Ever since the MR crew has finished the Virginian project railroad, I’m wondering what you would like to see in the next project railroad. What I would like to see is one done in different scale besides HO or N. I’m thinking something along the lines of Z or O scales, maybe even narrow gauge. What I would also like to see is one with wide curves for passenger operation.
I’m thinking I’d like to see the Virginian project first.
I would like to see a Colorado narrow gauge project. It does not matter the scale. I want to see mountain scenery, wooden bridges, lots of trees, mountain stream, tunnels, and a small engine facility.[:D]
I’ll second that.
How about an old time railroad; something like the Santa Fe or the Sufferin’ Pathetic or Norfolk and Western or Burlington Northern . . . . . . . . . . give the new kids on the block an inceentive to see what railroading used to be like.
I’m not as concerned with the theme or the scale. What I want is to go above and beyond the standard benchwork building and track laying exercise.
What engines did they choose, and why? Did the choices of items on the market drive the theme, or did they chase after items to match the theme? Did they match the rolling stock to the industries selected? Or the other way around? What alterations had to be made to structures to make them fit? How did they decide which structures/structure kits they would use? What tricks that weren’t in the instructions did they use in building the structure kits? What weathering techniques did they use?
What did they go through to make the layout actually operate well? How many derailments the 1st time around? How many wiring mistakes? How many coupler pins needed adjusting? Did they ever attempt magnetic uncoupling? What changes had to be made to make magnetic uncoupling consistently successful?
When actual operations were attempted, what unforeseen bottlenecks were encountered? What changes would they make in the track plan if they had to do it again?
Probably little of this gets done because of the time crunch for the project layouts. But this is what could draw the more seasoned model railroaders into following the series. Admitting to things that didn’t go so well, or hints to prevent things from not going so well are what makes the 1960s project layouts such good re-reading. Glossing over what went wrong is the norm for Model Railroader nowadays - from project layouts to layout visits to model reviews. But the problems and issues encountered, and the nature of the successful resolution (if any) are actually more valuable to most readers than another “cut your lumber and track pieces to this size and put them together this way” or “look at what we did; isn’t it great?”.
just my thoughts
Fred W
Colorado’s become a cliche. I have no objection to narrow gauge, but how about something different like, say:
Nevada County Narrow Gauge
Pacific Coast Railway
South Pacific Coast
One of the Maine 2 footers (OK, you can do On30 or HOn30)
New Zealand Government Railways (now Tranzrail) or a bush tram:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywkqLCYd9xo&feature=related
A South African Railways themed layout.
Or maybe even the Darjeeling Himalaya Railway: http://www.dhrs.org/html/dhr_panorama.html
How about the Newfoundland Railway (42" gauge)? It lasted until the late 1980’s and could be done in steam or diesel or a combination.
http://vo1mds.tripod.com/id13.html
http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/nf/
There’s always Queensland Railways (another 42" gauge outfit) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV1rLPWyfXs&feature=related
Andre
there are plenty of mountains and tunnels in the northeast, the Appalachian and Catskill mountains come to mind… there was also a lot of early logging as well as coal production and shipment. plenty of opportunities for something historical and different.
since this will be a spring/summer project, why not do it in modules and build a small loop (10x10,2 feet deep). maybe a “whistlestop” scene. the opportunities are vast to show what can be done in a small space with limited budget.
There are a lot of themes that could appeal if done well – narrow gauge, logging, electric/interburban, iron ore, or how about a southeastern line for a change (SR, P&N, ACL SAL, etc)? Perhaps pick a prototype and model both the plant and operations of a specific location and era.
But like Fred, I’d like the series itself to be more than a set of powerpoint like boxes and insets. First, build the railroad to fit in a real location, around windows, doors, etc, in a typical space like a spare room (12x12, 14x14). Then spend much more article time on why that theme. Pros and cons. Why that time period. Research the prototype and explain how it worked. Take the time to build specific structures and do some scratch building. Devote entire articles to just one location or item. It doesn’t matter if the series takes a full year or more, you don’t have to finish it in two months. Perhaps signal it if appropriate or TT&TO stations.
Handlay some track. And like was said earlier, don’t let commercially available products limit the theme. Show us how you chose, painted, modified, or scratchbuilt locomotives, rolling stock, etc to fit the theme. I think Cody is up to it.
[quote user=“fwright”]
I’m not as concerned with the theme or the scale. What I want is to go above and beyond the standard benchwork building and track laying exercise.
What engines did they choose, and why? Did the choices of items on the market drive the theme, or did they chase after items to match the theme? Did they match the rolling stock to the industries selected? Or the other way around? What alterations had to be made to structures to make them fit? How did they decide which structures/structure kits they would use? What tricks that weren’t in the instructions did they use in building the structure kits? What weathering techniques did they use?
