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.

Abandoning the AP

So for those who do not follow the various model railroading podcasts for the last few months I have been debating my involvement in the NMRA. I know that people will say that the NMRA is like a gym membership and what you get out of it depends on what you put into it, but the same can be said for a sewer. 

To be quite honest I was given my initial NMRA membership as a gift and only renewed it because the club I joined is a 100 percent club. Since my involvement in the club is on a year to year/month to month basis due to my work situation, I honestly feel that when my relationship with this club ends so will my relationship with the NMRA.

This outlook may change if I move to a region that holds events closer to my location, but in my current region these events are held too far away to make it a quick day trip and they are held on weekends, which I am presently finding difficult to get time off of work for. But this is not supposed to be a tirade about the NMRA, but rather a narrative of how I came to the decision to abondon the Achievement Program (AP), atleast for the time being.

When I began this journey I was a newly minted NMRA member and was in awe of the Master Model Railroaders. I wanted so badly to be one and following the advice on the NMRA website I set out on planning the layout with the various criteria in mind. Fast forward a few years and after months of being a slave to the AP atleast as far as layout design and planning is concerned, I have come to the decision that at this point in my life the AP is not for me.

There are several reasons for this decision, first and foremost being I re-examined what is important to me in the hobby.  The title of Master Model Railroader (MMR) is nice but do I really need this title to be happy with myself in the hobby? The answer is no, I got into this hobby for fun not to be a slave to a title. I do not feel I need others to ordain me a great modeler; personally I feel my skills are slightly above average and while I have done some really nice work at times, everything I have done is good enough for me.

I also found it interesting some famous model railroaders are missing from the MMR list.  Tony Koester is not on the list, does that mean the lessons he has to impart are any less important? I think not.  I would rather be better known for being an expert on my subject matter than for my modeling, and more importantly my friends go to guy for all information SP.  Two of my inspirations in this hobby are John Signor and Tony Thompson, both are very accomplished modelers but they are better known as historians and authors.

The second is that as discussed in a previous post some of the requirements are a bit archaic and steam centric.  While an engine facility in the steam era required a separate track/stall for each locomotive, multiple diesels can be serviced on the same track. A service facility in the diesel era can be as small as a siding for a tank truck to pull up and deliver fuel and sand can be loaded by bucket.   A diesel locomotive  does not require turning at the end of its run. Diesel locomotives are also not as labor intensive as steam locomotives and have a greater range,  leading to the elimination of many intermediate servicing facilities in favor of centralized maintenance facilities.  that is if the railroad did not contract their locomotive maintenance to one of the big railroads.  This means a diesel era modeler may not need an engine terminal on the modeled portion of their layout, just as they might not need a caboose track in their yard.

The requirements also slant to favor the freelancer over the prototype modeler. A freelancer can build an engine facility that is tailor made to fullfill the AP requirements, where as the prototype modeler is limited if they want to stay true to their prototype.

The excessive scratchbuilding requirements are another aspect that drained the fun out of the AP for me. I personally feel that repurposing a part from another source can be just as impressive as something that is 90 percent scratchbuilt.  One of the reasons that a side project I have been working on for my dad has stalled is that I was so focused on scratchbuilding everything to fit the requirements that I was reinventing the wheel so to speak. In that situation a repurposed part from a readily available Walthers kit would one, be more realistic than anything I scratchbuilt and two, the build process would be dramatically sped up.

The scratchbuilt locomotive is another sticking point. Modeling the diesel era requires truck sideframes, a repurposed and possibly superdetailed Athearn or Atlas side frame would definately be more convincing than anything I could do. Also I dont think that using Canon parts falls under the scratchbuilt category atleast as far as a literal interpretation of the requirements go. So I would be forced to build a fantasy locomotive that I dont even need, possibly in another scale. This begs the question, from a financial and time perspective, which is more important becoming a MMR or finishing the layout, I vote for finishing the layout.

Finally most of the layout building certificates such as prototype scene and scenery require a backdrop. This rules out freemo modules as they must be operable from both sides.  Some of this layout such as the Yuma area is being designed with the same concept in mind. Infact using the TOMA approach also makes it difficult to utilize a backdrop until the layout is finalized for continuity reasons, but that may just be a personal opinion.

