Distracted by shiny things!

2-8-8-0 Jul 4, 2010

  1. 2-8-8-0

    2-8-8-0 TrainBoard Member

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    OK. This board needs a fun topic.

    Yesterday I went with a friend to Youngstown; I jumped at the chance to go see the big steel mills and all, as he wanted to go to a fireworks distributor.

    Little did I know, that fireworks distributor is IN a former PRR passenger station (I think, big covered boarding area down below) with a huge PRR/Keystone plaque on the side of the building...!

    The temptations...! Across the street are some very railroady-looking structures. Huge rolling mills. Even a big coaling tower, still standing after all those years, a mile or so down the line. I see this sort of thing, and think "wow, this would make an incredible scene on a layout". Then the mind runs rampant.

    Yep. I am fickle. But, does this ever happen to anyone else? You see something, perhaps totally unrelated to your normal modeling, but think "Wow! I wanna model that!" Dont get me wrong, I am dedicated to the little Western Maryland. But uurgh...that happens to me a lot. I guess its worse because I do not live in WM country...I live in PRR/NYC/NKP country. Steel Country. Heck, I live in the Ashtabula, Ohio harbor, and can see the great lakes docks out my kitchen window...PRR roundhouse still standing on West Avenue...

    Temptation is all around. Oooh, I also saw my first Ohio Central locos, three EMDs that I THINK were GP-38s. Im horrid at telling those 2nd gen EMDs apart, but I do like their paint scheme!

    So, this happen to anyone else? Do you resist? Succumb to the urges? Is this a sickness?!

    Help!
     
  2. TwinDad

    TwinDad TrainBoard Member

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    Train-itis. Chronic and incurable. But not fatal or debiliting, thankfully. There's a farmer's market in the old station in Charleston, WV. They use the boarding platforms and shelters for outdoor shopping. I think they paved over the tracks, though. It's very pretty.
     
  3. Chaya

    Chaya TrainBoard Supporter

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    All the time. It would be cool to do the German train and towns where I was stationed in the 70's. It would be cool to do Tacoma. It would be cool to do the Appalachians. It would be cool to do an wood products layout in a heavily forested mountain region. It would be cool to do Seaboard Air Lines with oranges and palm trees and hot beaches. It would be cool to do narrow gauge in the Rockies. It would be cool to do the Cloud Climbing Railroad in New Mexico. It would be cool to do a little Hawaiian railroad. It would be cool to do Tierra Amarilla. And so on and so forth...

    How do I resist? I don't. Money and time do the resisting for me. :)

    And I do lots of daydreaming.
     
  4. David Leonard

    David Leonard TrainBoard Member

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    Oh yeah, this does happen. When I myself lived in Youngstown, I wanted to model everywhere else! I really had a hard time settling down to a specific type of setting for my layout, and I plan to run four different railroads on it anyway (one at a time.) But yeah, other areas are still tempting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 4, 2010
  5. CSXDixieLine

    CSXDixieLine Passed Away January 27, 2013 In Memoriam

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    I actually drew up a completely new track plan and started a blog for my new prototype last year (Seaborad Air Line in the Carolinas in 1966). It was perfect: everything fit and I even purchased a handful of locomotives and rolling stock. However, I realized there was no way I could rip out the concrete track I had already laid so the CSX Dixie Line lives on. But one day...

    Jamie
     
  6. Westfalen

    Westfalen TrainBoard Member

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    Every time I go somewhere I see something that would make a great layout. After my recent trip to the U.K. I keep saying to myself, "no, no, you model Santa Fe".
     
  7. FloridaBoy

    FloridaBoy TrainBoard Member

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    I am from the Sharon/Sharpsville, PA area which is a stone's toss from Youngstown. I have railroading and model railroading in my genes, particularly the PRR, B&O, WM and a few others around. I lived right down the trackside from Sharon Steel, which is all but effectively abandoned now, what a shame, even the feeder tracks and yard are long gone.

    But no matter where my life has taken me, I am still a PRR stalwart, and my layout is the Shenango Valley, which encompasses all of the surrounding PA towns. I do not have the temerity to model a steel mill, but instead the small rr tributaries and businesses which derived a living from the rails.

    However I am an old F#$$#T now at 63 and luckily have been around, and yes, I have been tempted to incorporate models of trains, structures, etc into my PRR layout. I am tempted, and generally follow the temptation, since my layout is mine, and have basically no one to answer to except for me. But after being around, I noticed there is an "American style" which is pretty standard, with some exceptions, of course, which you can get away with no matter what/where you model your layout.

    I won't put a Mediterranean style train station as seen commonly down here in soFLa on my PRR layout, but when traveling north of Orlando, those little towns that abound there look no different than other small towns elsewhere in the US, so I generally model those standard type structures and dwellings.

    I say to all to ignore the rivet counters and enjoy your layout. In a way, I love giving a deaf ear to those nit pickers which even frustrate them further, and I really could care less what others think of my layout. I am happy with what I have done so far, and that is what counts. I say build for yourself, fall for those temptations and inspirations and go for it.

    One of the more classic layouts that existed down here was the ZOT built by Bill Porter of WPB, who is a master modeler in my eyes, but he modeled up north, plus south Florida architecture, and even incorporated Cape Canaveral complete with shuttle and swamps on his steam to diesel era layout, and whenever a rivet counter would even make an attempt at the anomaly of times, eras, geography which was painfully obvious, we all met him with a quizzical look like "so what, it is all well done, so who really cares?"

    Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
     
  8. EMD trainman

    EMD trainman TrainBoard Member

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    I must say it's refreshing to see that women can be interested in model trains also. You also seem so knowledgable about the different models of diesel locomotives. You always here horor stories of the wife who thinks her husband is wasting time and money on what she thinkks are toy trains.
     
