Giving back

Well its the holidays and so this will most likely be the only post this month.  With the wife and kid off school for the next 3 weeks my hobby time will be severely cut back. While school is in session I can usually squeeze in some time every day Monday through Friday while they are at school and then have a big block on what ever  night my second day off is while they are sleeping.  The weekends have pretty much been shot for hobby time but I am ok with that. As this was only the second day of Christmas Break we are still feeling out how I can get the projects that are on my bench done yet still maximize family time.

To add to the complications my daughter had a tonsilectomy this morning  and so caring for her over the next couple weeks is the top priority.  I also have had to spend an inordinate amount of time at "the mall" looking for Christmas gifts this last week. For those who are unfamiliar with the Yuma Palms "mall" someone got the bright idea to have an open air shopping center in a place where the summer temps regularly reach the 120s and above. Thats Fahrenheit for all the readers outside the US or around 50 Celsius (or centigrade depending on which textbook  you were taught from). So shopping at the mall involves parking at one store and then after finishing at that store driving to the next, needless to say its frustrating and tiring. 

The final wrench in the plans is that my mother in law decided to grace us with her presence unannounced this week. Now anytime family shows up it is hectic and my parents are due into town just after Christmas but when that person just shows up at your door it raises the holiday stress exponentially.

But thats not what I wanted to talk about this time and we will get to the meat of this post in just a second but first I wanted to say thoughts and prayers to all of those involved in the Amtrak derailment in Washington State and condolences to the families that lost loved ones. For those who dont know I grew up in Washington State and drove under that bridge numerous times on the way to Oregon to visit my grandparents. I also went to college about 15 miles north of there in Tacoma Washington and know many people who live in in the area. This wreck has effected the whole region, but it could have been worse.

Ok enough doom and gloom if you want that you can read a Charlie Getz editorial.  This month I want to talk about giving back to the hobby. We have all heard the narrative that the hobby is dying, which if you are familiar with my blog you know I dont agree with. In the almost 30 years I have been in the hobby I feel that this is the most vibrant time I have witnessed.  

So how do we give back?

Some would say give trainsets to kids, while this approach is admirable it just doesnt pencil out cost wise and how many of those kids will stick with it when the distractions of girls and cars (or boys and cars for the ladies) come into play? While I am not advocating giving up on the youth, after all I started when I was 7 or 8 and stuck with it despite thise distractions but my dad was in the hobby and kept me interested.

So lets briefly discuss introducing the hobby to children to which we are not related.  The best way I can think of doing this is the train club and offering activities through the school district to teach children that although model railroaders look like nerds and dorks  (lets face it we do; especially the vesties) our hobby is not only really cool but it is the best hobby around. 

The club I belong to (The Yuma Model Railroaders) has our club house at a local middle school. We recently entered a formal agreement with the school district to ensure our ability to occupy that space which is great for the club.  One of the conditions of the agreement is that we find a way to do outreach to the students, this can be done through open houses or as I have suggested a student club which meets after school and the students can be mentored in all facets of model railroading. Now these students would go on to high school with skills in carpentry,  electrical, soldering etc... and a soft spot for the hobby to come back to it when they are ready.

The most effective way I see to give back to the hobby is to be there for thise individuals who decide it is time to get into the hobby. Based on interviews and editorials the NMRA leadership would argue that the perfect age to focus on is people (mostly men) in their late fifties. I disagree, I feel the best time to set the hook for a lifetime of enjoyment is in the mid to late 20's.  This does not mean that we should give up on John Q Retiree, but that given. The right reception Jim Bob Workingstiff might dive headfirst into the hobby as well.  Let me plug my favorite podcast for a second (I am Superfan #20 after all), one of the shows on A Modeler's Life is the Kelly Questions where Lionel and crew sit down with a model railroader and ask them some questions to get to know them better. Some are train related like "Which do you prefer steam or diesel?" some are not such as "Coke or Pepsi?"

The most pertinent question they ask and the one with the largest variety of responses is "If you could give one thing to someone starting out in the hobby and cost is not an issue what would it be?"  I have heard some great answers to this question ranging from a computer to an NMRA membership and everything in between.  I have thought on this one long and hard as I keep hoping Lionel will have me on to answer the Kelly Questions, but I never can think of an answer I have been happy with. 

Well a few days ago it came to me, if I could give a new model railroader one thing it would be my time.  Our time is our most valuable commodity regardless of who we are and while our employers may not feel that way, we certainly do.  I may not be the greatest modeler but with my experience I can certainly steer people in the right direction.

Now there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. I overheard some members of my club talking about a younger guy they were trying to get to join and how they needed someone to mentor him.  These guys dont even know this prospect but based on his age they assume he needs mentoring. I am also pretty sure they had the same conversation about me as they are constantly telling me how to do things and then I do it my way and tell them there is more than one way to skin a cat and this aint my first rodeo.  Now many of them have backed off on the "mentoring" as after all I have more time in the hobby than many of them, but I fear they will still try to smother others with "helpfull" advice. You have to feel the person out and then decide how much you need to give them.

I have had three instances where I have been sought out for advice in the last few years.

The first was a co-worker who was helping his wife's family sort through the estate of a relative who was a modeler (not only trains but ships and planes too). After talking to him a bit and not getting a bite on my suggestion that he keep a few pieces to play with, I realized that he was only interested in finding the models new homes and so I tried to steer him in the direction of some people who could help.

The second was a good friend who is my age and happens to be a conductor for a Class 1 railroad sent me a text asking what I knew about Tyco trains. After talking for a bit I gave him some ideas of where he might find some information and told him to not hesitate to call me with any other questions.  While his desire not to be a foamer is strong, he does sometimes text me information about the prototype especially veterans units (I got the link to the announcement of UP 1943 from him).  Every now and then his wife posts pictures of "the kids" playing trains on Facebook with that Tyco set racing around the kitchen table, and guess who is at the throttle.  I have a feeling that when he is ready he will come into the fold of model railroading, in fact a week or so ago he sent me a text with a picture of his Seahawks commemorative train going around the Christmas tree saying he felt the tree was missing something and he knew I would approve (GO HAWKS!!!).

The final one was another co-worker and this one came out of the blue as we didnt really know each other very well at the time. He is probably in his 20's and relatively new at work and we got to talking one night.  We were talking about San Diego, a favorite topic where I live, and we were discussing Balboa Park. I  was listing off all the museums there in addition to the World Famous San Diego Zoo and when I got to the model railroad museum he interupted me and stated he had tried to go there but it was closed the day he went. This statement peaked my interest so as per the preciously stated rule I turned the conversation to feel him out.  While its not a secret that I am a railfan and model railroader its not something I go around advertising, so once I was sure he was interested in the hobby I outed myself.  I then was able to ask him direct questions as to his level of experience interests etc...  It turns out he was a war gamer and like building dioramas but he found the war gamer community in town difficult to get in to.  

I gave him some ideas of where to get information such as MRH, the NMRA, magazines at the public library and some websites. I figured that would be it but the next day he approached me with more question and everytime we have crossed paths since he has had a question for me of either prototype or model.  Of course there are days I dont feel like talking about it especially in earshot of others but I have tried to maKe myself as available as possible.  Remember there was one time we were super stoked to be in the hobby too but as with everything familiarity wears some of that youthful exuberance off.  While I still love trains it only occupies about 75 percent of my life now as opposed to the 90 to 100 percent it did when I was younger. 