Now that I think about it the final nail in coffin so to speak was all the required paperwork involved.  Its not that I am lazy and this blog should be evidence that I am capable of writing atleast one coherant sentence. The big issue is I spend so much time at my job on documentation and justifying my actions that the last thing I want to do in my off time is fill out more paperwork.

Anyway I hope this gives some insight into my decision to abandon the AP.  Maybe when I finally become part of the NMRA's key demographic my thoughts will change and perhaps by then some of the requirements will be tweaked.

I tried to keep the content to actual modeling and leave out how I think the service to the hobby certificate should be either abolished  or completely revamped as two of the three categories are more related to your connections in the hobby and the third is rather limited considering the advances in technology in the last decade.  Also there does not seem to be a provision, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, for showing layouts outside of sanctioned NMRA events such as the county fair.  Shouldn't showing outsiders how fun our hobby can be fall under service to the hobby? But I digress.

I am not saying there is no value to the AP, there are many things I find valuable but have small personal issues with.  My main point is that at this point attempting to pursue the AP was taking all the fun out of the hobby for me and whats the point on continuing on the journey if I am not having fun.

Sneak attack of life

So apparently the first came and went and I had not completed a post to share. The best way I can explain this is that I have suffered a sneak attack of life. Now we all know that life is the master of guerrilla warfare and most attacks of life are sneak attacks but others such as birthdays, anniversaries etc... we can see coming.  So in my household the end of May/begining of June is birthday season, well atleast for everone else but me. Throw in Mothers Day and the end of School (yes school is out the last week of May here) and it has been a hectic month. It seems that every other week I am planning something else not train related.

These last 2 weeks alone I have had 1 birthday and 2 "graduations" to attend.  Apparently preschool and kindergarten graduation is a thing now complete with cap and gowns and most of the pomp and circumstance.  My daughters birthday which as I write this was yesterday involved a trip to Phoenix to see a Broadway play. Usually I can weasel my way into visiting An Affair With Trains when I am in that part of Phoenix but there wasnt time and that store recently moved so it was no longer 10 minutes from the theatre  (yes I used the pretentious drama club spelling or the normal spelling if you live anywhere that speaks English other than the US).

So there has been no retail therapy and the closest I have gotten to working on a layout has been building my daughters wooden (Brio knockoff) train table that she got for her birthday.

On the bright side a trip to Phoenix means getting to drive a segment of the line that will be covered in phase 3, and Union Pacific did not disappoint on volume either Yesterday day or today.

  We had planned to come home last night but AZDOT had other plans and when it took us over an hour to travel 3 miles on the way out of Phoenix we decided to stop for the night in Gila Bend.

This trip also gave me a chance to take a short break from thinking about how to model the California desert and think about modeling the Arizona desert. Yes there are differences,  mainly cactus, although as expected there are a lot of similarities.

I mention this because I am nearing a point where I can start thinking about how I am going to accomplish phase 3.  While I wish I could declare Phase 2 complete, it is only about 98 percent complete at this time. The big reason for this was switching to CAD instead of pencil and paper and while I have tried to stay faithful to my paper plan in CAD, there were some changes that had to be made, and some that were made on accident but improved the feel of the track plan. I just have a couple little bits to finish up on phase 2 mostly involving staging, however tweaks to phase 2 have lead to me tweaking phase 1. So when all the tweaking of phase 1 and 2 are done then and only then will I declare them complete and move on to stage 3. 

On the downside, I may have to reign myself in as I have been trying to stick to the 15 minutes a day mantra however I have noticed that I have been spending far more time than that and to the detriment of other facets of my life. Most notably my getting enough sleep.  The problem is that I have found using XtrackCAD for layout design to be so enjoyable that I lose track of time and 15 minutes turns into 5 hours quickly.  So I may have to prohibit myself from layout design except on my days off.  I have also been working on organizing my work areas and on a positive note "Storage Room B" is slowly becoming a livable/workable room with room for a work space. So who knows some actual modeling may occur her soon.

Another interesting development is that the club layout apparently has been progressing along at a fair clip. Evidently the club president was doing a lot of the benchwork construction at his house and we have a work session tenatively set for Monday morning. So we will see how that goes.

On a final note I hope to get back into the swing of things soon however we will see when life will let me. My wife and I were just informed yesterday that her mother is coming in a week for a visit of unknown duration and my daughters birthday party has yet to occur.  Well what can I say its a journey even if we do get held up at the last station on occasion.