Hello Everybody,
I'm new around these parts, The name's Daniel. I've been interested in railroading for years, got my first model for Christmas when I was 2 (Ironically I was terrified of it according to my grandmother, it smoked and I made trails the other direction, lol) and roughly one model a year afterwards, give or take a few. Mostly Bachmann, not the best quality, and a mix between G and HO. Now, fast forward a few years (18 to be exact), after visiting the local Hobby Lobby that's 30 miles from here, the bug has bit me again and I think I want to start a layout, a real one instead of my usual loop around the Christmas village. I've been reading on here for a while now, having registered my account a while back, but between things going on, my great grandmother dying, and stuff I never counted on, every time I have attempted to start a post, something has happened and I've lost my train of thought (pun intended
).
The railroad means something special to me, my great grandfather worked on the Nada tunnel (built between 1910 and 1911, we even have a copy of his pay stub where he was paid $1.25 for services performed as a carpenter) that was used by a narrow gauge line to carry logs to the standard gauge interchange (I've heard it two ways - the narrow gauge line ran all the way to the sawmill in Clay City is the story the park service has on the website, but from both personal recollection of first hand witnesses and the book Ghost Railroad of Kentucky, there were two narrow gauge railroads in the Nada/Slade area, and both interchanged their log cargo with the Kentucky Union, L&E, and later L&N, who then completed the cargo's journey). Later on, during the war and after the L&N tore up tracks on the branch that ran through here and my great grandpa was recalled to service during WWII (he was a WWI vet, and was called back into active duty for stateside service) my great grandmother, her two children from a previous marriage, my grandmother and one of my great aunts moved into the old L&N depot at Slade. It was there my great uncle was born, who just last November passed on due to complications from H1N1. I know there was no direct connection to the railroad, but it's something that had a great bearing on my family, it provided their jobs, shelter, transportation and later down the road, fond stories to pass on.
It is this line I want to model, abet a bit freelanced. I have a pretty good idea of the lay of the land along the old right of way, as my house backs up to it (even found some memorabilia in one of the storage shed when we moved in here. Some old spikes, a piece of rail somebody turned into an anvil, and some really big wrecking bars with chisel ends that I was told was used to move railcars, not sure how true that is though, although they are really handy for dislodging rocks caught between the beam and coulter on a moldboard plow. I'm sure I could find more if I took the metal detector out, but I'm kinda afraid of what I would find knowing the previous property owners tendency to take shortcuts.) and it's pretty clear from above in google maps.
I want to take things a bit further than the prototype, adding a yard at Stanton so I can play around with switching operations, and perhaps eventually model Winchester, the next major town from Clay City and add a yard there for interchange, who knows
. I'm planning on mixing time periods, from the original Baldwin 2-6-0's that ran on the KU/L&E/L&N main, to the climax and shays that ran on the narrow gauge feeders, to later diesels even though they didn't run the line (particularly the Alco's the L&N used, always been fond of Alco for some reason). I want to make the whole thing modular, that way I can start small and add on as I go, as money is a factor (isn't it always?). I have a barn full of OSB cut into 4x4 squares that I plan to use as my base for my benchwork, as well as a bunch of 2x4's, 2x6's and 1x4's to use for the frame. I have a pretty large house, so space isn't really a problem, the room I have picked out is 12x15, with the possibility of tearing out a wall to make it 12x30. The room is heated and cooled (the wood stove is in the next room over and the central AC unit was just overhauled, it says nice year round) and has hardwood floors so I think it would work okay, so I don't think I would have to worry about the track rusting or anything being damaged by condensation. My current plan includes dedicating one wall to a workbench, as, if you cannot tell by my post, I am somewhat cluttered. My layout will be somewhat around-the-wall, with the exception of the portion in front of the workbench - I plan on bringing it back away from the bench about 4', running on 2 2x6's run wall to wall. I'm going to limit the depth of the layout to 30" so everything will be within reach, perhaps less in places where there is just main line running and minimal scenery needing to be modeled.
As for modeling, I've been scratchbuilding stuff for as long as I can remember, so I don't see why I can't continue to do so for the depots and buildings that I can find pictures of (or in the case of the Slade and Stanton depots, they are still standing, the Stanton depot being a stonesthrow from my back yard). But from there, I am lost as to brands to look for, brands to watch out for and the like. I did subscribe to Model Railroader, and have been reading through this site, and have found some really good info, but the plethora of information seems to be over my head in places.
I understand DC vs DCC, the wiring required, and have been researching brands. I think I will go with Digitrax, if only for their loconet support. I mess around with software development, and the idea of being able to sit here and control my layout downstairs is pretty appealing. Plus, automation (ie, having the shays run a feeder while trying to keep everything caught up between the interchange and the mill) seems like it would help shake things up and keep things challenging.
Well, I think I'm going to end this now before I fill up the database software with my mindless rambling. I'm looking forward to become a part of this community
.