I think the hook is set on this one and who knows in a few years we may be reading about him in the hobby press. So as we continue on this journey what better way to enjoy it than by giving back and taking some people along for the ride.

Go see Cal

Those who didn't grow up in the US during the 60's and 70's or live on the West Coast probably have no clue who Cal Worthington is.  I will spare everyone a lot of the unnecessary details as Wikipedia has a great write up on him. In short, Cal Worthington owned a slew of car dealerships across the country, mostly on the west coast and was famous for his late night TV ads featuring him and his dog Spot (Spot was usually a tiger or some other animal but occasionally an object).  His infectious ear worm of a jingle sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know it" pleaded for viewers to Go see Cal. I had forgotten about Cal as he had sold his Federal Way, Washington dealership in 1990 when I was 10 years old. However in 2013, shortly before his death, I was reaquainted with an eerily familiar jingle while vacationing in Alaska.  This sent me on a search to figure out why this Cal Worthington character and his dog Spot were so familiar. Once I figured it out, I figured it was worthless knowledge filed it back for the odd chance I ever appeared on a game show.

Fast forward a couple years and some friends and I were making jokes about pitchmen. The discussion then ensued which was worse an as seen on tv pitchman or a used car salesman. It was determined that the late night as seen on tv guys are the modern day version of the car salesmen we grew up watching. This lead to Youtube to search for old ads which not only lead us to Earl Scheib, a couple hilarious Chick Lambert ads for Ralph Williams Chrysler (warning this video was allegedly filmed after he found out he had been let go and whether it truly aired or not is up for debate but it definitely violates the Rule of Joe. In other words don't listen to it with small children or the boss around) and of course Cal Worthington and his dog Spot.

So what does this have to do with trains? Other than a sick desire to see the folks at scale trains parody it,  I mean come on it would be hilarious. 

"If you need a brand new train, Go see Shane!
If your budget gives you pain Go see Shane
Our prices are so low
Your wife will never know
Go see Shane, Go see Shane Go see Shane"

But I digress.

There are two ways this ties into the YPG Lines and both involve setting the atmosphere.  First I model Southern California and Arizona, specifically a stretch of railroad that parallels Interstate 10. And what is ubiquitous along highways in Southern California?  That's right billboards; and whats more at home on a billboard than car dealerships? Now I had planned to have some billboards for Jim Lincoln Chevrolet-Oldsmobile (off the High St extension just down the road from Fuller Field and across the street from the Dairy Queen) I still plan on having some of these however a Chevy dealership needs some competition and what better way to provide it than some billboards imploring you to "Go See Cal!"  Worthington's flagship dealership was/is in Long Beach California so these would be regionally correct and would also set the period on the layout.  I will probably start doing more research on regional chains to add to the billboards on the layout and looking at all the billboards in photos from my modeled era.

The second way Cal can influence the setting and atmosphere is in the crew lounge. I had originally planned to just have a train video, like some of the great offerings from Pentrex for crews to watch between runs. However my research and some brilliant late night ideas got me thinking (which is always dangerous).  Instead of a Pentrex video which might compete with the sound decoders on the adjacent layout why not put together a compilation of period television?  Mike Deverell uses a stereo to play 1950's music in the layout room to set the mood, so why not us television to do the same? Since I have a rotating era changing what tv shows and ads are on would be a perfect way to set the tone for the year. A quick perusal of the internet shows that there are Cal Worthington ads from several different years in my era available. I am certain with research, I can find other appropriate ads as well as tv shows to loop in the crew lounge. Think about the movie Goodfellas, Maury's ad definitely had a 1970's feel to it, and definitely helped set the scene. 

See even mindless surfing of Youtube can pay dividends in our modeling. So remember to enjoy the journey and "Go see Cal!"

Holding pattern.

So if you haven't noticed the activity on the blog and Facebook page effectively came to a screaching halt this last month.  In fact this could be one of the lightest months for activity since the launch of the Facebook page and revamp of the blog.  While I had anticipated a slow down last month due to being on vacation, I did not anticipate losing almost the whole month.  In fact apparently I cant read a calendar because I scheduled myself another week off just two weeks later.

While some projects continued on, the time I did lose was the time I use to write the blog. While I did get some writing done on a last minute trip to Seattle, I was only able to get one post 95 percent completed during the two flights I took.  Usually I can complete two posts per flight, but the subject matter (layout operations) required more thought than most of my blog posts require. 

It was upon finishing the post after returning to Arizona that I realized that I had intended that post to be the first in a series and that I wanted to post the series without other posts in between. This requires that I sit down and write all the other posts in the series. To give you a sneak peak as to the topic of the series it is an example of operations on the YPG Lines Million Dollar track plan.

The first post was a virtual cab ride eastbound over the layout. This is the post I completed and hopefully the other posts move through the creative process faster. Other topics in the series are a westbound trip, Amtrak #1 and #2 The Sunset Limited, Somerton Branch operations and helper operations on Beaumont Hill. As you can see this is a very in depth topic but I hope it will be worth the wait.

I also recently had some projects land on my work bench and although the test track and car upgrades will be back burnered for a little bit there will be several other projects that we can discuss.

First I have taken on the task of building two structures for the model railroad club and I will discuss these in depth later.  The first kit is the Walthers overhead traveling crane which I am pretty much building per the instructions. The second is the Walthers New River Mining Company which I plan on modifying slightly. The two kits will be combined with a preexisting  Walthers Glacier Sand and Gravel Company and possibly some scratchbuilt structures to make a iron/taconite mine and load out.

Second my order of Freight Crates from Fast Tracks showed up so I will be building these and sharing my experiences and how well they do or dont go together or work for freight car storage. I had planned to upgrade the blue box kit cars that will go in the freight crates as I put them in storage but the upgrade possibly will have to wait for additional parts and resources as currently finishing the structures for the club has top priority.

On the bright side the trip to Washington allowed me to look through my dad's book collection and look at his layout for inspiration. Anyway sometimes on a long journey we have to take a detour to get where we are going, and other times we just have to wait at the flagger for permission to proceed.

Differing schools of thought

Ok this post might stir the pot a little bit this week, as there appear to be some strong opinions when it comes to DCC sound decoders. This is a topic I have wanted to discuss for a while and with ESU Loksound releasing their new sound files recently I felt the topic was timely. That topic is the two schools of thought in regards to sound decoders.

The first school of thought is control the sounds with locomotive control second. The example of this school of thought is ESU Loksound with their drive hold where the operator effectively puts the train on cruise control while they manually manipulate the sounds. The operator can then take the train off drive hold and the motor will go to where the sound is set. In essesnce the operator is controlling the sound and the decoder is reacting to the sound settings. This makes sense for this company as they have put realistic sound as one of the halmarks of their decoder line.

The second school of thought is control the motor and let the electronics figure out the appropriate sounds. This is demonstrated by several manufacturers but I will use Soundtraxx and their Dynamic Digital Exhaust as the example for comparison. I'm not even going to try and delve into the sorcery that Soundtraxx uses to create Dynamic Digital Exhaust but some how the decoder detects grade, load etc.... and attempts to replicate the appropriate sounds.

Differing schools of thought on how a product should operate is not unique to our hobby. The aerospace industry is a prime example of this as Boeing and Airbus have two differing views of who should be the primary controller of the aircraft, the pilot (Boeing) or the computer (Airbus). I am not going to sit here and advocate which airplane I find superior even though growing up in the Seattle area may have made me a bit biased. I bring this up to point out a problem of having two differing schools of thought when it comes to control.  The NTSB even listed it as a contributing factor In the 2013 Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport.

