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.