Thinking About An N Scale Display Layout: The Idea

The Dunes Junction is an HO interpretation of beloved childhood railroading memories, but for as long as I have been involved in model railroading I've had an eye on N scale.

Couple of reasons for this: the first model railroads of which I have any memory are N scale--I think an uncle or older cousin had N scale trains back in the late 60s or early 70s. Among my earliest memories of reading about model railroading are the Clinchfield project railroad articles that ran in Model Railroader magazine in the late 70s. (Here's MR old hand Jim Hediger telling funny stories about the Clinchfield layout.)

I've even owned N scale trains over the years. I started a very tiny, very lightweight N layout while I was stationed in Germany with the US Army. The end of that story is worthy of an episode of the A Modelers Life podcast: I think I ended up trading all that N stuff away for four bald tires or a water pump or some such that I needed for my ancient Mercedes 230.4. Twenty or so years ago I started building another modest N roster, which I subsequently parlayed into a spray booth and airbrush accoutrements for robot and military model building.

This YouTube Thompson River Canyon video catalyzed my latest infatuation with N scale:

I think it came to my attention via the CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota subdivision blog, but it kept surfacing in my other online model railroading haunts as well. The video shows a nice time-lapse of the construction, and the story behind it is interesting and affecting as well.
The concept is what really got my attention--a manageably-sized, light weight, and visually appealing N scale scenic vignette--scenery in the front, staging/fiddling in the back, simple trackwork. The magazines have shown track plans and concepts like this in the past, but precious few actually built examples.
Seeing this smallish and achievable N scale display layout prompted me to revisit some other smallish N scale layouts of note. I went back and studied namely the Red Oak, Salt Lake Route, and Carolina Central project railroads that ran over the past few years in Model Railroader, Dave Vollmer's Juniata/Pennsy layout, and its inspiration, Lou Sassi's Mohawk Division, also an MR project layout that later appeared in a Kalmbach book on small layouts.  The Red Oak, Carolina Central, Juniata, and Mohawk layouts, like the Thompson River Canyon, were all built on a hollow-core doors.
The Juniata and Mohawk layouts showed that a simple double track loop could actually host longish locos and passenger cars against believable scenery, and the internet video of most of these layouts show trains running. With my interest focused lately on the Northeast corridor (see this, this, and this), I immediately made the connection that such a display layout might scratch an itch I've had for a while to somehow 'casually' model Pennsy and post-Pennsy electrics.
Where is this all going? The hollow core door and other benchwork accoutrements have been acquired, as well as a supply of Peco track. I'm thinking this new thing will be called 'The Old Line Corridor' (a Maryland riff on Pennsylvania's Keystone Corridor) and if I do it right, it'll look something like a Mohawk or Juniata Division with catenary.

Southwest Chief and Southern California

My wife and I visited our older son in Southern California over the holidays, and we rode most of the way there on the Amtrak Southwest Chief. It was a glorious ride, though we quickly realized that it would have been a more enjoyable trip on longest, rather than shortest days of the year. Here we are on an extended stop in LaJunta, New Mexico.

The front office.

Big Western railroading in Cajon. We took a side trip away from my son's home town of Santa Monica to see some of SoCal's famed vistas.

UP at Cajon

The scale is breathtaking 

 

What's Been Happening Around Dunes Junction

Coming Soon: Southwest Chief Adventure!

It's been a good long while since my last post in September, and all I have to offer are my usual excuses about work and family responsibilities competing for scarce time and resources. Work has indeed kept me hopping, with lots of travel and interesting new boss responsibilities. But trains--both the prototype and models--have very much been on my mind. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll post on a holiday cross-country train trip and some new exciting new directions with my heavy electric modeling. Stay tuned!

First Rides Behind an ACS-64 City Sprinter

Did an up-and-back trip from Washington, DC to Stamford, CT over the weekend, and this ACS-64 was on the point. It was a smooth and uneventful ride, and my first ever ride behind a City Sprinter

Northbound Acela approaches Stamford while waiting for the train to take us home. Dig those tangles of track and catenary!

And this ACS-64 got us home, on time and without incident. These locos are growing on me . . . Kato announced one in N scale, maybe an HO version isn't far behind

Sighted During a DC Brewery Hike: Amtrak's Ivy City Facility

My wife Rachel and set out on a little urban hike in Washington DC's Ivy City neighborhood to find craft beer and fancy food. Our route took us on an overpass spanning Amtrak's Ivy City facility. Here are two Acelas warming up for runs up the Northeast Corridor later in the afternoon.