In that accident the captain at the controls was an Airbus pilot transitioning to the Boeing 777.  During the final approach he set the autothrottle but did not engage it, an extra step required on Boeing planes following Boeing's school of thought that the pilot should have more control over all phases of flight. By my understanding on an Airbus fully automated landing is the preferred method.

Bringing it back to the world of trains in 1978 Southern Pacific had a runaway on the Cuesta Grade,  on the Coast Line. One of the contributing factors was lack of a standardized  control stand. As I understand it, unlike airline pilots, locomotive engineers are not required to qualify on each model of locomotive they will be operating. Long story short when the engineer thought he was engaging the dynamic brakes he was actually putting the throttle wide open. This wreck led to the development and mandate of a standardized control stand in future locomotives.

Like the examples above the differing schools of thought can lead to incidents on our layouts. An operator unfamiliar with drive hold could forget to take the neccessary steps to regain control of the locomotive before a derailment or collision occured. I know that an unfamiliar throttle caused me to run through a switch and hit another train while I was swapping mainline trains during our clubs operations at the county fair last spring. Thankfully all the  equipment involved was mine and the only irreparable damage was to my pride.

The other issue with differing schools of thought on control is exacerbating the problem of different decoders not playing well with others. If some decoders have drive hold and others do not then,  unless there is some sorcery I am unaware of, they can't exactly be consisted with each other and expected to perform flawlessly.  This means that we either have to group locomotives not only by like manufacturer but by like decoder as well or standardize your decoders.

So if you havent figured it out yet I am in the control the motor camp. I am not saying that Loksound has a bad product, their product is excellent if thats what you are looking for. I especially like the idea of software upgrades versus hardware upgrades and the end user being able to upload sounds. The problem is the more I think about it, drive hold is a deal breaker for me, I do not want to give up motor control even for a nano second. Based on facebook comments it seems like most people or atleast a vocal minority have decided Loksound is the superior product,  however I feel that as far as train control goes it violates the KISS principle.

So rather than have to check operators out on the various decoders and keep track of which loconotives have which decoders I will end up standardizing with another product. I might even decide (and my buddy Shane is probably going to crucify me for this) that running silent makes more sense. I have been doing that for about 30 years why change now?  I remember the days of Onboard and PFM when sound was a novelty. I even had an MRC Sound and Power pack and eventually I just turned the sound off.

Another advantage of running silent is the locomotives are about $100 cheaper and considering other than what I run at the club most of this stuff will sit in its box for a few years and who knows what two competing products with differing schools of thought will be around then?

If I Had a Million Dollars

In a previous life (that's how we refer to our employment etc... prior to our current job at work) I worked in a machine shop. The guy that ran the shop was a huge fan of the Canadian band The Barenaked Ladies. For those who are unfamiliar with the group that brought us the song "One Week" , most likely those who have not been subjected to Canadian radio, as other than Nickelback and The Tragically Hip, The Barenaked Ladies seemed to get the most air time. I think there is a law or something dealing with giving Canadian artists airtime but maybe that's just a rumor started by us bloody Yanks who were forced to listen because no US radio stations, even the ones 30 minutes away, seemed to come in reliably.

Anyway to get back on track, The Barenaked Ladies have a song titled "If I Had $1000000" where the singer goes on and on about what he would do with that much money. The question of what we would do if we had a million dollars has even been used to gauge career satisfaction such as in the movie Office Space. Of course Luis' answer was "Two chicks..." wait this is a family friendly blog, well mostly family friendly.

So one day I asked myself what layout would I build if money was not an issue. Imagine for one minute that like John Hammond in Jurassic Park "We spared no expense" on our empires and cost and space were not an issue. What would we come up with? So I started planning what I dubbed early on as "The Million Dollar Layout". That said I got most the way done with this track plan when more ideas struck, but since I liked this plan I kept it and will start working on 2 other track plans  the 1.5 million and the 2 million dollar track plans.  The main purpose of these plans is to get more practice with XtrackCAD but also so I quit sitting bolt upright in bed with still more layout ideas.

So without further ado I present the track plan for the Million Dollar Layout:

Phase 1

The idea of this layout plan is to always have a functional layout but also be able to continue building for years without losing interest. It is for this reason that Phase 1 is a switching layout based on Yuma Arizona. The layout contains industrial switching as well as branchline running. A temporary reverse loop staging yard on the west end and a loop yard inside the proposed helix to connect to phase 3 allows for mainline trains to operated as well. The original plan was for phase 1 to be built on a raised platform above the floor and for the layout to sit 50 inches above this platform. This would eliminate the need for a duck under as a pit and stairs could be utilized to get under the layout at the crossing of the Colorado River. The primary function of phase 1 is to serve as a switching layout and most of the switching in an op session would occur here. By starting the layout construction here I can accomplish my goal of always having an operating layout as once the main yard area is completed the rest of phase 1 can be completed without disrupting the rest of the layout.

Phase 1 Yuma Area and Somerton Branchline

Phase 2

Phase 2 is the Yuma Subdivision portion of the layout. Some of the hidden trackage of Phase 2 is below the visible layout from Phase 1 and so it might be constructed concurrently with Phase 1 but not made operational until Phase 2.  Construction of Phase 2 would begin at the West Colton Staging area.  This two level staging yard will function similar to the actual west Colton Yard minus the hump and classification tracks and have a separate arrival  (lower level) and departure (upper level) yards. The layout will then progress around the room from staging until it joined and was connected to Phase 1 just railroad west of Araz Siding. The idea being that this connection would be made only after the rest of Phase 2 was ready for operation as it would require the removal of Phase 1's temporary west end staging. In Phase 1 the east end layout staging would be constructed on the mezzanine level with a direct connection to the helix that is being constructed in preparation of Phase 3. This Phase 3 bypass will allow for operations of only Phase 1 and 2 after completion of the layout if participation levels or time dictate.

Phase 2 Lower level staging




Phase 2 Sceniced Level Yuma Subdivision





Phase 2 East End Staging Tucson

Phase 3

The final phase will be the construction of the Tucson Division Phoenix and Gila Subs. While on this track plan the Tucson Division is not given as much attention as the Yuma Sub I feel many of the highlights have been covered. Phase 3 begins at the helix and utilizing a flyover crosses the aisle where it will run down the middle of the stairs to the mezzanine. Operations for this area will be from both sides of the layout until Wellton where the Phoenix and Gila Subs split. Double sided operations will resume on the short run from Picacho, where the subdivisions rejoin, to Tucson.

Phase 3 Tucson Division Phoenix & Gila Subdivisions

So there it is, I appologize that some of the disconects in the drawings such as different tools being used to draw layout edges. As I have stated previously I am still learning the program and perhaps by the time I finish the plan for the 2 million dollar layout I will have it all figured out. Until then lets just sit back and enjoy the journey.

Lessons learned from phase 3

All right time to get back on track and discuss layout design. For those of you that enjoyed the discussion brought on by the last couple posts fear not there are probably plenty more topics I can stir the pot on.  The point of the last post was to start a discussion and I feel that the discussion went well.  So many times in life we have one view point jammed down our throats and this is true of our hobby as well. Opposing views are something ee shouldnt shy away from or censor but rather hear out. Even if the other person is completely wrong we can usually find something positive in their viewpoint, even if it is more evidence that we are correct in our view.

