New interchange?

[jbaakko]

Since we've about given up on the Virtual Interchange, I suggest we do a physical interchange. I want to mail around some of my DUFX cars when I get them done & on the rails and I'm wondering what you think, would it work out? I may want to do other cars in the future, but as a beginning project a DUFX car would haul beer around...

 

[Railroad Joe]

Great idea Josh, but could get a bit pricy after awhile. Maybe physical interchange between you & other modelers who live close to you would be cheaper.....
Just a thought

 

[mtrpls]

Josh, I'm all for it! I've been wanting to get a physical interchange going for years... to get my NYCS cars on other people's layouts. Send me a message and we can discuss the best ways to implement a system. (I was actually thinking something web-based?)

 

[jbaakko]

Well there's three ideas behind it, with some "rules" to keep it working.

For rules, I figured Kadee #5 or #58 (or whisker equivalent), body mounted couplers only, and metal wheels (to reduce having to clean).

Mailing systems...
1. There's a "set route" 5+ people say I'll host it, and it gets mailed along, person to person, in the same box every time, each posting pics of their use. Host roads do some on site repairs from time to time. Requires each person to cover shipping costs, the last person sends it back to the home road.
2. Shipper & host & back. I send it to you, you use it for a few weeks, and send it back, I "re-load" it, then send it out again. This way allows the home road to do repairs.
3. I build & paint, you build & paint, we trade. Requires a set "value" of the car, say each buyer says, ok, Athearn Blue Box, new wheels, new couplers. This would be so that one person doesn't use a Genesis car while the other uses a Tyco, Ect.

Just the ideas for now.

 

[jbaakko]

This could also go along well for the decal trade room idea, we can just trade decals, and do the rest ourselves, per the "home roads" specs, like modeling a real prototype.

 

[mtrpls]

Josh,

What if we were to link a virtual interchange and physical interchange via a database-driven website, where everyone would have an account and exchange traffic with other members?

They would create virtual interchange with other members, and then follow up with a physical interchange to represent the swapping of traffic. Members could carry out physical interchange with as many or as few members as they wanted to, or they could even stop at a virtual interchange and opt out of any physical mailing of cars.

Each member would have his own account management page, where all of his virtual "trade deals" with other members would be listed, as well as to keep a track on the location of any cars that would be mailed for physical interchange.

If we charged members a small, nominal fee, a project like this could even pull in a tidy profit.

 

[ncng]

There is an active interchange going on over on www.railroadline.com.

David

 

[Steve B]

It would be very expensive for me and anyone sending stuff here,,, LOL.
I like the Decal trade deal though, i'll sit and watch as i have never done decals, but who knows.

if you made a set of decals for like you say Josh, a standard make and type of car,,, in effect it would be an interchange of such without the expense of shipping an actual car, and you would not get any postal damage,,, not that the postie would smash it on purpose but who knows.

 

[jbaakko]

Josh,

What if we were to link a virtual interchange and physical interchange via a database-driven website, where everyone would have an account and exchange traffic with other members?

They would create virtual interchange with other members, and then follow up with a physical interchange to represent the swapping of traffic. Members could carry out physical interchange with as many or as few members as they wanted to, or they could even stop at a virtual interchange and opt out of any physical mailing of cars.

Each member would have his own account management page, where all of his virtual "trade deals" with other members would be listed, as well as to keep a track on the location of any cars that would be mailed for physical interchange.

If we charged members a small, nominal fee, a project like this could even pull in a tidy profit.

Very nice, but who wants to code that!? I was just thinking something more simple, like a thread once every 6 months for physical interchange,, and a virtual one that gets more use, no need for the full board like we used to have, but just one thread.

There is an active interchange going on over on www.railroadline.com.

David

All I got was some ad site. We used to have some fairly active stuff here, but it went dead.

It would be very expensive for me and anyone sending stuff here,,, LOL.
I like the Decal trade deal though, i'll sit and watch as i have never done decals, but who knows.

if you made a set of decals for like you say Josh, a standard make and type of car,,, in effect it would be an interchange of such without the expense of shipping an actual car, and you would not get any postal damage,,, not that the postie would smash it on purpose but who knows.