  9. 2-8-8-0

    2-8-8-0 TrainBoard Member

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    There are other women modelers here, and I think as time goes by, we will see more and more of us. I was always fascinated by machines, especially big things like Lake freighters and Huletts, and of course trains. I know I am not alone.

    As far as trains, well, I like the whole impression; a train on its own dosent do much for me. Its the train playing its part in a whole, whether trundling around in the Appalachians somewhere, or being one more gear in a huge industrial machine like Youngstown was. I sort of just learned what was what by being immersed in it and am still learning. I know a GP has 4 axles, SD has 6. Good start. I can tell modern ones (at least the ones NS uses) because I see them every day; -9s, SD70s, SD70M, and so on. But I still have to stop and read the little class info on the side when it is a unfamiliar one, like a GP38 or a -8 of some kind. I sure couldnt tell an alco S2 from an S4; even with my WM diesel book, they sure look the same to me.

    Ive learned a good deal about early diesels from "Western Maryland Diesel Locomotives" which is a great book, not only about WM, but just about how a diesel works. I like this little railroad, because they really had a 1st class operation, are small enough to be modeler friendly, and were in simply beautiful country. It also fits small spaces. Still....oooh, shiny!

    Amanda
     
  10. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    What do I say about my ships? The PRR, of course, serves many ports, with somewhat massive yards. But once I got hooked on ships, well, there was no turning back. A few big ones, a few small ones, a few warships. My railroad, once a windy trek through the PA mountains, became based on a port. That messed up my grades, since ports (and bridges over inlets to ports) are dead level. And I spend more time modeling ships than modeling trains.
     
  11. FloridaBoy

    FloridaBoy TrainBoard Member

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    Pete, Keep up the great work. You do both quite well......

    Ken
     
  12. 2-8-8-0

    2-8-8-0 TrainBoard Member

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    I am actually having a lot of issues with Laker models; the hull is the big problem. Any idea how to do this? An average laker of the period I am interested in was 550-650 feet, the models availabe tend to be canal size freighters of 260 or so feet; just dosent work. My hometown of Ashtabula, Ohio would make an incredible harbor-themed layout, but needs, of course, lakers.
     
  13. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    When you get up to 550-650 feet long, the ships get really large. My freighters are between 450 and 500 feet, and the 500 footer just looks BIG. But freighters may have a larger beam (about 60 feet) and more superstructure than a laker--it's been a while since I looked at them.

    You are not going to find ready-made hulls for many ships in N scale. There are a number of warship and cargo ships in 1:192 and 1:144. But I haven't seen a full-size laker

    I carve my hulls out of mahogany (if available) or medium density fiber board--or build them up out of sheet styrene. When I carve, I use some big power tools--a 10-inch disc sander and a 3-inch drum sander on a radial arm saw. I buy my styrene in 4 x 8-foot sheets: it's much cheaper and I don't have to splice shorter pieces together.
     
  14. 2-8-8-0

    2-8-8-0 TrainBoard Member

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    Lake boats tend to run about 10:1 of length:beam, up to around 75', which I believe is seaway max (dedicated lakers do get beamier than this. The 1000' boats can be 110-120 foot beam).

    The fiberboard idea is good, maybe I will give that a go. I attempted a frame of sorts and then sheeting them with styrene and other materials, but it didnt work very well; styrene dosent like compound curves.

    Thanks, Amanda
     
  15. YoHo

    YoHo TrainBoard Supporter

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    I don't have room at home for a layout right now. So I joined a club. It's a modular club. There is no fixed theme. Whatever you want to build a module around.

    So, just do a module of this, a module of that.

    I'm currently planing a module loosly based on the ATSF Surfline through North County San Diego. Next might be a River Scene from Oregon. Or a mountain scene (hard to do in Modular form.
     
  16. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    Amanda,

    You can put a compound curve into styrene. It takes a lot of work. Use a thin sheet of .010 material. Roll it tightly around a pencil or dowel. then turn it 90 degrees and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Or get a small bowl and rollerpin the styrene over it with a lot of pressure. You are essentially stretching the plastic. It takes a lot of work! Oh, I said that before. I use two layers of .010 rather than trying a single sheet of .020. And for really tight curves, like most cruiser sterns, I use the plank on bulkhead technique, with a lot of putty.

    MDFB works well when carving, but makes an unholy mess.
     
  17. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    Ok, so they are a little slimmer than a C-2, which runs about 7.5-8:1.

    I'm building a light cruiser now, which is 540 feet but narrow. It's still going to be too tall and long.
     
  18. 2-8-8-0

    2-8-8-0 TrainBoard Member

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    So, you do cruiser sterns plank-on-bulkhead? The "maritime" class of lakers had cruiser sterns, and were 620x60. I may just need to have another whack at that. The stern will definately be the worst part of these boats, but did make an already graceful ship even more elegant. Odd, that while so much industrial stuff can never really be called pretty, the lakers manage(d) to be so beautiful. Older ones, anyway...

    I will give this a shot, though I will probably try a smaller boat at first, one in the 500' range (yes, for a lake boat, this is small) and see how it works.

    Thanks for the tips, Ill put 'em to use. Just what I needed...more shiny things!

    Amanda
     
  19. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    You can also carve a hunk of wood and blend it in. I build waterline models, which makes many of the complex curves below the "water." A big disk sander makes it quick work.

    Just please don't use balsa. Use basswood if you must, but balsa will dent and disappoint you forever. I like mahogany, but I have a supply of it.
     
  20. 2-8-8-0

    2-8-8-0 TrainBoard Member

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    They will be waterline models, and I will avoid balsa. Thanks much!
     

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