So getting back to the YPG Lines, as stated previously I have finished the track plan for the million dollar layout and am now working on cleaning it up so it can be posted.  This however takes time and as we know hobby time is precious.  The last month has seen the start of the school year and as the spouse of a teacher it means there are many nights where I have to just git er done in terms of the household. Multitasking is not really my thing so getting our kindergartner to do her homework (yes you read that right), dinner on the table, everything prepped for the next day and the kid to bed is exhausting to say the least. Add to that my 50+ hour a week schedule which is working overnight, sometimes on my days off I just dont want to do anything and that includes hobbies. 

I have also been trying to organize the spare bedroom which houses my hobby work area as well as a lot of my gear for work. It also seems to be the defacto storage room when the wife decides to have company, so needless to say there was/is a lot of junk in there. 

Last month was also my 10th wedding anniversary and so what little hobby time I had got devoted to that. No I did not give my wife a train for our anniversary however I did put the woodworking skills I have learned through this hobby to good use. 

Finally writting this blog takes time, I am not complaining but rather offering insight into why it is taking me so long to publish the track plan.

So what lessons did I learn this time around, other than getting clubbed over the head by a few lessons from previous phases that hadn't sunk in.

So with out further ado here, in no particular order, are the lessons learned in the planning of phase 3:

It always looks better in your head

Track plans always look better in your head before they are bogged down by such irritating constraints such as maximum footprint, minimum radius, aisle width etc...  we can come up with some elaborate ideas in our head but until we put them on paper we dont see where they dont work.  

Sometimes putting them on paper isnt enough either, when I was doing track plans with pencil and paper it was easy to cheat and make it fit. Using CAD has definately helped lower the number of times something was made to fit but does not eliminate it.  

I had a very nice idea for how I would utilize the wasted space inside a turnback curve, however when put on paper it took more space than it actually saved. The phase 3 that made the final million dollar plan is much reduced from what I had envisioned, and that has given rise to the 1.5 Million and 2 Million dollar track plans. Stay tuned.

Triple check your clearances especially in aisle

I think last time I said double check your clearances, well I learned that perhaps we need to triple or even quadruple check them. Despite my best efforts I still found areas where my aisle pinchpoints were way too narrow.

Have a good idea of operations before you start

For the most part I just followed the track arrangement Southern Pacific had in place however when planning the few urban areas it would have been nice to have more information on the local operations and industries. I managed to find a 1981 SPINS book for the Phoenix Sub in the collection at the California State Railroad Museum and this yielded a plethora of information that I did not know. 

It also left me with a ton more questions, such as what type of cars service a Nuclear Power Plant and what do they haul?  I am still attempting to locate a SPINS book for the Gila Sub however there is more anecdotal evidence available on this subdivision than the Phoenix Subdivision. Unfortunately the information for Roll AZ and Wellton AZ appear to have been ommited from the Phoenix Sub SPINS book despite all or part of that location being on the Phoenix Sub.

Color code early and often

Finally color code your track plan early and often, most of the clean up work I have to do involves color coding as right now the plan is a bunch of black lines of the same width making it hard for someone unfamiliar with the plan to decifer it.  I am working on making all the lines representing backdrop blue. And using the layout edge tool to mark the edge of the layout instead of the lines I used to mark the aisles for reference while planning. 

The one downside is I have not figured out how to round corners with this tool, so claritys sake for now the corners will be angular with the understanding that they could be rounded during construction.

So those were the lessons learned this time, I am sure there will continue to be new lessons on each step of the journey, but hey that is what makes this fun.

Treatise against the fast clock.

Image from Monty Python's "Life of Brian" found on Google

Well the last post sparked a lot of discussion, so I figured now was as good a time as any to drop this bomb. I am not a fan of the fast clock never have been, and probably never will be.  There I said it, I can just picture the wringing of hands from the scale police and the model railroad purists out there.  I do not like the concept of fast clocks, can't you just see someone standing there like John Cleese in a Monty Python film yelling "He said it again!!!!" The fast clock seems to be one of those sacred cows in model railroading that everyone feels obligated to have.

There are several reasons I dont like the fast clock ranging from destroying the realism that we have fought so hard to create, to just plain turning people off to operations.  One bad fast clock experience can make it so that a person new to operations never wants to participate in an ops session again.  Before you scoff at this last statement, let me just say that it has been probably 20 to 25 years since I had an extremely bad experience at an ops session, mostly due to the fast clock and I am just now considering getting into operations again.

 

On another note, I still have zero interest in TTTO ops mostly because of the need for a fast clock and it all stems from that one experience, but we will get to that in a bit.  So whether you call it blasphemy, a manifesto or a treatise, please just bear with me and hear me out.  At the end of the day I will respect your opinion, as long as you aren't trying to proselytize,  so I hope you will respect mine and atleast understand how I got here.

The first item I take issue with in the use of a fast clock is that certain activities dont scale down time wise.  The first of these is comprehension, it takes us just as long to comprehend something in the model world as in the real world. Reading a signal aspect, understanding the dispatchers instructions or reading a switchlist are all things that no matter how hard we try we cant do any faster when on a fast clock.

Going hand and hand with comprehension is writing and speaking. We dont write or talk any faster in the layout room than we normally do, this means that filling out paperwork takes an in inordinately long time in the model world.  Likewise recieving copying and repeating train orders takes an eternity depending on the ratio used for the fast clock. That 3 minute conversation with the dispatcher just cost you 12 minutes on a 4:1 fast clock, almost a quarter hour.

Switching is another activity that takes longer in the model world than the real world.  Except in the most perfectly executed model railroad it is nearly impossible to kick cars. Likewise other moves that crews have utilized to speed up the prototype practice such as the much frowned upon flying switch are not possible as the physics just dont scale down.  Instead we must spot each car exactly were it goes sometimes running the entire length of a yard track. This takes time and all those seconds add up to scale minutes.

My next issue with the fast clock is we all end up being a slave to the fast clock, some more than others.  Some people figure they need the fast clock to make it appear the train covered a greater distance durning an op session. In TTTO ops the clock is king so in order to simulate schedule the layout owner wants to simulate they pick a fast clock ratio based soley on how long the op session will run. If they are simulating 8 hours during a 4 hour session then they use a ratio of 2:1 however if they want to simulate 12 hours in the same time they would use 3:1. I have seen some insane ratios used such as 6:1, if you feel the need to run a 6:1 fast clock then you probably are trying to either fit too much prototype railroad into a tiny layout space, or should have picked a busier prototype.

Running that high fast clock ratio so that you can model the 2 trains that ran on that line in the same op session makes no sense. In fact I find that about as realistic for a "prototype based layout" as adding industries that never existed in order to boost traffic and "enhance" operations.  If you feel you need to run that many trains pick another prototype or freelance, theres nothing wrong with that.  Traffic volume is a componant of what makes a line interesting, and when we artificially create this volume either through changes in number of trains or overly compressing the time between trains it detracts from the ambiance of the modeled area.

I said I would get back to that bad experience so here we go.  I once accompanied my father to the house of another club member for the monthly business meeting, mostly because my dad said there was a completed layout in the basement and after the meeting we would run trains.  I think I would have been 13 or 14 at the time, So after meeting we adjourned to the basement and the owner, who is long since deceased so I dont think I will step on any toes with this story, explained his operating scheme to us and asked for volunteers. There were two jobs, a road job and a yard job, I forget who grabbed the road job but no one wanted the yard job so I.gladly took it. 

