getting back into it~

[Airslide]

Hello all-

Obviously im New. A little intro: I had a few sets when i was a kid, but never really got deep into it. serious modeling is not made for the attention span of a 10 year old.

FFWD 25 years and i now have the paitence....and the space. i have about a 16X9 space to work with.

i got my son a set back in October and since then i have been lurking around this board catching up on the craft. All of my really pressing questions have been asked and answered...some quite thoroughly. thanks.

i decided to get another set for christmas and construct a simple 4X8 table to run both sets on. i knew from the moment i got both sets on the table that it would not be enough to satistify my obsession.

here is my humble beginning.

a friend of mine disposes junk for a living and has a habit of keeping toys he finds when cleaning out people attics and garrages. as they say, one mans trash is another mans treasure. he has a lot of HO models that are broken up. no layout, just cars. He gave me a couple of cars and power to fix on and practice weathering.

the brown santa F9A( i think its an A) and the SD40 are both inoperable. Does anyone have any experience they wouldnt mind sharing about fixing engines? id love to get these things running, but dont know how to begin.

The cars on the conrail train (about 5 in total) were all from his collection and were initially in pieces. Mixing and matching parts and scarping mold off of the wheel flange, i got all of them rolling again. They just have those old unrealistic HO couplers. Ironically, they will connect with the newer knuckle couplers.

can older models be re-fitted with the more recent knuckle couplers?

I will be using the damaged cars he gave me to practice weathering. My first very meagar attempt at weathering. this ajax covered hopper is great, but this is one of the cars i couldn't find a base and matching trucks for.

another question i didnt see on here. Has anyone modeled a working hump yard in HO? if so i would love to see photos or video clips. I live in Atlanta Ga. and spend a lot of time with my son watching CSX hump action in the Tilford yard. I would love to see something like that modeled.

I have spent quite a few late nights over the last couple of months reading and digesting info from this board and have a pretty good idea about the level of dedication involved with this undertaking. The most important lesson is this is not instant gratification. I am quite prepared to spend the next 10-20-30.... years doing this. feedback, input, shared experiences are all welcomed.

-AirslideClyde

 

[4Starcstms]

First, let me begin by saying Welcome to the forum (dont know if its been said to you or not.. but now it has been from me!!)

Hello all-

Obviously im New. A little intro: I had a few sets when i was a kid, but never really got deep into it. serious modeling is not made for the attention span of a 10 year old.

FFWD 25 years and i now have the paitence....and the space. i have about a 16X9 space to work with.

i got my son a set back in October and since then i have been lurking around this board catching up on the craft. All of my really pressing questions have been asked and answered...some quite thoroughly. thanks.

i decided to get another set for christmas and construct a simple 4X8 table to run both sets on. i knew from the moment i got both sets on the table that it would not be enough to satistify my obsession.

here is my humble beginning.

a friend of mine disposes junk for a living and has a habit of keeping toys he finds when cleaning out people attics and garrages. as they say, one mans trash is another mans treasure. he has a lot of HO models that are broken up. no layout, just cars. He gave me a couple of cars and power to fix on and practice weathering.

the brown santa F9A( i think its an A) and the SD40 are both inoperable. Does anyone have any experience they wouldnt mind sharing about fixing engines? id love to get these things running, but dont know how to begin.


The first thing will be to take the shell off and see what state the motor and the electrical connections are in underneath. This usually involves a couple srews, or removing the couplers, and some even just gently pull apart. The motor will stay on the metal frame along with the trucks.

The cars on the conrail train (about 5 in total) were all from his collection and were initially in pieces. Mixing and matching parts and scarping mold off of the wheel flange, i got all of them rolling again. They just have those old unrealistic HO couplers. Ironically, they will connect with the newer knuckle couplers.

can older models be re-fitted with the more recent knuckle couplers?


yes! Althou the older 'toy' cars (i have quite a few) will require a bit more work to convert, it can be done. I use Kadee couplers, they make conversion kits, that have the coupler, a centering spring, as well as the box to put them all in. Its just a matter of cutting off the old peice (that was usually attached to the truck) and mounting the new box using the included screw.