The whole facility, early in the afternoon. By late afternoon, this staging yard was full of Acelas as well as other trains destined for the NEC and points west.

A switcher pushes Amfleet cars into the shops while Acelas await their runs north.

More of the staging yard. Note the Superliner cars between the two Acelas on the right.

Another view of the staging yard.

Northbound Acela on the main line passes the Ivy City facility.

More Reporting From the Road, Including Photographic Evidence

My road warrior summer continues, and I've been all over the south east with my new work responsibilities.

But still, the trains, I cross paths with them.  I even found some energized overhead wire! Woo hoo!

Yours truly at Railroad Park in Birmingham, Alabama, photo courtesy of my wife. Birmingham has become my alternate base of operations.

Meet in front of the tower near Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham. This is truly a 'hot spot', with many trains from Norfolk Southern, CSX, and Kansas City Southern moving through.

The Sloss Furnaces visitor center is nestled in the actual junction trackage. Here's a view to east/south east . . . 

. . . and a view west as the junction track curves to the north

Outside of Sloss Furnaces also looking west.

If there is energized wire, I will find it or it will find me. Was doing executive nonsense in the executive lounge of the Hilton in Charlotte, North Carolina, when I looked up and caught this view of the light rail.

More of the Charlotte city vista, with another light rail train passing through.

On the Road Again . . .

Sorry for the paucity of posts over the past month or so, but my work has put me back on to the road again. The good news: my projects and my team are growing, and I'm lucky to have an awesome team with whom it is a pleasure to work and travel. Unfortunately, being on the road with a growing and active work project leaves me with precious little time for my railroadly pursuits.

But I'm getting by! I couple of weeks ago I managed to sneak in a trip up to Philly for the East Penn Traction meet . . .

. . . which involved a Toaster-driven ride up to Philly on Amtrak. . .

. . . and seeing the modeling handiwork of and hanging out with Bill Bolton, Australian gentleman and regular on Facebook traction groups . . .

 . . . as well as a-building heavy electric modules. 

American Electrics: South Shore 700-Class Boxcab

"19660529 09 South Shore Line 703 @ Michigan City Shops" by David Wilson - Flickr: 19660529 09 South Shore Line #703 @ Michigan City Shops. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The 700s were the other hand-me-down freight engines in the final years of electric freight operations on the South Shore.  They began life on the New York Central as R-2s, where they drew power from 660VDC third rail in the tunnels and suburban lines around New York City. Diesels were able to work the tunnels in NY, thus saving the NYC time and money by eliminating the need for engine changes. South Shore picked up seven R-2s between 1955 and 1967, added pantographs, changed other carbody appurtenances, and rewired them for 1500VDC operations.

Nickel Plate Products CSS&SB 700 in HO.

The 700s were usually MUd in pairs. They could handily pull long freights but were limited by South Shore's antiquated power distribution system--both the 700s and the 800s (Little Joes) maxed out substation capacity when pulling long trains. The increasingly heavy freight traffic on the South Shore in the late 1960s and 1970s--particularly with the rise of unit coal train traffic--exacerbated these weaknesses in South Shore's power distribution system. The 700s were eventually supplanted by plain blue GP7s, and were out of service by 1977. The 800s hung on for another five or six years, and were primarily relegated to less taxing industry switching in East Chicago and Gary.

Nickel Plate Products imported a Japanese model of the 700 in brass in HO during the mid 1970s.  It is a notoriously bad runner with a tendency to crack its gears. Its minimum track radius of 22" is somewhat surprising, given the model's short overall length and wheelbase.  The pantographs are also typical 1970s fare--not intended to actually contact wire, barely stay retracted/folded, and look not quite right. The small 'footprint' of pantographs may necessitate actually scratchbuilding replacements. Still, it's a beautiful, chunky model with a lot of butch, gnarly detail. I have one in my collection, and I plan to eventually re-work its drive, install DCC and lighting, and paint it. Maybe another will come along to join the Dunes Junction roster.

Pantograph Mounts for Old-Style South Shore Coaches

Evergreen styrene strips, rod, and square tubing, plus some insulators from the scrap box make up the mounts for the ConCor pantographs.

The whole shebang, ready to be place back on its floor.

Marty Bernard's Treasure Trove of South Shore Photos

The "Chicago, South Shore & South Bend; The Last Interurban" group on Facebook is a favorite part of my Facebook feed, always providing nuggets of South Shore goodness amidst the cat pictures and memes.