Part of the fun of mailing, is damage, and the minor outward appearance changes, such as someone adding a little weathering. I can see how others might now like that thought though.

Lets rekindle the decal traderoom for now I guess.

I'm going to check into the decals for my DUFX cars this week, then we'll see about me sending some cars off to other rr's.

 

[GandyDancer]

.
1. There's a "set route" .... each posting pics of their use.
2. Shipper & host & back. I send it, you use it, send it back, I "re-load" it, then send it out again.
3. I build & paint, you build & paint, we trade.

Hmmm, or combinations there of. I sort of focused in on the picture part. We could have a website that has the pics of the cars on all the layouts it makes it too, and/or each layout has a "signature" spot that it always uses to photograph the foreign cars at. So they could be viewed by the journeys of a specific car, or the number of different road names at a given location.

Requires some more thought. Don't give up on the idea too soon. The problem I have with the decal exchange is the decals could be used in a non-approved scheme.

P.S. Why was the virtual exchange abandon? I never participated because I didn't understand the concept. Seemed like it was almost anything goes anywhere without proper routing and classification.

 

[jbaakko]

I guess it was abandoned for that reason, no proper routing, ect...

I havn't given up yet, just thinking about it.

 

[Old 97]

Just want folks to know that I'd like to see "something" get off the ground and would like to participate.
Just my .02.

 

[speent]

I would be interested in a virtual interchange program as well, but I have no idea how it works. I have too many cars on my layout and need to start a drawer system or something, which could work out with that. Does it have to be a custom road or can it just be a car with the same road number that everyone else has?

 

[jbaakko]

Just about anything Brent, just some way for us to interchange traffic.

 

[HaggisKennedy]

A lot of it has to do with where your real RR is, and how it fits into the real world outside of your little world. Many of us don't really think about stuff 'off table', other than maybe an interchange track that dead ends against a wall, or staging that represents 'everywhere else'.

Many folks model the Podunk and Central, but don't really think about where the closest 'real world big city' is. Is it near Pittsburgh? Chicago? St. Louis? This is why some modellers recommend you work up a backstory to set your empire in a place in the real world. Because that's what you are, unless you're the Durango and Silverton....

When we had the virtual interchange, me an the other guy (the Black Lake whatever), knew where we stood in the real world. The backstory of my current layout basically is similar to what the I&R Railink used to be. He was near Olympia, WA. Both of us knew who to interchange with, and how to get a car from me to him and back.

For example, I knew I could give him a choice of routings, via BNSF from Minneapolis (I go north along the Mississippi) across the northern Transcon to Tacoma. Or, I could send it via UP, from a point somewhere in Iowa where the UP eastbound will take it to Council Bluffs, then north through Pocatello, and to Tacoma.

A lot of this is done by the traffic dept of the railroads, but us modellers don't really do that. We tend to be more operations oriented; there's a train for me to move.

The other reason why we lost interest is because most of our layouts tend to want to bring IN goods, rather than ship out. Our industries are pretty much receiving type industries, and many times, folks are trying to buy stuff that nobody produces. I don't think we really tried to pull in the bridge traffic to move raw goods to the manufacturing facility. I think I was supplying finished steel beams to the Black Lake, but I never really worked out how I got the beam to work on in the first place because I certainly don't have a foundry or steel mill on my layout. Nor a lumber mill or chemical plant or any other raw material-type industry.

Kennedy

 

[GandyDancer]

Just about anything Brent, just some way for us to interchange traffic.

For what I was thinking --with the photo journals stuff -- it would have to be home road cars, or have something unique about it so that it could be recognized from just any Athearn AT&SF box car. Or the photo journal could just be a "sub-plot" so to speak of the entire scheme.

 

[speent]

That sounds very interesting. Another dimension to the hobby on the operations side, plus an excuse to model different and interesting rolling stock. I am intrigued.