Daniel
I'm new around these parts, The name's Daniel. I've been interested in railroading for years, got my first model for Christmas when I was 2 (Ironically I was terrified of it according to my grandmother, it smoked and I made trails the other direction, lol) and roughly one model a year afterwards, give or take a few. Mostly Bachmann, not the best quality, and a mix between G and HO. Now, fast forward a few years (18 to be exact), after visiting the local Hobby Lobby that's 30 miles from here, the bug has bit me again and I think I want to start a layout, a real one instead of my usual loop around the Christmas village. I've been reading on here for a while now, having registered my account a while back, but between things going on, my great grandmother dying, and stuff I never counted on, every time I have attempted to start a post, something has happened and I've lost my train of thought (pun intended
). The railroad means something special to me, my great grandfather worked on the Nada tunnel (built between 1910 and 1911, we even have a copy of his pay stub where he was paid $1.25 for services performed as a carpenter) that was used by a narrow gauge line to carry logs to the standard gauge interchange (I've heard it two ways - the narrow gauge line ran all the way to the sawmill in Clay City is the story the park service has on the website, but from both personal recollection of first hand witnesses and the book Ghost Railroad of Kentucky, there were two narrow gauge railroads in the Nada/Slade area, and both interchanged their log cargo with the Kentucky Union, L&E, and later L&N, who then completed the cargo's journey). Later on, during the war and after the L&N tore up tracks on the branch that ran through here and my great grandpa was recalled to service during WWII (he was a WWI vet, and was called back into active duty for stateside service) my great grandmother, her two children from a previous marriage, my grandmother and one of my great aunts moved into the old L&N depot at Slade. It was there my great uncle was born, who just last November passed on due to complications from H1N1. I know there was no direct connection to the railroad, but it's something that had a great bearing on my family, it provided their jobs, shelter, transportation and later down the road, fond stories to pass on.
It is this line I want to model, abet a bit freelanced. I have a pretty good idea of the lay of the land along the old right of way, as my house backs up to it (even found some memorabilia in one of the storage shed when we moved in here. Some old spikes, a piece of rail somebody turned into an anvil, and some really big wrecking bars with chisel ends that I was told was used to move railcars, not sure how true that is though, although they are really handy for dislodging rocks caught between the beam and coulter on a moldboard plow. I'm sure I could find more if I took the metal detector out, but I'm kinda afraid of what I would find knowing the previous property owners tendency to take shortcuts.) and it's pretty clear from above in google maps.
I want to take things a bit further than the prototype, adding a yard at Stanton so I can play around with switching operations, and perhaps eventually model Winchester, the next major town from Clay City and add a yard there for interchange, who knows
. I'm planning on mixing time periods, from the original Baldwin 2-6-0's that ran on the KU/L&E/L&N main, to the climax and shays that ran on the narrow gauge feeders, to later diesels even though they didn't run the line (particularly the Alco's the L&N used, always been fond of Alco for some reason). I want to make the whole thing modular, that way I can start small and add on as I go, as money is a factor (isn't it always?). I have a barn full of OSB cut into 4x4 squares that I plan to use as my base for my benchwork, as well as a bunch of 2x4's, 2x6's and 1x4's to use for the frame. I have a pretty large house, so space isn't really a problem, the room I have picked out is 12x15, with the possibility of tearing out a wall to make it 12x30. The room is heated and cooled (the wood stove is in the next room over and the central AC unit was just overhauled, it says nice year round) and has hardwood floors so I think it would work okay, so I don't think I would have to worry about the track rusting or anything being damaged by condensation. My current plan includes dedicating one wall to a workbench, as, if you cannot tell by my post, I am somewhat cluttered. My layout will be somewhat around-the-wall, with the exception of the portion in front of the workbench - I plan on bringing it back away from the bench about 4', running on 2 2x6's run wall to wall. I'm going to limit the depth of the layout to 30" so everything will be within reach, perhaps less in places where there is just main line running and minimal scenery needing to be modeled. As for modeling, I've been scratchbuilding stuff for as long as I can remember, so I don't see why I can't continue to do so for the depots and buildings that I can find pictures of (or in the case of the Slade and Stanton depots, they are still standing, the Stanton depot being a stonesthrow from my back yard). But from there, I am lost as to brands to look for, brands to watch out for and the like. I did subscribe to Model Railroader, and have been reading through this site, and have found some really good info, but the plethora of information seems to be over my head in places.
I understand DC vs DCC, the wiring required, and have been researching brands. I think I will go with Digitrax, if only for their loconet support. I mess around with software development, and the idea of being able to sit here and control my layout downstairs is pretty appealing. Plus, automation (ie, having the shays run a feeder while trying to keep everything caught up between the interchange and the mill) seems like it would help shake things up and keep things challenging.
Well, I think I'm going to end this now before I fill up the database software with my mindless rambling. I'm looking forward to become a part of this community
.Daniel