I will be using the damaged cars he gave me to practice weathering. My first very meagar attempt at weathering. this ajax covered hopper is great, but this is one of the cars i couldn't find a base and matching trucks for.

another question i didnt see on here. Has anyone modeled a working hump yard in HO? if so i would love to see photos or video clips. I live in Atlanta Ga. and spend a lot of time with my son watching CSX hump action in the Tilford yard. I would love to see something like that modeled.

I have spent quite a few late nights over the last couple of months reading and digesting info from this board and have a pretty good idea about the level of dedication involved with this undertaking. The most important lesson is this is not instant gratification. I am quite prepared to spend the next 10-20-30.... years doing this. feedback, input, shared experiences are all welcomed.

-AirslideClyde

For the rest of your questions, I cant readily answer - your weathering looks like a good start to me! I'm sure somebody will be along to answer about the hump yard

 

[OldGettysk]

Welocme to the forum , Just one thing to add to Scotts. get rid of the plastic trucks and put some metal ones on . If you seriously want to get into modeling . Look at getting into newer rolling stock all together .The older stuff looks like toys unlike the newer stuff .

 

[jbaakko]

Welcome to the forum. Yes, there are operating hump yards, but I've never seen more then just little references to them.

 

[GJ@PARR]

I think you would be well served by a trip to the public library. There you'll be able to find a wealth of information. When I started I also picked up some of the Atlas books at the local hobby shop. Although they are slanted toward atlas products they can be a great source of basic info. Finaly, do a web search and see if theres a local club. Theres got to be something in your area. Although these boards are most helpful, theres nothing like someone actually showing how to do something. Have fun with it.

jim

 

[4Starcstms]

I wish I had a local club. .. the closest one is a hour away and they meet in the middle of the week when Im working...Almost nothing on the weekends. ARGH! Oh to have time and money and space... Id start one! OH well

Thats good advice about switching out the trucks and wheels for better ones, or just swapping to newer rolling stock. A trip to your local hobby shop, will yield some pretty reasonable prices on some of the accurail and athearn car kits. Ive picked more than a few up for less than 10 bucks each. I do a few @ a time so now to put myself into the poor house!

 

[Airslide]

thanks for all of the feedback.

most of the cars here will not be part of my rolling stock once my layout is complete. thats a good idea about swaping out the trucks. but for the most part, those cars are just for me to practice weathering on. once my layout is up, they will just hang around the yard. i have done a bit of reading and have a few books already, one is by atlas. but the best information has come from this message board so far. i am still very much in the planning stages. i dont want to go out and buy a bunch of stuff i cant use, or wont need (although it is tempting). for the space i have, i need to decide on a layout before i purchase anything else. i have looked through scores of plans, but i have a very specific vision about my railroad's operations. i have been working on my own design. may even try to create a working hump yard*. the drail program is pretty good and very easy to use and understand.

I have not researched the clubs in my area - but i will. most of the trains stores are also is kind of far. I did pick up this grass mat from hobby lobby which is kind of close. they had some real good stuff to help me get started. i got the grass mat mainly so my son dosent get splinters from the particle baord. it is only temporary.

on another thread i saw some good ideas for making trees. i have a huge backyard filled with all sorts of weird plants. i took a stab at the tree making and came up with these. needs a little work, but this is just phase 1

 

[Airslide]

ok, after much trail & error, i came up with a feasible plan for my railroad.
using the Atlas right track software, i came up with this:

Initially, i had grand ideas, but after doing a little research and planning i figured many of the plans i had were out of the scope of my expertise. Maybe ill try the hump in my next layout.
i wanted to stay away from a lot of mountain ranges and tunnels. most of the grading will be low for the freight traffic. I wanted to place more of the focus on the industry and ensuring the railroad had some purpose.

The industries will be:
-produce - servicing a farmers market and the waterfront dock.

-cement - i haven’t figured out both ends of the customer base here, but its a work in progress.