In hindsight that should have been the first clue I was about to have a bad day. During this op session I had to classify an entire yard before the road job got there at a set time so that cars could be added to the road job and taken to all points wherever. So as I am going about doing this the layout owner is hovering over me the entire time, and telling me I needed to pick up the pace. So since I cant read the switch list and numbers on the cars any faster naturally I crack open the throttle more. Unbeknownst to me the layout owner had installed a speedometer on the fascia and the second I got above the stated yard speed he started berating me about my speed so I slowed it back down. 

Needless to say the road job came and went and came back after negotiating the reverse loop and I still wasn't done switching the yard so I got berated some more.  Among the other problems with the op session, this guy was such a slave to the fast clock and so focused on it, that he couldn't take the time from watching the fast clock to help a first time operator and the resulting experience turned me off to formal operations for atleast two decades.

Now for the destroying realism part I am sure you have all been waiting for. The final reason I dislike the fast clock is scale speeds which is kind of a pet peeve of mine. We spend so much time getting our trains to run at a realistic speed, this isn't tinplate after all. The problem is scale miles per hour is just that, scale miles per hour. when we adjust the duration of our time units we must also adjust our train speeds accordingly and unless you are running a clock in real time you should be concerned with scale miles per scale hour.  Therefore the faster the clock ratio the faster the trains need to move.  Think about it, back in the analog VHS days (digital formats tend to skip when fast forwarding) when you hit fast forward everything moved faster.  This opinion of mine probably has a lot to do with my being raised in a household of scientists and having to always make sure all units were appropriate and agreeable for any given scenario and having to notate anytime a variable such as time was changed. For the record my father is no fan of the fast clock either. 

I guess it goes back to a point I made in the previous post about rivet counting and these are the rivets I choose to count.  I prefer operating methods that can be done in real time.  If you have a long enough mainline run your operators arent going to care that it only took them 30 minutes to an hour to cover a geographic distance the prototype takes 8 to 12 hours to cover.  with sequential dispatching and track warrents, clearances can be given in real time, likewise CTC does not require a fast clock.  In the end you have to do whats right for you, its your railroad and your journey.

How long is too long?

So whenever I discuss my layout plans it always seems to come back to the same thing. No its not that my minimum 40 inch radius curves are too broad and reducung them could make more layout fit in a smaller space. Nor is it that the #8 turnouts aren't necessary and #6 turnouts would work just fine. The topic that is constantly brought up is that my train length might be on the long side and by decreasing train length I could decrease siding length and fit more layout into a smaller space.  Now I am not saying that these people don't have valid points as I do see where they are coming from. That said it appears I need to layout why I have settled on the train lengths I have.

"What we have here, is failure to communicate"

As the great line from "Cool Hand Luke" states part of the issue may be a breakdown in communication between myself and readers. Also it should be noted that the communication problem encountered here may be of my own doing, after rereading some previous posts I noticed I was using the term average train length. This was a misnomer on my part as in order to be average there would have to be equal number of trains longer and shorter than that length. Standard train length would be another misleading term as I do not plan on having every train be the same length, some will be shorter and on occasion some might be longer.  A more appropriate term would be maximum length for standard trains; anything longer would require special considerations from the dispatcher.

Using the accepted 50 foot car length as my standard I had set this train length at 25 cars plus the appropriate motive power. Having developed a spread sheet that stated the number of locomotives needed based on number of cars and the train length of a 25 car train is approximately 20 feet long. Also since I am modeling the end of the caboose era I needed to figure lengths for trains with and without a caboose.

The helper set length should read 142' scale (1.75' actual) it has since been fixed on the source spreadsheet

So do I really need trains this long and the sidings long enough to handle them? I say yes and here are my big three reasons.

Prototype operations

I consider myself a prototype modeler however I recognize that we must make exceptions and some exceptions are easier to make than others. Some people are rivet counters, where as I dont really worry about some of that stuff as long as it looks passable. I am not adverse to stand in cars on the layout while other people I am good friends with cringe at the thought of this.  Where I draw my line in the sand is train length.  I model the 1970s through 1990s  and during this time frame an average mainline train was around 100 cars. If I was modeling 1950s Colorado narrow gauge then 10 to 12 car trains would be appropriate but in the 1980's that seems short. The Kaiser ore train was exactly 100 cars and employed at minimum two sets of helpers to get over Beaumont Hill.  Now I know I am not going to run 100 car trains and that is my compromise, however I still want the length to feel long. If my train length is too short a large locomotive consist on point with two helper sets would seem like overkill.  When I set my train length I actually used the ore train as my maximum length.  I figured since the ore cars are approximately half the length of a standard car then if I set my train length to 25 standard cars I could run a 50 car ore train or half size.  In this half size train I could accurately reflect operating practices. Instead of placing the swing helpers 40 cars back, they would be 20 cars back which would still leave an accurate 2/3 of the train behind the swing helpers.

Number of locomotives

As stated previously one of the trademarks of Southern Pacific was heavy trains pulled by large locomotive consists.  If there are four locomotives on point then it would look silly to only have 8 cars trailing. This is especially true when you think that the yard switcher would appear to be more powerful than the road locomotives, which is surely not the case.  On my locomotive chart I have set a minimum number of locomtives needed for number of cars. That ratio is one 4 axle locomotive per 5 cars. if a solid 6 axle power consist is available then it is the number of 4 axle locomotives required by train lenght minus one locomotive. In other words three 6 axle locomotives equal four 4 axle locomotives. In a mixed consist the 4 axle rules would apply. There are pictures of trains on this line being pulled by 10 locomotives on point plus rear helpers but the most locomotives I see puting on point of the train would be 6 four axle locomotives and that would be one of those special trains. A standard helper set would be two locomotives although the ore train and some of the beet trains would dictate different arrangements.

Modern Car length

The final reason is for these longer trains is modern car length.  While I set the standard car length at 50 feet, modern TOFC flats, auto racks and passenger cars are rather close to twice that lenght. A 15 car 1981 steam heated Sunset Limited would be close to the length of that 30 car freight train.  Now car length is the second place I do not like to make huge compromises.  In a recent Trainmasters TV episode Joe Fugate suggests shortening a TOFC flatcar in order to make it conform to the layout specs.  I disagree with this move whole heartedly, if I wanted shorter out of proportion cars I would have stuck with O-27 toy trains. The lure of scale length cars and locomotives is what drew me to HO scale in the first place. Naturally the length of passenger trains must be reduced somewhat proportionally to freight trains. Like the ore train I figure I will model passenger trains at half length so that 15 car train would be 6 to 8 cars long.  Another consideration is that in the late 1980's SP began running Sprint trains; these short no more than 20 car TOFC trains ran on priority schedules. I figure the Sprint trains on the layout when the op session is representing those years would be 4 to 5 cars long which is still 8 to 10 standard cars long.

So in the end I am running 10 to 15 car trains its just some of the cars are longer than the standard measurement used to set siding length. So I guess I am happy running a 10 to 15 car train if the cars are the appropriate length.  Once again thanks to all those who poked and prodded as with out comments and discussion this journey could end up being rather boring.

Mid year recap

Well its hard to believe we are halfway through the year already, in fact more than half. I wanted to get to this topic last month but had too many other topics I felt were more important to get out there.  So at 7 months through this year where are we in regards to our goals?  Well I have changed them so many times due to life events that I am no longer sure which ones were active goals and which one have been put on hiatus for the time being. The one goal I am proudest of, and do remember, is my goal for the blog. To date I have managed to publish atleast one blog post a month. Some months have been leaner than others but the minimum monthly post has been accomplished so far.  So instead of setting a bunch of goals that are likely to change with the next curveball life throws at me lets just look at progress made so far.

