the working wipers?
Also consider, if the blades on the wipers ever went bad you would have to have a new windshield.
Yeah, but with a sound decoder the back and forth slap, slap, slap, slap and so on, of the wipers could be turned up really high, to match the loud sounds already emitting from the engine. What fun to hear them from over a 1000 scale feet away.
The joy would be so immensely satisfying. Would it not?[;)]
Cats that do not come anywhere near the layout or workbench.
Well, after mine tried once to jump onto my current layout, he bounced off of the clear plexiglass “catch fence” (installed just because we got said cat…) that he couldn’t see, he bounced off of it, back down to the floor, ran out, never tried getting up there again.
So, hate to burst your bubble, but… My cat does not go anywhere near my layout.
(Note: Catch fence was installed to keep things from being knocked off of layout by him, not intending to keep him off of layout… Just was intending to keep locomotives and rolling stock from falling to the floor when he got up there. Him mis-calculating jump height was unexpected, but kinda humourous to see. And, like a typical cat, he had the look just after he calmed down of “I meant to do that…” [:)])
Re #12.
MR had a shot some time ago of a scene on a layout that was done to look like it was raining. It was quite effective. Being able to turn on the locomotive’s windshield wipers when passing through that scene would be a neat touch.
It would be pretty fussy work, but quite doable with today’s micro motors.
I’ll put it wayyy down on my project list, after the layout is built and then some.[swg]
Dave
Similar situation in Norman Oklahoma at Christmas. Home made trains and track. Looked like sewing machine motors and thin track on wooden ties. Display was in front of Santa Fe station. As a kid visiting “grandma” I could hardly wait to see the trains in action. Dick Fostert Sonoma CA
Absolutely,just like hearing the engine across the layout going upgrade with the same sound it made while running on flat ground… [:-^] [swg]
I will install working windshield wipers on my trains when they develop HO rain.
Unless you use a waterproof bonding agent, even HO scale rain would loosen up all of your scenery. [swg]
Thank you for helping me find the article! Explains why I couldn’t find it in my 1944-46 issues. Well I was only off by 40 years… [:$]
Thanks again. That’s one of my favorite articles in Model Railroader.
S&S