Lurking

[maczimb]

Hi Guys.
I have been lurking in the shadows for several weeks and enjoying reading all the stuff that has appeared on the forum.
Last week I was in the San Diego area and had the good fortune to spend an hour in the San Diego Train Museum, my time there was short due to family commitments.
I talked briefly to a guy that was running an HO coal train, 54 feet long and weighing 26 pounds, he claims that it is some sort of record. He is pulling it with two diesels, I didn't get much detail other than that, but what an impressive sight.
Another guy I talked to, Ken was his name, he invited me into the middle of the layout and we talked about all sorts of stuff, I must admit that I was somewhat overawed with the whole thing. One thing I did notice, was that there was not a lot of emphasis placed on weathering, everything looked like it had just been taken out of the box.
They do accept visiting memberships and as such, one would be allowed to run your own trains on their layout. They have a minimum weight restriction on anything that is run on their setup, another restriction is that only steel wheels are allowed.
I will get back there in a few weeks and spend more time, this time I will take notes as my ability to memorize detail is not what it once was.
On a different note, I recently talked to a lady that was into some sort of hobby that required the use of Styrofoam, she says that she uses an electric carving knife to cut the stuff, thereby eliminating a lot of dust, she also said that she uses a blow torch to create soft edges and undulations. I will get to experiment with these techniques next week after I go down to Lowe's and buy a sheet of 2" thick.
My bench work is almost ready and I'm beginning to get pretty excited about starting to lay track.
I hope this is of interest to some of you.
Mac

 

[IronBeltKen]

If it's about model trains then it's definitely of interest Mac! That's neat about the blowtorch on the foam - sure sounds alot less messy than using a shureform and generating all those fragments.

BTW I didn't know that any Lowes or HD stores in California even carried extruded foam...?

 

[jbaakko]

Ken, they do, its just a few stores. I've only found one myself.

Glad you liked the San Diego area!

 

[jtudor]

That's neat about the blowtorch on the foam - sure sounds alot less messy than using a shureform and generating all those fragments.

I suspect that requires lots of practice and care, to keep from setting the foam on fire or just charring it. With practice it might be a very good technique to have handy.

 

[IronBeltKen]

I suspect that requires lots of practice and care, to keep from setting the foam on fire or just charring it. ...

JT - I had some people tellng me a few years back, that blue extruded styrene foam was a "fire hazard". So I did an experiment: I took a 2ft long scrap of it outside to a wide-open area in the center of my lawn, and held an Aim-n-Flame to it. It melted and produced noxious black smoke while I held the flame to it, but the foam definitely did NOT ignite on its own. As soon as I pulled the flame away, it cooled and stopped emitting smoke.

Your right though it does require extreme caution anytime fire is involved.

 

[kbkchooch]

I talked briefly to a guy that was running an HO coal train, 54 feet long and weighing 26 pounds, he claims that it is some sort of record. He is pulling it with two diesels, I didn't get much detail other than that, but what an impressive sight.

Impresive yes, but not a record. Our club has 1 member that regularly runs a coal drag with 113 cars plus caboose (total 114) each car is approximately 6 inches long (57 feet) and weighted to NMRA spec and gets pulled by 2-6 axle units or 3 four axle units. We've never weighed the whole train but it has to be close to 32 pounds. The modular layout is a blessing and a curse with this train, as it's dead level, but its still hard to start this train on 36 inch curves without "clotheslining" it. There has been talk of going bigger, well have to see at future shows. I've heard of 150 car trains, but never seen one.

On a different note, I recently talked to a lady that was into some sort of hobby that required the use of Styrofoam, she says that she uses an electric carving knife to cut the stuff, thereby eliminating a lot of dust, she also said that she uses a blow torch to create soft edges and undulations. I will get to experiment with these techniques next week after I go down to Lowe's and buy a sheet of 2" thick.

My tool of preference is a hot wire foam tool. Cuts better than a knife without shredding a bazillion little peices of it, plus no fire danger like a torch. I'd recommend one highly!

My bench work is almost ready and I'm beginning to get pretty excited about starting to lay track.I hope this is of interest to some of you.
Mac

Hey, don't be a lurker! If we all just lurked, the pages would be blank!