Layout design

The track plan for the million dollar layout is almost complete and ready to share. Just a few things need to be done to clean up the CAD drawing so it is easier to understand. This may mean that the drawing will show square corners where I intend for rounded ones to be but this is the limitation of using a freeware CAD program.  I have developed some track charts which might come in useful for other purposes later.

Promotion of layout

Promotion of the layout concept has been very good. Although the Facebook page likes appears to have plateaued the blog posts do get considerable attention mostly due to crossposting on Facebook in various groups depending on subject matter of the post.  I appeared on Model Rail Radio for the third time, however my daughter felt the segment had gone on too long and interrupted. The most recent step in promotion is that the YPG Lines now has a logo. While this logo may change over time this is an important step in promoting my layout plan.

Research update

Research has been slow recently, having realized that I know very little about the Phoenix and Gila subs other than what is there today I started looking for information. A SPINS book for the Phoenix Sub was located at the California State Railroad Museum, however although they are from the same year, this book contains less information than the Yuma book and whole portions of the sub seem to be left off. One thing I learned from the SPINS book is that the Palo Verdi Nuclear Plant was rail served. This begs the question just what type of cars/loads does a nuclear power plant recieve/ship? So as of now I am in search of a more detailed SPINS book for the Phoenix sub and any SPINS Book for the Gila sub (preferably 1981). 

Recently I also had the opportunity to visit the SPH&TS archives to do some research.  While this trip was somewhat disappointing I still manged to come away with some useful information about the Phoenix sub in 1981 so the trip wasnt a complete waste.  I also learned recently on Facebook that 1981 was the peak of SP sugar beet opperations and that every subsequent year saw a decline.  This news now firmly cements the layouts main era on 1981 however El Centro staging may need to be revisited as the capacity may need to increase to accurately reflect the number of beet trains to and from the valley.

Fleet update

Recently I decided to go through and organize my rolling stock collection in an attempt to save space.  Much of my rolling stock was still in the boxes from two moves ago (almost 10 years) and these boxes and the packing materials were starting to show their age. I also used this opertunity to sort through scale vehicles and structure kits.  The plan is to acquire Freight Crates from Fast Tracks and get rid of all the kit boxes. This of course means that the cars and locomotives have to be sorted by length so the appropriate freight crates can be acquired.  The rolling stock was sorted into three categories, upgrades and minor repairs, major repairs, and unbuilt kits. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the number of unbuilt kits in my inventory. So as soon as I am done organizing the room my work table is in so that I can get all the kit boxes off of it I plan to start on the upgrading of cars to meet a set of standards I am developing which will include metal wheels and scale Kadee couplers as well as a reweigh. At this time I will also contemplate some additional details and a basic weathering job.  Remember most of these are old blue box kits, so they are filler cars I want them to blend in not call attention to them. After I get done with cars I will probably start tackling locomotives and these will definately get a detail upgrade as well as decoders and lights, the jury is still out on sound however.

Club layout update

From what I hear the Yuma Model Railroaders new layout is coming together nicely and we should be able to run trains soon.  Due to life I havent been able to get to any work sessions since mid July but at that time we had both helixes in and most of the lower level staging yard trackage in.

Revised goals

I am no longer planning to attend the SPH&TS convention this year as the logistics of me getting there were getting too complicated. So I am no longer trying to get a model done for that convention. I am however going to try and get a model done for the 2018 GNRHS convention in my hometown as even if I cant attend my dad as a convention organizer can make sure it gets there.  I am also contemplating attending the NMRA national in Kansas City next year however I think that would be with out models. So right now the priorities are the GN model and upgrading and repairing my fleet of cars and locomotives.  Any layout construction I want to do will need to be at the club as we will need to get that layout finished quickly so that people dont loose interest, and we can possibly have some community events.

Well its time to get back to the journey that is model railroading.

Givens and Druthers Dos

Operational givens and druthers

We talked previously about design givens and druthers I have been employing  on the YPG Lines. This week I want to discuss operational givens and druthers, or how I feel the railroad should run.  There are as many different views on what is required for operations as there are model railroaders (maybe more actually as some people seem to hold multiple opinions and waffle between them). So without further ado lets get to the topic at hand.

Long trains

One of the hallmarks of the Southern Pacific was long heavy trains with gigantic locomotive lash ups. Most people are familiar with these trains lumbering over Donner Pass or creeping around Tehachapi Loop at Walong. These trains were also present on the Sunset Route however, with the exception of a few locations, these trains sprinted across the desert. The ore train was 100 cars albeit 26 footers and the iconic beet trains were atleast that many cars long. Five or six locomotives on the point was not out of the norm especially when running four axle power.  I wanted to capture the flavor of this so I set my average train length to 25 cars although since the cars on the ore train are shorter it will most likely be 50 cars. Some trains will be longer and others shorter and most of the sidings will accept a 25 car train and associated motive power and caboose. For interest a 30 car train could be run requiring either the shorter train to take the siding or for a saw by to occur any time a meet was made.  This along with a couple sidings that would be on the short side would definately keep the dispatcher on their toes.  These trains should have ample length to convey the feeling of long trains while still being managable.  There will be some shorter trains especially when the era is flexed to post 1988 as Sprint Trains began to be utilized for some TOFC traffic. The 20 car Sprint trains will be between 7 and 10 cars long in model form.

Long mainling run

In order to show case these long trains I wanted a long mainline run with measurable distance between actual towns.  Switching is not really my cup of tea so I wanted to keep switching to a reasonable amount and prototypically based. There will be no "switching problems" as most prototypes tried to avoid complicated moves whenever possible, time spent on complicated moves is time not spent moving goods over the road.  While the sidings can be close together I tried to keep actual population centers a fair distance apart.

Convey the remoteness

One of the things that drew me to model this area was the desert scenery. I liked the remoteness of the area and trains sprinting across the desert not having to slow for towns. To convey this I omitted towns before I ommitted sidings from the track plan. Redundant sidings were however eliminated and only those with some form of scenic componant or operational quirk were kept. One thing I like about modeling the desert is there are many areas where you can see both ends of a train at the same time, this means that view blocks are not as important as they are on a traditional layouts. However it also means that the model will have more curvature than the prototype in order to fit in the layout space.

Mountain grade

I have always liked mountain railroading as it is what I grew up watching. it is amazing to see a massive train fighting gravity and clawing for every inch and I feel it is the essence of railroading.  Including a mountain grade has always been important to me. There is a slight grade between Yuma and Tucson amd some small "mountains" but not what I would consider a mountain railroad.  With the addition of Beaumont Hill to the layout I was able to include a mountain grade. Between West Colton and Tucson the railroad climbs to around 2605 feet above sea level at Apex then drops to around 200 feet below sea level at Ferrum before the gradual climb out to Tucson at 2389 feet above sea level. I feel this mix of terrain will greatly enhance the operational feel of the layout.

Helper operations

While I really wanted a mountain grade I felt it would be even cooler if helper operations could be included.  Helper operations on both sides is a bonus and thats what Beaumont Hill offers.  As stated earlier I prefer mainline operations to yard operations and I feel the addition and subtraction of helpers would definately substitute for any percieved lack of operations brought on by the minimal switching on the layout.

