Ergonomics, or the human comfort factor, plays a much greater roll on our layout than we realize. It impacts how often we run it, how enjoyable the experience is when we do and, ultimately, whether we keep using the railroad at all. The hidden trap is that ergonomics can be so subtle in some cases […]
Author: Lmind1
Layout Lifespan
It’s pretty easy to sub-consciously buy into conventional wisdom without thinking through whether such an approach actually applies to our situation. It may or may not. The expected lifespan of a layout is one such example. For many of us, when we set out to build a layout, it’s with the thought that it will […]
You’ve Come This Far
I’ve gotten a number of emails in the past week illustrating progress on switching layout construction. To a person each project looks fantastic, well designed, simple but efficient, and neatly constructed. You’ve come this far, don’t shoot yourself in the foot now. Next up for many of you will be the steps of painting the […]
Layout Room and Photography Lighting
For layout photography lighting I use two fixtures containing tungsten bulbs. I remove the reflector from one of the fixtures and use that for the ‘sun’. I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately as to what type of layout lighting is best. The answer really should be broken into two parts, one being what […]
Capturing the Essence of Industrial Switching Operations
When prototype practices are fully incorporated, even a simple two car shuttle can make for an interesting mini session. Much has been written about model railroad operations. Typical subjects addressed include rights of trains, timetable and train order operations, and car cards. However, somewhere in all of this discussion of the technical aspects of […]