-printing company - importing paper rolls, also shipped in/out out by water.

the homes & urban areas will be just that.

foreseeable challenges include, but are not limited to:

authenticity: I’m not sure how real it was for rail to sea connections in the early 1990s without the use of inter-modal. what i want to recreate are the industrial parks that were serviced by rail. many of them have been abandoned now but in the early 1990s there were a lot more of them around here.

commuter service: independent of the freight service will be an elevated trolley service. reminiscent of my days growing up in Brooklyn and riding the BMT el. Creating an entirely elevated train line appears to be challenging. I will probably do that last. like most everything else in my layout, Network Connect Lines is also. I do freelance graphic design on the side and always wanted to create a railroad/transit logo.

the proposed logo of the Fulton County owned and operated Network Connect Lines (NCLX)

Logos/decals: Network Connect Lines will be the independent operator of the trolley service and the short line that services the industry. NCLX will feed the NS main. I don’t look forward to working with decals. i remember what a pain those were to use. with the right tools however, its probably a lot easier these days.

aside from those 3 challenges and the three circled in red on the layout, i believe I am ready to go. so this weekend its off to home depot to begin building the frame for the table. hopefully i can find some sky blue oops paint. now that i have a general plan i can start in on the track acquisition also. I will continue to post updates.

as always feedback, ideas, criticism are welcomed.

A. Clyde

 

[Rotorranch]

Airslide...where are you shopping at?

I'm on the southside, and haven't beeen train shopping for about 7-8 years or so. I'm just looking for good shops in the metro area.

There were a couple of shops up on the north side I used to go to when I worked in Doraville. Gandy Dancers on P'Tree Ind. was one. But I get no answer from Gandy Dancers, so I don't know if they are still open or not.

Nice layout plan, BTW.

Rotor

 

[Airslide]

thanks rotor.

all the stuff i have so far is from hobby lobby in fayetteville and hobby town USA in kennesaw.

ironically i just came back from a store on highway 85 called riverdale station. i went to the store years ago and knew it was there, but i went right before x-mas and he wasnt opened. i thought he was out of business. i stopped by today on the way home and he was opened. lots of good stuff. the address is 6632 highway 85, 30274.

there are a couple of stores in fayetteville and stockbridge that i'll be checking out over the next few months.

 

[UP2CSX]

Nice logo - I can tell you you are a pro at that. I'm a little confused about your plan. Which line is the elevated line? If it's the big outside loop, how do you propose to have sidings come down to ground level? Is the track actually crossing over the waterfront area through the water itself? If so, that means lots of piers and ship operators won't like that.

You need some kind of yard area for the waterfront and I don't see any. By 1990, shipping was almost 100% by container. The small amount of non container, or break box, shipping, would have been done at a waterfront with finger piers and warehouses since the cars would have to be able to be right next to the ships, along with cranes, for transferring loads. San Francisco did have a few of these in operation until about 1985 so that's not too far off your era but you need to make some substantial changes in the waterfront to reflect this.

The upper yard doesn't make sense to me. You have two tracks coming in and out which look like they are stub end tracks for for other industries. Or is this part of the elevated trackage? It looks like the two tracks on the left cross directly over you yard ladder with no indication of who you're going to do that. The yard itself looks like it's stub ended with no crossovers so that means your switcher will get stuck between tracks when trying to make or break up trains. I also see no way to turn a train, which really makes things difficult. If the yard was double ended with a connection to the main on the right, that would make things a lot easier.

There are probably things that don't make sense to me because I can't visualize the elevated line. Maybe making that more clear on the track plan would help.

 

[Rotorranch]

Riverdale Station has been around forever it seems. Pretty good selection of stuff. I've bought a good bit of stuff from him when I was getting re-started.

I don't know of any in Fayetteville right now, except Hobby Lobby. I had a hobby shop in the same shopping center as Hobby Lobby, but I closed my store a little over a year ago.

