Want to get back into a childhood hobby.


"The Chartiers Branch left the Panhandle main line at Carnegie, PA (MP 8.5) and ran along the banks of Chartiers Creek for 23.6 miles nearly due south to Washington, PA. Timetable direction, Carnegie to Washington, was westward. The entire branch, and its two connecting branches were located completely within Allegheny and Washington Counties in Pennsylvania."

The two that go through my town go on for miles, but it wouldn't really be a track, so what I thought was, if I wanted to make it interesting, I would kind of use my imagination after a few feet of track. Because to me two lines going on forever would not work. Correct?

Just a quick question, what do you mean by switching operations and drag?

Also, I will do some research on what the industry is, because I really don't know which. So yea I'll go do that now.

EDIT: Some more info...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
John, the geometry of the track, from tight curves along the main lines to how quickly a switch (what is properly called a turnout) gets your train from one place to the next, or from one track to the next, is very important. During high-speed mainline running, passengers would get jostled and drinks spilled if the train moved to a parallel track through a turnout that diverged too quickly. So, you would want a turnout that took you more gently from track A to track B. That would mean a longer turnout. On our layouts, longer turnouts eat up tons of room. So on our models we compromise by using much tighter geometries than you'd see on your typical railroad. Unfortunately, those "faster" turnouts (they have lower numbers like #4 and #4.5) really limit the types of engines you can run, or the lengths of passenger cars if passenger trains are of interest to you. The faster a turnout gets you into another place from the track you were just on, the shorter the equipment must be...as a very general rule...not a hard and fast one, but you can count on heavy compromises in construction for models that take really tight curves on the main or that will run reliably through very sharp turnouts such as the #4.

Is that getting you someplace useful?
 
Okay so you're pretty much telling me what turnout operations are?

I was not really going to use any passenger trains or really long freight, but I see what you mean.

Faster= short= less options

Slower = long= more options
 
"Long drag" is slang more than anything. Some guys like to model long (20+ cars) strings of coal, intermodal, grain, etc running over long expanses of track. Some guys like to model local or switching operations such as a single or pair of small diesels spotting, or deliver/pick up, a few cars to local industries.

An example would be grain. As grain is harvested it is delivered by truck to a local elevator. That elevator may only generate a dozen rail car loads a week. That grain then moves either to a larger elevator or to a yard. There, grain from several other elevators is collected into a large unit (same commodity) train for transport to places such as Saginaw, TX or on down to Galveston, TX to be put on a ship for export. This is a generic example but you could model anything from the small county elevator with one GP9 and six covered hoppers to the long 100+ car train with three AC4400's going from Wichita, KS to Galveston, TX. It just all depends and what you want (druthers) and what kind of room you have to work with (given).
 
I like the switching operations, small loads, few cars to local industries.

Because there is no way I could afford(At least for my first real project) some 20 rail cars. Maybe after I few years, but well yea.
 
John, speaking for myself, I love switch operations, I love breaking a train up, and getting the cars to the right industries (I do it on a schedule). I have 11 low number turnouts, and everything is freight.

I'm working in N scale, as I live in apartment, and I can literally spend 6 hours just moving cars around (I only have 2 boxcars, and 6 coal drags) I put a train together and bust it apart. I've done nearly 0 scenery, and my big investment this month was a cheap freight station to replace the one I made out of cereal boxes.

If you can dream it, you can make it happen.
 
Good, John, we are making progress. You are tight for space, all things considered, and don't foresee having longer trains or longer passenger cars any time soon. That makes things fairly simple for you.

Now, would you like to use snap track, like the EZ-Track or Kato Unitrak that just snaps together, or would you like the flexibility that comes with using the 3' lengths of flextrack that you can bend and curve as you like? The latter takes more patience and skill, the former is quicker and easier, but it locks you in to the curve radii that Bachmann and Kato market.

For turnouts, you will probably be quite happy with something in the range of #4, #4.5, or #5 turnouts. Because they diverge at a sharper angle, they don't have to be as long as the #6 and #8 turnouts. That gives you more freedom to get longer runs between them. Atlas makes Customline turnouts that are quite nice. My own preference is for the more costly Peco Streamline Code 83 turnouts that have what we call an over-center spring on the points rails throwbars. The points are the two sharp rails that slide from outside rail to the other so that your trains will diverge or go through on the main route. With the Peco turnouts, when you press the throwbar connecting the two points rails from one side to the other, the spring sort of snaps it over after a bit and keeps it tight so that you don't get any slipping and picking of the points by the wheel flanges.

If you can find a local club or layout, or a hobby shop that sells train stuff, you can perhaps go and take a look and price check, or else look online.
 
Yup, I know of a good hobby shop.

I think I'll go with the EZ-Track, code 83 right? I am going to have to check out turnout sizes, just to make sure.
 
I know that EZ-Track comes in Code 100, and I found it to be good stuff. I don't know about Code 83, though. I think you may have to go with flextrack for Code 83, or look at Peco or Atlas...they also make their own ready or snap track if I have that right. You may be hooped for Code 83 in EZ-Track.