Realistic Operations

While this appears at the bottom of the list realistic operations is important to me.  That said I am not instituting TTO ops just for the sake of doing so.  I feel many in the operations community are dismisive and demeaning when talking about track warrant operations even to the point of referring to it as "mother may I?" I feel if you are a prototype modeler and what you are modeling used track warrants during the time frame you model, so should you. Either that or get off your high horse on some other topics.

The subdivisions modeled on the proposed YPG Lines layout used a variety of operating schemes depending on where one was.  I believe the Phoenix Sub used track warrants (along with semaphores), while the Yuma and Gila Subs primarily used CTC, although there were some sections of two main track that were directional running with ABS and a provision for running against the flow of traffic.

I think that by following these guidelines a very enioyable railroad can be constructed.  But most importantly it is a layout I will enjoy constructing and operating and isnt that the bottom line.

Revisiting givens and druthers

A few months ago about the time I started questioning pursuing the AP program I was looking at the layout and had the realization that the area of the layout devoted to Yuma was almost half the foot print of the layout. While I had a fairly faithful recreation of 1981 Yuma the layout was very heavy on switching which is not exactly my favorite part of the hobby. 

I like getting trains over the mainline, as well as watching the trains roll through realistic scenery.  At this point it dawned on me that while I want other people to enjoy my layout, I needed to remember who exactly I was planning this for.

At this point I decided to re-examine my givens and druthers or more importantly what was important to me.  There are really two types of givens and druthers, operational and design elements. Lets look at the design elements first.

1. Broad curves.

I felt setting a minimum radius of 40 inches for mainline and 30 inches in yards and on branchlines was appropriate.

For industrial trackage the radius is a bit more flexinle as I think some of then get down to 18 inches but I tried to stay around 24 inches.  Also the legs of wyes that are mostly cosmetic in nature are tighter than minimum radius.

2 Wide aisles

Like many model railroaders I am not a small person.  So I figured that there needed to be room for someone larger than me in the aisles.  I set a minimum aisle width of 30 inches as that is the width of a standard residential door.  For the most part I think I have been able to stick to this with most aisles being atleast 36 inches (3 feet) wide with several areas being even wider. I tried to make wide spots in the aisle where multiple operators may need to pass one another.  I also have tried to make any access hatches or holes a minimum of 30 inches by 30 inches as well.

3. Layout height

For the most part the layout will have all sceniced portions atleast 50 inches from the floor.  The staging yards will be set at whatever height works best.  There will also be some portions where the layout is higher than 50 inches, but this will only be in mainline segments that do not require switching. I have not decided as of yet but the Yuma area might be lower as well as the yard configuration requires some long reaches.

4. Reach distance and shelf depth

The maximum reach length in the layout should be no more than 30 inches. Any areas that have a longer reach will require additional access. It is for this reason Yuma was designed to be operational from both sides. Most yards will be around 24 inches deep, single track mainline sections will be around 12 inches deep.  Sidings and double track will be around 18 inches deep.

5. Limit duck unders

At 6 foot 3 inches I really dislike duck unders as I have a propensity to ding my dome. There are only a couple locations that would require crossing to the other side of the layout however I have tried to address this in a couple ways. Where possible a raised floor will be utilized under the layout to provide a pit for extra head clearance.

On lesser used portions swing bridges could be utilized.  Although through past experience the more you use a lift out or swing out section the less reliably it stays in alignment. Therefore where this method is utilized, the normal position will need to be open thus dictating use in lower traffic areas such as branch lines and staging.

6 where possible round corners of benchwork

Ok I lied, this last criteria isnt about my wants and needs, probably why its at the bottom.  Rather this is in here to keep Lionel Strang happy and avoid becoming a target of one of his rants (ketchup on the hotdog rant was bad enough, which is funny because I really only eat my hotdogs that way to piss off "purists", so I guess it had its desired effect).

I have always been a proponent of function over fashion or as we dubbed it in college FOF (long story). I do however understand the idea of making something aesthetically pleasing but realize that this criteria is subjective to the viewer. So where feasible I will round the corners of the benchwork, however if a few places have an angle instead of a curve I am not going to lose sleep over it.

Well I have gone on long enough for today on this topic. I will continue this journey with a discussion of operational givens and druthers in a future post. 

Recently I have been trying to organize my hobby workspace and all my trains in the hope that I can get back to some tangible model railroading. I have also been trying to make it to atleast one work session a week on the club layout, so if the posts stay shorter just know it is in hope of getting to use hobby time for actual modeling. But hey its just another side trip on this journey.

Lessons learned from Phase 2

One might think that after learning all those lessons on phase 1 that there would be very few lessons that could be learned in subsequent phases.  This might be true if the phases were identical in form and function, but phase 1 was a branchline and switching theme and phase 2 is a mainline running theme. Phase 2 and three are very similar so there will hopefully not be as many lessons learned.
 

That said I am a firm believer in the idea that if you aren't learning something you are doing it wrong.  I have often said the day I think I know everything about my job and there is nothing to learn is the day I need to retire. The same is true for the hobby as when there is nothing to learn the challenge is gone and the challenge is half the fun.  So lets not look at these lessons as mistakes but rather teachable moments. When I am tasked with training a new coworker one of the first things I tell them is do not be afraid to make a mistake, it is only a f@#* up if you fail to learn from it. So lets get to the lessons I learned on this phase of planning.

1. Start at the end/beginning

For this track plan I started on phase 1 which is effectively the middle of the track plan. This meant that decisions were made early on that negatively effected both phase 2 and phase 3. For example a turnback curve being placed that made an area of phase 2 almost impossible without wasting a ton of space. I somewhat remedied this in the second iteration of this track plan which was created when I transferred the drawings to the CAD program as I started at the west end and worked east. On one of the alternative plans that is in the future I think I am going to lay out the staging yards at both ends then work from one end to connect them.

2. Know your staging requirements

When I started this I did not know how big the staging yards would need to be. While I had a rough idea, when I started actually looking I realized that I needed twice as many tracks on the west end than I originally thought. This left me trying shoehorn the tracks in while still maintaining standards. I got around this with a split level staging yard using the top level for departures and the bottom for recieving. Of course this means that there must be an operator to move trains from one level to the other during an op session but thats a small sacrifice.

3. Think vertically

This applies to the staging but also to one turnback curve. If you utilize grades properly you can tuck things under another level. This is especially true if the lower area will be unsceniced. This thought also applies to the use of a mezzanine for phase 3 as this allowed for more freedom and space for the design of phase three. However this also means one needs to think of vertical clearances but that is more of a concern for phase 3. A longer mainline run and more staging was achieved by thinking vertically and looking where levels could overlap.

4. Watch your aisle width

I think this is rather self explanatory and no matter how many times you tell yourself to stick to a standard width, the temptation to cheat will always be there. But also double check your aisles at multiple points especially between turnback curves.  I had to re-layout some curves when I went to draw the fascia or backdrop due to clearances being tighter than planned.

Hopefully the list of lessons learned in phase 3 will be smaller but having already started the planning I somehow doubt that will be the case. Till the next stop enjoy the journey.

Water tanks



Figuring out when a picture was taken is a fine art. While there is no magic bullet to find the exact day month or year unless it happens to be somewhere in the photo, you can usually get close using several different points.

The first is fashion, what are the people wearing, how is their hair cut etc... a picture of Seattle in the 1990's would probably show young adults wearing flannels and the men having longer hair, where as the same picture in the sixties the men would have the "Bobby Kennedy" look (think Willem Dafoe in Mississippi Burning). Fashion can usually give you an idea of the decade.