The BN Allen Sub is a fictional subdivision of the Burlington Northern RR in the mid 1990's. The setting is Western to Central Washinton. I have 2 levels seperated by a helix which represents a mountain pass of sorts and divides my layout into east and west sides. The top level of the layout models the foothills of the Cascade mountain range and the fictional city of Allen, including the Port of Allen. The bottom level is the East side with 2 industrial small towns and a rural/farm town.

Commodities such as coal and grain are moved between on-line industries. Other commodities such as petroleum, lumber, fruit, intermodal shipping, and freight are shipped to/from offline industries. There are also run-through trains from the BN, as well as UP and SP via trackage rights. Amtrak passenger trains also run through occasionally, and we even get the Sounder commuter train now and then.

So you can imagine that my layout has got way too many cars, so I need to come up with some additional storage options besides staging.

One of my favorite aspects of the hobby is modeling rolling stock, so thats why I am intereted in new ideas. Anyway- ramble, ramble.

By the way, I am near Olympia Wa also and could potentially exchange cars "physically" with some of you, or bring whole trains (back and forth) for run-through traffic.

It sounds like alot of fun, and that is why I do MRR!

 

[Old 97]

Many folks model the Podunk and Central, but don't really think about where the closest 'real world big city' is. Is it near Pittsburgh? Chicago? St. Louis? This is why some modellers recommend you work up a backstory to set your empire in a place in the real world. Because that's what you are, unless you're the Durango and Silverton....

When we had the virtual interchange, me an the other guy (the Black Lake whatever), knew where we stood in the real world. The backstory of my current layout basically is similar to what the I&R Railink used to be. He was near Olympia, WA. Both of us knew who to interchange with, and how to get a car from me to him and back.

I don't really have a "history" worked up for my railroad and haven't a lot of time or interest to do research on local prototype railroads and their respective interchanges.
I'd like to see a S.O.P. (Standard Operating Procedure) that is easy to use and comply with.
I'm more of a "good enough" or "close enough" modeler interested in following some basic standards and procedures that will enable me to participate in some form or fashion with the fine folks here.
As for the protype railroads,I'm in Buffalo, N.Y. with CSX and NS in my backyard.

 

[HaggisKennedy]

I may have misled some folks here about the closest 'real world' big city. What I meant was, on where your layout is supposed to be, what real world big city would be the closest to it? IOW, you may live in Boston, but you model some branchline in New Mexico. What New Mexico city would your 'layout' be close to? It doesn't really matter all that much if there is not true prototype location; you may have a freelanced shortline in New Mexico. But, if you have staging, that staging will bridge that gap to the real world New Mexico.

Once you bridge the gap to the real world, the rest of us can figure out how to get a car to you in a realistic routing manner. You don't really need to spend a lot of time figuring out that stuff if you don't want to. There's probably somebody here who could give some general information which will be 'good enough' to be plausible to have that load in your staging area ready to be delivered during your next op session. Or, vice versa. This introduces timing and such; if your interchange doesn't interchange directly with somebody, the car will have to be routed through multiple railroads. Which may mean a 24hr delay per RR. That adds time to the trip....

In my case with the Black Lake guy, we both had a good knowledge about these things, so we went a bit deeper. But, that's not necessarily a requirement. It just gives you a little better story, more real world like.

Like in our case, if there was a real-world derailment out there, I'd have sent him a note saying 'BNSF is closed at Two Medicine Coulee due to derailment. Load will probably be detoured if not delayed until line is reopened."

Just a bit more flavor and spice to things!



Kennedy

 

[mtrpls]

Any and all cars I would provide for interchange would be custom-decaled cars for my modern-day New York Central:

So, obviously, with so many of us modeling fantasy railroads or freelance operations, we can't get too technical in how cars are routed (for example: BNSF to CSX) since the national rail networks in all of our "imaginary worlds" are quite different from one modeler to the next.

And besides, who would want to start an interchange aggrement with a modern-day New York Central? Only those who wish to acknowledge and appreciate an alternate version of the "real world" and incorporate it onto their pikes. Same rule follows for fantasy shortlines as well.