Hi Eric, I remember your Housatonic RR from the N-Scale.org days. That was a long time ago. Do you have a layout thread?
Hi Joe. It has been a while for sure! Well, Joe, thanks to your suggestion, I just set one up. https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/the-n-scale-housatonic-rr.150877/ Here's a link to some youtube videos showing the N Scale Housatonic RR layout progress. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFQtoSmqr-KQ3UMbdA9WFjA Eric
Thanks Eric, I subscribed to your Youtube channel and will watch all the videos over the next few days.
The Folding Table Central is about as developed as it's going to get. I may add one more Maxi-IV set and a few more freight cars but that will be it until the new layout comes to life. Running 2 trains is a whole lot more fun than only running one at a time. It is entertaining me while I wait to get into our new home which should be about the first week in October. I've decided that I am going to use single track with wood ties even though all the track I see along the FEC has concrete ties. I don't care for the look of the concrete tie track and don't like mixing the 2 types together. I've kind of decided on a trackplan. I have to work it out with Railmodeller Pro. When I do I'll post it here. It will be similar to the 2 level 4 track plans I posted earlier. I haven't decided whether to go with DC or DCC. Since my layout will only be 3'x10' the only advantage of DCC is controlling sound engines, however I don't know that I want sound engines. Since I plan on running 4 trains at a time the sounds can get jumbled and annoying. DC is simple and a lot cheaper than DCC so that's the way I'm leaning. I am considering 2 operating schemes. One would be contemporary Florida railroads and the other is anything and everything. I'm leaning toward the anything and everything approach. That's it for now. Comments, suggestions and opinions are welcome.
We rented a place in Florida in March for a getaway. It was right next to the FEC main and I fell in love with those locomotives' paint schemes. That would look great.
I love the FEC Champion paint scheme. I’m hoping Kato makes another run with different engine numbers. I’d also like to see them make the FEC GP40-2 in the traditional blue scheme. And while I’m dreaming I’ll hope for a Brightline train as well.
You can always paint/color the ties however you want. You get to pick what you want to work on, and what you accept as-is! Though many DCC N scale locos are equipped with sound, it is by no means necessary. In fact, in N scale, with the tiny limits on speaker size, the sound is not nearly as good as in larger scales. However, if you are into it, prototypical use of the horn and/or bell sounds add another element to model railroading. Since diesel locos generally operate in consists, you could use just one sound-equipped DCC locomotive per consist, with the remaining consist members being non-sound-equipped, to save money (for more locos, no doubt!). And DCC offers many non-sound-related advantages, including accurate speed matching between consist members, even among different brand/model loco's. DCC lets you literally, physically and logically create & tear down consists on the fly: coordinate their lights and sounds, even drive them together physically, couple them, then consist them so they respond to the same consist address, all without touching them. You can also break a consist up and send the locos to separate destinations, etc. for maintenance, or return to pool. DCC also can give you phenomenally slow, steady crawling, much better than generally possible with DC (at least not without a lot of work/maintenance on the loco's drivetrain.) Why limit yourself to one way of operating? It's YOUR railroad; do what YOU want, when YOU want!
As of now this will be my trackplan though I intend to make some changes when I actually build it. The green is the lower level. The lower level will run 2 mainline trains unattended while the upper level is primarily for operations. The biggest difference between this plan and previous ones is the curves. The lower level has 12.4" and 13.7" curves while the upper level has 11.1" and 12.4" curves. The Folding Table Central uses 11.1" and 12.4" curves and I have no problems so I'm comfortable with using them on the permanent layout.
Your missing one good advantage of dcc and thats you can run two or three trans on the same track. or three or 4 trains on different tracks but with one controller in hand.. With DCCEX its cheaper than dc (unless you have all the dc stuff already ) but for well under 70 bucks DCCEX is the ticket.. would work well for your plan...... i like your plan too...
I was thinking (I know that's dangerous) about my upcoming layout. I am planning on focusing on the FEC as my main interest and having generic Florida-ish scenery. The railroads that operate in Florida are the FEC, Brightline, CSX, Amtrak and NS. That allows quite a bit of variety though the east coast is strictly FEC and Brightline. The thinking part centers around palm trees. Florida has lots of palm trees but so does southern California. I was thinking that the same basic scenery could feature California railroads like the UP, ATSF, SP and maybe more. That would allow a lot of variety and the chance to change things up from time to time. I'm not a prototype modeler but I do like to keep things within an acceptable (at least to me) sense of reality. Are there any other railroads that would go with palm trees? Does the BNSF run in palm tree country?
Interesting idea! Just keep in mind that surrounding the palm trees are polar opposites (sand/rocks vs swamp/green grass). BNSF has trackage from San Diego, up the coast toward LA. Most of the rest of their CA trackage is inland, but there are occasional palm trees there too. I'm not too hung up on prototypes, roadnames and equipment. If I like it, I run it! Never forget that your layout is YOUR layout! I'm not discounting interest in trying to accurately depict a certain area or line, but only if that's what you want to focus on. That said, the Santa Fe is my favorite road, whether in the old Atchison Topeka, or the "Big New" flavor of the Santa Fe.
I’m not concerned with prototype accuracy, Andy. My scenery will be generic. The palm trees will make it feel like Florida or Southern California. That’s close enough to reality for me.
Soo, an Alaska SD70MAC pulling their passenger train among the tall palms along the beach?? That would be a fun time!! Absolutely run what you want, when you want. That is the reason we build these things, for fun!
I had forgotten about this Alaska Railroad type paint scheme that the FEC used on a couple locomotives a few years ago. I don’t think this has been offered in N but would be really cool, almost like running the ARR in Florida.
I’ve been thinking about using T-Trak modules for my upcoming layout. The advantages are that I could start building modules now instead of waiting until we get into our new house. I’ll have roughly 3x10 feet but I can add a few inches to accommodate 2 corner modules with a single straight between them on both ends and as many single and double straight modules as I can fit into approximately 120”. A second advantage would be the ability to snap the layout apart and take it to shows to demonstrate N scale modular railroading. The biggest disadvantage I can think of is that the track plan is more limited than building a conventional layout. What are your thoughts?
Not much experience of T-Trak, but I belong to a club where only a handful of us have home layouts. We hire a hall every quarter and build a fresh configuration every time.
I was curious about the FEC diesels in the near-Alaska Railroad paint. Turns out that four SD70Ms were leased by EMD to FEC, but the lease expired in 2015 and wasn't renewed according to photo captions on RRPictureArchives.net. They went to FURX and then to the Providence and Worcester (two) and Vermont Rail System (the other two).
Kato offered the Alaska scheme a few years ago in n scale, I see them pop up on eBay. I thought about picking one up to patch over to First Union or Progess Rail (can’t recall which lessor) but if you were interested in making your own decals or ordering custom decals you’d have something unique. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