Rotor

 

[Rotorranch]

LOL...I just noticed I have the same trees you do! LOL

Rotor

 

[Airslide]

Nice logo - I can tell you you are a pro at that. I'm a little confused about your plan. Which line is the elevated line? If it's the big outside loop, how do you propose to have sidings come down to ground level? Is the track actually crossing over the waterfront area through the water itself? If so, that means lots of piers and ship operators won't like that..

Thanks UPIICSX. Initially, the elevated line was going to run over the yard. I was looking at it again this morning and after looking at some other elevated train models, it is not really practical to have an elevated train run over the length of the yard. That would drive the el poles in-between lanes in the yard and that didn’t make much sense. So I moved the el south a hair so that it lines the yard and there will be enough clearance between the yard and the el poles.

The elevated line in green and the red will be an elevated section of the freight line. Over the water and the
ground level rail to sea dock.

You need some kind of yard area for the waterfront and I don't see any. By 1990, shipping was almost 100% by container. The small amount of non container, or break box, shipping, would have been done at a waterfront with finger piers and warehouses since the cars would have to be able to be right next to the ships, along with cranes, for transferring loads. San Francisco did have a few of these in operation until about 1985 so that's not too far off your era but you need to make some substantial changes in the waterfront to reflect this. ..

Good point. I will google the SFO piers from the mid 80s. Try to get some photos and other relative information. The intermodal conversion being at 100% by 1990 is pretty much what I figured. I vaguely remember seeing an operable one in Bay Ridge Brooklyn when I was much younger.

The upper yard doesn't make sense to me. You have two tracks coming in and out which look like they are stub end tracks for for other industries. Or is this part of the elevated trackage? It looks like the two tracks on the left cross directly over you yard ladder with no indication of who you're going to do that. The yard itself looks like it's stub ended with no crossovers so that means your switcher will get stuck between tracks when trying to make or break up trains. I also see no way to turn a train, which really makes things difficult. If the yard was double ended with a connection to the main on the right, that would make things a lot easier...

The two stubs in the upper left loop will be for the cement operation, or maybe some sort of rock quarry. The main yard will be storage for empties (reefers, 50’ers, high cubes and cement hoppers). I would prefer to have the yard join the main again like every real yard I have seen but I didn’t think I had enough space. Perhaps I can extend the yard into the urban area, move a mountain or two so the yard tracks can rejoin the main. I have seen dead end yards in other layout plans, but they didn’t make sense since the only kind of yard ive ever seen dead end like that is a transit yard. I will have to re-plan the yard. I think it is imperative that the lanes for the yard rejoin the main. Truth is I wasn’t too fond of the whole dead end yard thing anyway.

There are probably things that don't make sense to me because I can't visualize the elevated line. Maybe making that more clear on the track plan would help.

Thanks for the feedback. Some real good food for thought. I picked up a couple of books at the library today also. I will be getting into them this evening.

Riverdale Station has been around forever it seems. Pretty good selection of stuff. I've bought a good bit of stuff from him when I was getting re-started.

I don't know of any in Fayetteville right now, except Hobby Lobby. I had a hobby shop in the same shopping center as Hobby Lobby, but I closed my store a little over a year ago.

Rotor

I thought there was another independent store in Fayetteville. It may have been yours. I remember the address being on Glynn St. Riverdale Sta. Hobby Lobby, WalMart (for the 1/87 vehicles) and home depot has enough to keep me occupied. For the next year.

Funny thing about those trees: the place in my yard where I found them is crawling with garden spiders in the late summer and fall. I better harvest all of them during the winter.

If you don’t mind, i am interested in seeing photos of your layout.


A.Clyde~

 

[Rotorranch]

I thought there was another independent store in Fayetteville. It may have been yours. I remember the address being on Glynn St. Riverdale Sta. Hobby Lobby, WalMart (for the 1/87 vehicles) and home depot has enough to keep me occupied. For the next year.

Funny thing about those trees: the place in my yard where I found them is crawling with garden spiders in the late summer and fall. I better harvest all of them during the winter.

