Model Railroad Blog

More Utilities

 

PaulC

After my last posting, I was contacted by Paul Cooledge who was kind enough to share with me his exceptional utility pole model above.  He explained his methods as follows:

“I completed this scratch-built  1/87th scale model on March 4th as part of a Railroad-Line Forum challenge and thought that being a fellow utility pole enthusiast you might find it of interest.  The poles and structure are made from tapered wooden dowels and scale lumber made from coffee stir sticks.  The transformers are styrene and brass and copper wire; each one is constructed of 39 individual parts.  The insulators include eight appropriated from a Walthers utility pole kit and the balance were made with sterling silver bead caps, glass beads and styrene.  The gang switch is constructed of brass and copper and operates via linkage from the handle at the base.  The mercury vapor lamp is a silver bead cap with a plastic diffusor and is illuminated with an 0603 LED.  The electrical wires are made from single strands of copper from a lamp cord for the heavier wire, and single strands of 30 gauge ‘decoder wire’ for the primary lines and twisted pairs to represent guy wires.”
There are a number of advantages to modeling these structures and, when you do so,  putting the effort into doing it well.  First, the cost is nominal.  Second, the visual impact is very noticeable.  Third, this is something you can work on even if you don’t have a layout yet.  Storage would be simple and you know you’d use them immediately.  There is a ton of data online on top of which you can simply walk outside to see an example.   Low cost, high impact….sounds like a great modeling subject.  Thanks Paul!

Vertical Elements

IMG_5501

 

Each of us has a defined number of hours we can dedicate to the hobby.  That being the case, it makes sense to focus on things that provide not only the most enjoyment but the most visual impact as well.  Vertical elements, specifically utility poles, if well executed can really elevate the appearance of our scenes.  Our eye is trained to look for the ordinary, what it sees in abundance in the real world, and utility service falls within that realm.  Prototypical data is readily available and photos are simply a matter of walking outside.  In the photo above the poles are skewers picked up from the grocery store and stained with a dilute wash of Floquil Rail Brown.  The step down transformers are from the Atlas telephone pole product (#775) as are the insulators.  Selley also makes a nice transformer.  Three inch conduit is made from spring wire.  The only caveat I would add is that the wires themselves are almost impossible to model effectively and to that end I suggest leaving them off.

WWII

Decades ago I had a sales trainer that happened to be a former WWII battleship gunner.  He was emphatic in consistently making his point that we should practice our sales technique  BEFORE we were in front of a customer. He made the point at every session and then immediately drew the analogy to his days in the South Pacific.  They’d spend hours on the ship going over and over the gunnery drills all the while his superior officer would explain the importance of the drills with the proclamation of “it’s best that we practice BEFORE we’re getting shot at”.

The application is universal, to sports, music, even model building.  You are far better off developing a specific modeling technique before you need to apply it to your actual layout or model.  Once you get to the real deal, poor results are often impossible or, at least exceptionally difficult, to reverse.  I speak from experience.  Often we have such a large time investment in the inferior effort, or because the result is not reversible, we have no choice but to live with it while it subconsciously grates on us every day.

How do you practice?  You just make trial runs on a scrap until you have it down.  Such practice attempts can be partial in nature and sub-par results can be discarded easily since you have minimal time or financial investment.  Compare your results against photos of the prototype or models you admire and stick with it until you are satisfied.  If after a number of attempts you are still struggling, photograph your sample and ask a more experienced modeler for advice.  Take notes as you practice so that once you get the results you want you can repeat them later.

Practice takes place at all points on the experience spectrum.  If you’re a beginning modeler, between layouts, or don’t have space for a layout now is the ideal time to elevate your skill levels.  The skills to master are limitless but here are a few ideas:

  • Track weathering
  • Ballasting
  • Waterways (all types from shallow and clear to deep and murky)
  • Structure weathering
  • Freight car weathering
  • Structure assembly
  • Trees
  • Static grass
  • Pavement
  • Backdrops
  • Alclad II metalizers

 

 

 

Initial Planning

east38stAerial

When it comes to planning a layout, a drawing will only take you so far.  Fortunately, with a smaller project a lot can be accomplished in 1:1 scale simply by mocking things up full scale with boxes and loose pieces of track.  The elements can be re-sized and moved around until you get the look that you want and done so without committing the time and effort to actually building models.  The last thing you want is to spend months building something only to find out as things come together that it doesn’t work visually.

The East 38th Street project, by choice, won’t be that large.  I’m looking at an L shaped shelf roughly ten feet by four feet.  It is all to easy to fall to the temptation to go wider and wider with the shelf width in an effort to fit more in.  Once you get beyond eighteen inches, however, you lose that shelf-on-the-wall furniture look.  This isn’t a problem for a typical basement style layout but for this project I want to contain the scope.  All that said, the space I have is the space I have so design starts with fitting the elements to the fixed shelf dimensions not vice versa.

1.  This cluster of structures is the signature element that stamps the layout as being in California and as such will occupy prime real estate.  Since they are in the foreground I’ll need to play around with how far I set the track back so that I can make sure it’s visible and that I can reach it.

2,3, and 4.  Background structures can be tricky because if they are to tall and shallow the point where the structure meets the wall can be visually jarring.  The deeper and shorter the background structure, the less of a problem this is.  Since this is a proto freelance project I can move things around.  I’ll probably replace building 2 with building 3 and experiment with structure(s) 4.  Depending on how much room I have I may include the relatively featureless structure 2 as filler.

5.  This block will be compressed greatly and I’ll need to strike a balance between not doing too much cherry picking of interesting structures vs. maintaining the actual feel of the place.

6.  The major industry is some type of chemical facility.  This will be replaced with something that uses a broader range of car types and spots, probably a bakery.

As the planning comes together, my thoughts will focus on element selection, the depth of the background structures, and photo angles.  By being judicious with my industry selection I should easily have enough operational interest to keep me going for an hour or so, more than enough for a secondary switching layout.

LAJtp1

While scale drawings are a necessity, especially for larger layouts, you need to be aware of their limits especially when it comes to how things will look in 3D.  A crucial part of this project will be dimensions A,B, and C.  I want to avoid mission creep and have a streamlined furniture/shelf look which will require that the shelf width A not get too out of control.  Ideally I’d like something in the sixteen to eighteen inch range.  The deeper a backdrop structure is, the less jarring the transition at the point it meets the backdrop.  It’s a trade off so I’ll play with dimension B using mock ups.  The commercial storefronts in the foreground are signature elements but I need to make sure I can see and reach the track over them.  To this end distance C, how far the track is from the fascia, will be important.