What did they go through to make the layout actually operate well? How many derailments the 1st time around? How many wiring mistakes? How many coupler pins needed adjusting? Did they ever attempt magnetic uncoupling? What changes had to be made to make magnetic uncoupling consistently successful?
When actual operations were attempted, what unforeseen bottlenecks were encountered? What changes would they make in the track plan if they had to do it again?
Probably little of this gets done because of the time crunch for the project layouts. But this is what could draw the more seasoned model railroaders into following the series. Admitting to things that didn’t go so well, or hints to prevent things from not going so well are what makes the 1960s project layouts such good re-reading. Glossing over what went wrong is the norm for Model Railroader nowadays - from project layouts to layout visits to model reviews. But the problems and issues encountered, and the nature of the successful resolution (if any) are actually more valuable to most readers than another “cut your lumber and track pieces to this size and put them together this way” or “look at what we did; isn’t it great?”.
just my thoughts
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NOT another beginner’s railroad. Gives us something with meat, something to test our skills.
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NOT another 4 x 8 or some adaption of a 4 x 8. We’ve had MORE than enough of those
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NOT another roundy-go-roundy. We’ve had enough of those as well. Although through staging is acceptable.
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A railroad designed primarily with prototype operation in mind, not one with the so called “operation” added as an after thought.
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Something like the “Washita and Santa Fe” which was probably the best project model railway that MR has ever shown. Unfortunately, they never did complete the series. It seemed to end around the time the Andy S. discovered computers.
A logging project would be a nice change of pace. I’m not interested in O or Z scale.
On30 mining or logging layout.
I’d like to see something with tricksey and unorthodox benchwork.
I´ll add to that something for people hard pressed with space. Not all of us can even house a classic 4 by 8 or a permanent layout. New ideas on model railroading in tight spaces & low budgets are needed!
Since a major purpose of the project railroads seems to be helping the newcomers get started, I doubt that most of the suggestions above are really appropriate.
The vast majority of newcomers start with a 4x8 sheet of plywood. That’s how I started. What would be interesting would be a 2 sheets of plywood layout - 5’4"x12’ built on wheels. This would allow for larger radii and larger locomotives as well as 80’ cars.
Enjoy
Paul
How about including a large engine maintenance facility with a nice big roundhouse. Set it in the 1950’s and use it to show the various structures involved with steam and diesel maintenance.
How about an Industrial Switching Layout like Byron Henderson’s Switchman’s Dream?
Since they are going to figure strongly in the MRRing future, why not develop and build a nice diorama or a FREMO module. Did I say nice? Yeah, I meant reeaaaallly nice…top of the line commercial stuff if necessary, but some scratching wouldn’t be looked down upon. Or all scratching. Scrounging.
One other thing: blogs seems to be getting bigger for some, and we have just discussed social media. Some organizations are building things in televised series via blog votes or twitter votes. Try for a media consensus on things (will take a project leader some of this day each day to look after this, but…nothing good comes easily), and build a diorama or module, or a layout based on consensus.
Crandell
Well lots of scales and gauges and areas asked for here, so it appears as everyone has some thing in mind. Since these projects tend to be for newcomers it’s hard to please all the rest. What’s also hard is doing a specific road, as availability of products like engines, cabooses and rolling stock are not as easy to find as years gone by.
What I’d like to see is a layout set to a specific set of years(no more than five), doing a generic branch or short line and utilizing specific industries to specific cars(feedmills, lumberyards, home heating,wholesale foods, some medium industry that ships and receives by rail, and the cars needed to serve them. Say it was in the '65-'70’s time frame, use only cars from that era, tell which cars work and have companion articles doing say, weathering and super detailing those cars. Maybe do a short line and offer a set of decals for a loco and caboose(like Turtle Creek) and offer extras for a small fee plus postage.
Keep track plan simple, but so it’s logical, not cramming three industries on on siding. Use commercial track and turnouts. I think scratch building turnouts could be tough for even better modelers.Do a companion article on super detailing turnouts. But use all flex track so, you have some skills involved.These articles should take a few months, this shouldn’t be a wam-bam layout.
Get trains running perfectly, then do some scenery, ballasting, bridges and road crossings, run trains again.
Use commercial available building kits, do a series on building them etc. Do one or two kit-bashes, nothing to radical. Then do one craftsmen kit as a challenge, nothing to hard, do companion pieces here as well. also a page of free era specific signage, etc, to keep the mood right. Do a follow up on commercial available vehicles as well.
Since the magazine getting smaller more pages covering this layout fill it up. Make it last.