If you don’t mind, i am interested in seeing photos of your layout.


A.Clyde~

There was two on N Glynn Street for a while... my store, with slot car tracks, R/C, trains, etc. And a guy down the street from me, "Antique Gallery", who closed his shop about a year or so before I did.

I'll take some more pics of my layout. It's really nothing to look at yet. Still early in construction yet.

Elwood waiting for Jake at the station, with the Bluesmobile:

The MOW yard:

Rotor

 

[UP2CSX]

OK, the layout make more sense to me now. For sure, you need to extend that yard so a second ladder connects to the mainline. There's a thread here about how to build compound yard ladders. Do a search and you'll find it. If you change the yard to a compound ladder, you'll gain some space on the bottom side of the yard and make it easier to reconnect it to the mainline. At least one crossover in the yard is really needed also.

You should kill the idea of the tracks going over the water front. No real harbor has tracks running on a bridge near the docks because the bridge piers will be an obstruction to navigation. You somehow need to bring that track in on the level and then use it as a lead to feed the finger piers. Once you take a look at those San Francisco finger piers, you'll see what I mean. I think that whole waterfront concept will need some re-thinking. Actually, the waterfront concept may work better on the left side of the layout if you move that mainline track in a bit. You can then reverse those industry spurs to feed the finger piers. That would leave you plenty of space for industry spurs on the right hand side of the layout.

One other issue is the depth of the layout. The average reach is 33" and you have a 48" depth almost all around the layout. Unless you have access to all sides of the layout, you are going to have real problems reaching anything in the rear. If that yard is located along a wall, you'll have real problems since there will always be derailments in a yard and you'll be reaching over (and knocking down your elevated line) to get to them. It doesn't look like a problem with a flat piece of plywood but, trust me, it will be a big problem once you start adding things like scenery and elevated lines.

 

[Airslide]

ok, so basically i have been reading and have come to some real hard decisions.

one: my eyes are bigger than my stomach. i think i will start smaller. with an 4X8. i found a good track plan, its a little older, but i will bring it into the 90s.

two: one of the books i got from the library is c. 1983 so a lot of the advancements made in the hobby are not covered. i have been reading a lot online. i started checking on some foam yesterday. i just went to home depot and lowes and all they had was .5 and .75 inch. would like the 2 inch. visited a couple of construction sites but no luck on spare foam. which made me question if i even need foam. i will model a few hills but nothing some balled up newspaper and plaster sheets wont cure. so i am starting to reconsider the foam. on the other hand i dont want to take short cuts. from what i have read, foam is the order of the day. so while im excited to put down the cork road board that I got, should I hold out until i find the 2" foam ? any advise?

 

[Rotorranch]

The foam is the way to go.

It might be a little tough to get the stuff at the "big box home improvement store" here in the "Sun Belt" but it's out there. The big store CAN order it for you. Or check the big stores web site.

If all you can get is thinner stuff, it can be glued together to make the thicker spots if needed. Stack and glue as needed.


Rotor

 

[Airslide]

thanks rotor. i went by riverdale station and spoke with the owner (and picked up some rolling stock and weathering supplies *wink*). he is working on a small shelf layout in the back of the store. i pretty much asked him whether the foam is necessary, he said not necessary, but worth the trouble. he told me to check home depot right on SR-85 they might have the 2"....and they did. none of the other home depots' that i checked had it. ill have to borrow my uncle's van this weekend and pick up a sheet. but 30.00 a pop, im going to make a few more attempts at construction sites. if i dont have any luck ill just go ahead and spring for it. it was also good to see his layout in progress with just the foam, cuts and some track laid.

 

[Airslide]

the track plan i have chosen. its set in the 1940s but i will be bringing it into the 1990s:

the progress so far. I want to get all the clouds on the wall before i move the table against the wall. i have been picking up the track little by little. once i have all the switches the single pieces will be no problem. corkboard seems like the easiest thing to work with and since i already have some i guess ill be using that as the roadbed. working on re-engineering the city/town now.

stay tuned.