I’ve updated my N Scale PRR MIddle Division website again!
I’ve added one whole page devoted to my loco/cabin car roster:
http://kc.pennsyrr.com/layouts/dvollmer/Roster/index.html
I’ve also added a photo tour of locations around the layout:
http://kc.pennsyrr.com/layouts/dvollmer/tour/index.html
As always, the main page (also in my signature block) is:
http://kc.pennsyrr.com/layouts/dvollmer/
Here’s a photo to whet the appetite:
Very impressive, Dave! I briefly looked at your website. Nice!
Hey, guys… If links aren’t working, that’s my fault.
Jerry Britton’s Keystone Crossings website, and his on-line hobby shop Merchandise Service, host my webpage for free. It’s a great situation since I get to share my work and to be linked to a great Pennsy community of layouts and modelers, while my site has links to Jerry’s business and sponsors.
Tonight I posted a large number of photos, linked directly to my site (on Jerry’s server), and the large number of pageloads of those pictures (multiple photos in multiple threads in multiple forums) brought Jerry’s comm pipe to its knees. So in order to keep things running, Jerry had to temporarily take my site offline.
I should be back up Monday. In the meantime I’ll be looking into options to duplicate my weekend photos someplace else while maintaining my site on Keystone Crossings.
My apologies to you good folks and to Jerry!
N-scale? No way. Quit trying to fool us Dave!
Seriously, great work and fantastic pics!
Thanks (I think)![swg]
You know, the truth is that N scale can be just as realistic as HO from the typical viewing distance on a layout. Close-up photos can sometimes be less forgiving of N, but from a foot or two away, I don’t think you lose anything with today’s N scale.
I think Lance Mindheim, the Reid Brothers, and a few others have shown that which can be done in HO can also be done in N. Lance’s Monon layout was the “last straw” so-to-speak, that convinced me I could go from HO to N and still achieve realism. The fantastic thing about Lance’s layout, beyond the detail and scenery (spectacular), is the scenery-to-trains ratio.
N scale lets you view trains the way we often view them; from a distance. Sure, who doesn’t want to be trackside? But often you’re seeing trains on the other side of the valley, across the road, on the hillside, etc. You can get that awesome train-dominated-by-scene feel in N with much less real estate than needed in HO.
There are a lot of you guys in N scale that really do it justice. I started in N , 37 years ago , but back then the equipment just wasn’t up to par. Now with whats available I wish I’d stayed with it. But too much time, money etc etc in HO to go back now. Great work Dave.
Jerry,
I can pretty much say the same thing. Although I am perfectly happy with HO and have no desire to switch back to N, I do, after seeing pics like Dave’s sometimes think “I wonder what would have happened if I had …” I am completely blown away by what guys like Dave and others are able to do in N.
My father was in HO, so of course I ended up in HO. I even had a short stint in HOn3. But N scale never appealed to me when I was a kid. But as I got older, I’d see those beautiful Micro Trains cars in their jewel cases and think, “Wow, if only I’d started in N…” But even in the late 80s/early 90s, N wasn’t where I wanted it to be in terms of availability and quality.
By 2002, all that had changed for me. By that time I had finished college and graduate school (first time around), and was preparing to move for my fourth Air Force assignment. I decided at that point that I was sick of tearing down so-called “portable” HO layouts (only to find they weren’t), sick of transporting multiple boxes of cars, locos, and structures, and sick of being confied to shortline operations because I could never count on having enough space at my next assignment for big-time HO railroading.
Enter N scale. By 2002, N scale was on-par with HO in terms of operation and quality. Detail was coming close too. There were so many more products by then that I knew I could model the Pennsy in N and do it accurately (no PRR-painted “foobies”).
In March 2002 I took all of my HO structures, trains, and accessories to a train show in Ohio and sold them. I then turned around and spent my new cash on N scale track, roadbed, structures, ballast, etc.
I had discovered that an N scale hollow-core door layout with folding/telescoping legs could move with me for real (from Florida to North Carolina, with no damage!).
The rest is history!
Dave, you know that when I’m trying to explain to someone that N scale can look every bit as realistic as the larger scales I always point out your layout, right? You’ve got it goin’ on!
Aw shucks! [blush][:I]
Hey, PC… I haven’t seen photos of your layout in awhile. I’m anxious to see some more of that great code 55 trackwork and those awesome steam kitbashes!
Well Dave, you’ve done it again.
Great Photos of a great Layout. You are striking a great blow for prototype modeling and at the same time for N gauge as well.
Too bad that the roster of NHRR equipment that HO has to offer is not available in N gauge or my next layout in planning might have been N Gauge. Where would I find R1, R3, L-1, I-4 and I-5 steamers, EF-1, EP-2, EP-3, EP4 and EF-3 electrics, not to mention the famous American Flyer lightweight coaches and the famous 8600 SS fluted side passenger consists? Only in my dreams.
Well, Big Rusty,
They don’t exactly offer ready to run PRR N scale steam either… but with some kitbashing and some “almost right,” we can come pretty close!
I concede, though, that NH electrics and passenger cars would be a huge challenge!
I don’t have a camera any more. I gave it away to someone who wanted one but couldn’t afford it. I have my eye on one coming out, but the factory delayed it, so I’m left waiting (No, BLI/PCM doesn’t make cameras!) Wow, did I say that? [:O]
I’m betting you’ll get your camera before we even have a delivery date announced on the PCM M1b. I said that outloud!