The second is vehicles, what is the newest vehicle in the picture. Now remember the new models usually come out in the summer or fall, so it is possible for a 1980 Honda Civic to be present in a late 1979 scene.

The final item is structures, what is and isnt there in a photo or how something is painted, can give you a good time frame on when it was taken.  However since structures can be demolished it is important to use multiple factors when dating a photo.

So how does this tie in with the title water tanks you ask? Anyone who has driven through Yuma on Interstate 8 knows that on the hill above 16th street sit three 3000 gallon water tanks.  When I moved to Yuma in 2008 these tanks were light blue with a desert mural painted in typical southwest colors. A few weeks ago I was driving by and noticed they were working on the tanks. A few days later they painted one tank tan and a week or so after that they painted the second tank tan. Now only one tank remains with the mural.

So why is this important, well according to the city the tanks are refurbished and repainted approximately every 15 to 20 years. Now the interesting thing about these tanks specifically is that they have worn several different paint schemes over the years, making it fairly easy to use the tanks to date pictures taken in the yard.

From my research it apears that two tanks were constructed on that hill sometime in the 1950's ( my notes say 1955).  I say this because they are present in aerial photos of the area prior to the construction of the Dieselville Yard. However in aerial photos from 1941 and 1953 the tanks are noticeably absent.  The tanks appear light in color but since the photos are all black and white I do not know if they are white or not. I have encountered a picture of black widow F units in decent repair, where the tanks say "Yuma" but there is no date on the photo. also I have encountered a photo looking south from 16th street prior to Dieselville construction and the tanks say "Yuma".

Photos from the 1970's and early 1980's show that the tanks were white in color with "YUMA" written on them in black. Again not all of the photos are in color but in the ones that are the tanks appear white. This may have been the color scheme all along however once again prior to the 1970's most the photos I have encountered were black and white.

In 1984 the tanks were painted "water blue" but retained the "YUMA" written in black.

In a Google Earth image from May 1994 the tanks once again appear to be a light color such as white or tan however in aerial photos where I know the tanks are blue it is hard to tell so the color could still be blue.  A June 1996 image from Google Earth shows that the third tank had been constructed some time between then and May of 1994.

According to the Yuma Sun (local news paper) the mural was painted on the tanks in 1999.

Which brings us to the current year where the tanks are in the process of being painted tan. The city states there are no plans to repaint the mural at this time although the city logo might be painted on them.  So we will just have to see what the next refurbishment brings in the way of water tank decor.

As for the ramifications for my planned layout, in all but the last two years of my floating era there were only 2 tanks. For the early years they were white and for late 1980's they were blue. This type of tank is simple enough to make, using pvc pipe of the correct diameter, so I am thinking of making two sets of tanks one white and one blue and have them be interchangable. And since we are already tweaking some infrastructure for ease of era flexibility in my world that third tank may not get built. It was only around for maybe a year in my era, but that is a decision for another day. The big question is, where will this journey take me next.

Viva Las Vegas

Ok this weeks post will be kind of short as I have been on a mini vacation and by the title I bet you can guess where.  Now as far as I can tell from my google searches and comments made by those who have lived in Lost Wages, model railroading here is viewed as the rest of the hobby views N scale (it is dead remember).  Ok, ok, so maybe its not really dead but just like N scale its lost in the modern  hobby world.

Anyway with no train shops or train clubs on the strip how is this train related? Well for starters the route we take parallels the BNSF Transcon for a bit, and we got to see lots of action there, but thats still not it.

I want to talk about backgrounds and scenery.  Now how did this come about, well anyone that has been in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, the shops at the Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes or the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood knows, well at least those who took the time to look away from the celebrity impersonators, showgirls and inappropriately attired housewives and sorority sisters and look up.  Inside these buildings are skyscapes so realistic that you sometimes forget you are indoors. Now I have no clue how these were created but they are inspiring to those of us trying to recreate the real world.

The Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian

I have sometimes wondered if the realism was an effect of being viewed from a far distance as most these shopping areas are close to three stories tall inside (the 3 story rule). But as we were waiting in line to see a show featuring one of the aforementioned celebrity impersonators (one might say the King of them) on the second floor of the Miracle Mile Shops, I took the time to look up and the effect was still rather impressive.

The Miracle Mile Shops from the second floor.

I guess my message this week is sometimes our journeys take us away from the trains but that does not mean we can't find inspiration in these trips.

Chasing our tails.

Photo courtesy of club secretary John Dye

I thought about calling this post going around in circles but thought that might be too close to the title of a precious post.  As I have stated before I am a member of the Yuma Model Railroaders and we recently decided to put our modular layout in storage and build a semi permanent layout in its place. 

Well construction has begun and for the last 2 weeks we have literally been chasing our tails. We started our layout by building the stacked double track helixes that will go on one end. So for the last week we have had work sessions of three to six members working on the helix performing various tasks.  Now for those who have never built a helix, it is easiest to do it layer by layer. 

Tonight we had between 5 and 6 members working on the helix, two or three guys were on the subroad bed crew, one guy putting down cork and another laying the track. My job was the solder monkey and I was tasked with dropping feeders and soldering rail joints. Needless to say some jobs go faster than others and many times I was rushing to solder something so that the next section of subroadbed could be put in place. And like a dog chasing his tail occasionally he nips it. 

As for a progress report as of quiting time tonight we had started the last turn of the helix and should finish it next work session. Then we can move on to the lower level staging yard.

So all this actual layout construction has taken time away from the planning of the YPG Lines, however that does not mean that it is lost time. As stated I have been doing a lot of soldering and as expected my joints are getting better as we progress.  Now I am not a stranger to a soldering iron as I have built a turnout, and in the past done some layout wiring and repair as well as my own decoder installs.  This was however the first time I have soldered rail joints and feeders to the rail (previously my dad soldered the feeders to the rail and I soldered the feeders to the bus).  The biggest thing I have noticed is everyone has their own idea of how to do the these tasks and everyones ideas are different.  But hey its a club layout and while I wouldn't do things a certain way on my personal layout if it works in this setting why not.

The biggest take away however has been in helix design.  While I have built several Plywood and Pacifics in the past, none of them were complex enough to require a helix, so this is new territory for me.  We are using the threaded rod approach and it seems to work adequately.  I see many positive aspects of using this meathod but there are some draw backs such as threading nuts is a pain in the ass. Protip: use a drill with a wire brush wheel to speed things up, unless of course you have a group of kids who like fidget spinners readily available to do it for you.

Luckily in the Million Dollar Layout plan phase 1 and 2 of the YPG lines do not have a helix, however phase three most likely will include a helix. Now the designfor that helix is still up in the air, however I am considering some non traditional designs. Moving forward the insights I have gained working on the helix for club's layout should pay dividends when the time finally comes to build a heilx on the YPG Lines.

In other nonlayout news I finally got an area cleaned in the spare bedroom that has been set aside for all things me. Currently it is only 33 percent Storage Room B and I have managed to set up a folding table (one of the six foot long ones) for a work bench.  Of course I immediately cluttered it with models as I am currently looking to better organize all the models I have acquired over the years and those I am still acquiring.  I am also looking for ways to better store the office supplies that go in that room as well.  

Needless to say I have been spending more time than I like on the Rubbermaid bin aisle at Wal-Mart, however once I get this mess sorted out perhaps some actual modeling can occur, or atleast some upgrading of the locomotives and rolling stock. In the end I feel it will make this journey more enjoyable and thats the whole point isnt it.