But if you don't want to pay for the EZ-Track turnouts (big $), and like the idea of the streamline or the customline from Peco and Atlas, you can get transition joiners to get the heights of the rails on the lower turnout rails to match the heights of the slightly higher Code 100 EZ-Track sections you wish to use.

I would encourage you, if dollars aren't really tight, to purchase some pieces of flextrack, some rail joiners, a Xuron rail nipper if you can get one, and try to lay some sections of flextrack to see how easy it is. We can talk you through ways to get even curves through the joins. If you decide flextrack is largely a go, you can get that in Code 83 for sure, and then the Code 83 turnouts from anyone else shouldn't be too much of an issue to shim up to matching height if the tie thicknesses don't permit an even meet at the rail tops.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well that will be another thing I will have to look into both sides, thanks. Although I think I will go with Ez100.
 
Start off with a couple of GP38's/40's/50's/60 to use as switchers, since you are doing modern, maybe a Conrail or 2, NS or CSX units. Try your hand at making up your own little shortline or regional company with your own paint job or "lease" a couple of locos from the big boys. Modern boxcars, anything 50' railbox or FMC type, some small covered cement hoppers, a few flat cars, a few shorty tankers for corn syrup or maybe clay surrey, or a couple of ethanol tankers even, with a depot for them to unload at. Get a few small factories to justify the boxcars, a cement plant, and maybe a John Deere dealership.
I took a couple of Shaeffer auto racks and are going to use them for the new class 6-8 trucks racks that NS got. I also got about 8 centerbeam cars and am using them for the local lumber company that supplies all the major builders in the area. I use my own local RR, MWG RR with leased units from NS, to switch them out. But all mine is still in planning stage, got all the equipment and some track laid, but no scenery yet or buildings. I been working on this for over 2 yrs now, so see it takes time to get an idea of what you want to do, then make it all appear.
 
Well I want to have the theme to be around where I live, but the track won't be. Kind of just my own thing.

There two SW1500's and 1 GP11 in my area.
 
John, the EZ-Track itself is fine but their switches are both expensive and don't work well. They don't have a mechanism that holds the points against the stock rails tightly so trains are always picking the points and derailing. I would use Atlas Customline switches and built up the roadbed beneath them to match the E-Z track height. If you do decided to get the E-Z track switches, at least get a small, fine tooth flat file and file the points so they are razor sharp. This will at least minimize the derailment problem.
 
Well, going to hobby shops soon, so I will compare tracks...

Some questions, I know how to make mountains, but what do you people use to give it color and texture?

Roads. My model is going to have a good amount of roads, can I buy roads, or do I paint them?

Before doing anything on my table should I add another piece of plywood to raise it up?
 
Most people use Styrofoam to make mountains. It's easy to give it a coat of Strucolite or use plaster cloth to give it the final contours. After that, use washes of differecnt colors of thinned acrylic paint an india ink to color the hills. Things like Woodland Scenics clump texture ground foam, landscape ground foam, and some tress will finish off the job. The colors you use will be determined by the part of the country you're in. Since your modeling Pennsylvania territory, you'l need almost nothing in the way of color except in cuts. Everything else will be covered in various textures of ground foam and trees. If you search here on ground foam you find hundreds of ideas about how to do this.

We just had a thread on road making a week ago. Search on roads and you'll find penty of more ideas also.

I'm not sure I understand your last question. If you're saying your table isn't high enough right now, raising the legs is a better idea rather than more plywood since layers of plywood get pretty heavy. The final layer should be a 2" layer of extruded foam as a base for your track and scenery.
 
Thanks people. Although until I get a table, this whole thing is on the red light.

To bad my nearest hobby shop(Two minutes away walking. 30 seconds driving), closed down 5 years ago, have to go out of town...
 
John, the Quantum Engineer is QSI's DC operating controller for their DCC controllers. It is for those who have no DCC operating system. So, it isn't one.

Look at sites like Loy's Toys or Tony's Train Exchange for information about systems, and also shop around at places like Caboose Hobbies, modeltrainstuff.com, toytrainheaven, internethobbies.com, and such where they sell the systems. If you are comfortable on ebay, consider bidding on a few with your dollar maximum firmly established.
 
John,

I have that controller, it is a part of this set that my wife got me for my birthday last week http://www.craftsetc.com/store/item.aspx?dep=25&cat=75&subcat=30&IsOnSale=0&IsFeatured=0&IsNew=0&ItemId=44546.

The controller is a nice one, but is very basic. I am happy with it for now, but I know tha tI will eventually get something else. It only allows single digit locomotive addresses, and has a number of other limitations, but it's good to start with especially if you are on a limited budget.

Speaking of limited, she bought mine at Hobby Lobby, which has stores nationwide, but none in PA. they are in Ohio and WV, so you might search on thier site to see if there is one close enough for you to travel to. The main reason I mention that store is that they have discount coupons on thier website, a 40% off coupon is features almost every other week, and is featured this week. It's 40% off any one item. That allowed my wife to buy that set for about $114. Not bad for 2 locos, some track, 3 cars and a DCC Controller.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top