Marty Bernard is frequent contributor to this Facebook South Shore group, posting his original South Shore images from the 60s through 80s. He recently posted a link to his Flickr gallery, which has two albums of his original South Shore photos. South Shore fans and modelers owe Marty a debt of gratitude for making these pictures available.

Surfacing Primer on the IHP Nippon Sharyo Car

The IHP Nippon Sharyo Body with a light coat of Tamiya Surfacing Primer. This will help show flaws that need filling and correction; will let it dry for a week or so.  Body details such as grab irons, bells, and ditch lights go on after any corrective action, and body will get another coat of primer. 

The International House of Pantographs

International House of Pantographs: If you spend enough time around HO heavy electrics, you might end up with a motley crew of pantographs like this. Most of these are Sommerfeldts from Germany but there're others in there, salvaged from old heavy electric models or acquired outright for various projects. Modern single-arms tend to look okay for North American prototype models, but some of those old-fashioned diamonds on the right side of the picture really look foreign.

Must look good folded: this is a modified Con-Cor MP54 pantograph. These are swell-looking pantographs, in either the up or down position. The photo-etched arms are especially well-done. The very well detailed base, which is very accurate for the MP54, has been removed via a very scary unsoldering process. The insulator and bottom support beams are lovely and large lost wax brass castings that absorbed all the heat my best 60-watt soldering iron could produce, thus a very uncontrollable and imprecise process. I've since acquired a resistance soldering rig for 'next time'. Will now fabricate a new base and insulators to complete the South Shore look. Did I mention it looks good folded?

One up and one down. New bases will be fabricated from styrene, or of I'm feeling frisky, from brass. 

Freelanced S Scale Electrics: Dick Karnes' New York, Westchester & Boston

Photo courtesy of Model Memories

Dick Karnes is well known as a leader in the S scale community, but he's also a serious heavy electric modeler. His New York, Westchester & Boston layout is inspired by Northeast Corridor electric roads, particularly the New York Central and the New Haven. The S Scale SIG web site has a re-published Railroad Model Craftsman story by Dick that gives a good overview of his layout and modeling. There are a few more pictures of the NYW&B at the Model Memories site.

Dick's locomotive fleet is particularly intriguing to me. He has prototype electric locomotives, but also a number of freelanced electrics. Dick modestly describes his freelanced electrics as "plausible"--but to my eye they blend a keen eye for the lines and the technology of 1940s and 50s era and excellent modeling.  The NYW&B's electrics indeed look like they belong among EP5s, EL-3As, W1s, E2Bs, E2Cs, E3Bs, and other streamlined electrics of the postwar era.

As noted here previously, freelanced railroads and models seem to be somewhat out of fashion of late. But as I think back on some of my favorite formative model railroading influences--Bob Hegge's Crooked Mountain Lines, Bruce Goehmann's Midland Electric, Eric Brooman's Utah Belt, Tony Koester's Allegheny Midland, and many others--I realize that freelanced railroads and models are a big part of my model railroad outlook. Dick's work just reminds me that smart freelance modeling is still alive and, well, and cooler than ever. 

(And I'm already thinking of electric road switchers, like this or this.)

Some Dude Built His Own Version of a Model Railroader Project Railroad and It's Awesome

The NYC/PC Hitop Branch layout, courtesy of Steve Campbell.
Wait'll you see the close ups!

A link to Steve Campbell's NYC/PC Hitop Branch Model Railroad turned up in the Model Railroad Hobbyist community blog one recent morning.

What caught my eye was the MRH blog headline, "Originally MR's "The Virginian " build"--I always wonder about the lives of track plans and project railroads from the big model railroad magazines.

Naturally, I clicked through and was treated to Steve's inspired rendition of Model Railroader's Virginian 4x8 project layout from several years ago.

Steve kept the Virginian track plan but changed the prototype and the era to a New York Central branch during the Penn Central transition era. Click through the links to see excellent vignettes of beautifully weathered rolling stock against a backdrop of convincing scenery and structures. The overall effect is an improvement on MR's Virginian, and a rare example of a state-of-the-art small layout. The result is some truly inspirational and exciting model railroading.

If I sound a little overexcited about the Hitop, it's only because awesome small layouts seem to get so little attention in the mainstream model railroad press. There are a lot of ways to do model railroading, but sometimes the big magazines make it seem like prototype-focused basement-sized empires and large operating sessions by schedules and train orders are the only, normal way to be in the hobby.

The conspiratorially minded among us make a compelling argument that big, sprawling layout stories with their attendant gigantic rolling stock fleets, miles of track, and complex arrays of DCC and sound gear and overpriced switch machines are favored by model railroad magazine advertisers (Tom Barbelet lays it out in this Modeler's Life interview), and that's why little shelf layouts and 4x8s don't get more attention. To be fair, I think there is an element of self selection in the mix as well--serious model railroaders probably do tend to build bigger layouts. But Barbelet is on to something: it's kind of hard to believe that the magazines can find a couple of dozen or so room- or basement-sized layouts per year for feature stories, but only a few story-worthy shelf layouts or 4x8s.

(The 4x8 project layout I've always wanted to see is Wingate, Indiana as featured in "Small-town railroading, Midwest style" in the first ever MR's Model Railroad Planning annual back in 1995. Staging behind a backdrop, and a modest bit of switching of 50's-era light industry. I'd like to see it built up, populated with state of the art modeling, and then watch an operating session)

Anyway, I'm delighted to have come across Steve Campbell and the Hitop. I'm looking forward to seeing more of his work and hope my small layout can eventually capture a look, a time, and a place as well as his Hitop Branch.

Further Notes on Brass Remotoring and Customer Service

Hollywood Foundries Bull Ant drive and TCS KAT22 decoder
fitted to floor of NPP South Shore Combine

Remotoring of old brass South Shore cars continues. The latest remotoring effort used a Hollywood Foundries Bull Ant drive.

Hollywood Foundries serves up the Bull Ant in a nearly infinite number of combinations of mounts, wheel size, wheel profile, wheelbase, gauge, motor size, and wiring. The Bull Ant is an above-the-floor design that uses Mashima can motors.

Hollywood Foundries is run by Geoff Baxter amd is located in Australia, but don't let the distance fool you. The Hollywood web site has an exemplary interface for ordering the customizable Bull Ant and other products, and the e-commerce transaction is a breeze. Geoff is extremely helpful and responsive if you have any questions or concerns about Hollywood's products or your order. My drive took about three weeks to arrive, and Geoff was extremely accommodating about a last minute change to my order.

My initial attraction to the Bull Ant was that it has a flywheel and decent-sized motor, and is also very ruggedly engineered. Also, the mounting appeared to be somewhat more elegant than the raised floor mounts required by the NWSL Stanton Drive.

I ordered mine with a 37mm 'end mount'; technically, it's probably a cantilever. Mounting was very simple: I located and drilled two 2mm holes in the in the center sill of of the car and the Bull Ant's nickel silver end mount and used the included 2mm screws and nuts to fasten to the drive to the floor. A bit of .030" styrene sheet between the end mount and the car floor ensured that the car sat level.

After following Hollywood's run-in instructions, I attached the truck sideframes to the Bull Ant with epoxy. Next time, I will use styrene blocks to build out the Bull Ant's sideframe mounting surface to give the sideframe more mounting surface.

A TCS KAT22 decoder was wired in and programmed.

In comparison to my Stanton-equipped NPP cars, the Bull Ant-equipped South Shore car is noticeably noiser, owing to the gears and location of the larger motor. Side-by-side with the Stanton, the performance is comparable, save for the gear noise of the Bull Ant. The flywheel does impart some smoothness to starts and stops, but it's so small that it does not help the model glide through dead frogs or dirty track, the way old All-Nation and Hobbytown flywheel drives did back in the day.

Meanwhile, I had concerns about the performance I was getting from my earlier Stanton re-motoring projects. I had heard and seen that Stantons ran smoothly, but both of mine were troublesome. I posted some queries to a couple of the Yahoo traction groups, and got more confirmation that I should expect smooth performance from the Stantons. A proper break-in was miraculous for one of my Stantons, but the other had a hitch in its get-along.

During the discussion I initiated on the topic of Stanton Drives on the Yahoo forums, NWSL honcho Dave Rygmyr, the maker of Stanton Drives, joined the conversation. He invited anyone with a problem Stanton to contact him, so I did. He asked me to send him the troublesome Stanton, and it came back a week later, running flawlessly.

One of my TCS KAT22 decoders also developed a glitch, and TCS also promptly arranged to service and/or replace it.

TCS, Geoff at Hollywood, and Dave at NWSL are exemplars of customer service and quality manufacturing. It turns out they collaborate in real life--NWSL produces some components for Hollywood--so it's not surprising that they share a similar customer service orientation.  They are also examples of old-school craftsmanship harnessing the power of the internet. I would never have been able to hear directly from Dave if not for internet forums, and Geoff and I would still be sending snail mail and dealing with international payment methods were it not for his excellent e-commerce interface.

All signs, I think, that model railroading is thriving in the 21st century.