Model Railroad Blog

Introducing East 38th Street

38st7

I first became aware of the Los Angeles Junction while in high school and instantly became mesmerized by it.  As the decades slipped by the thought of eventually modeling it was always in the back of my mind.  I always thought that when the day came,  power would be in the form of a CF-7.  Oddly, it was a YouTube video of a tandom of two warbonnet emblazoned GP60M’s working a spur that pushed me to “The time is NOW” point.  As I spent hours doing my Bing and Google virtual railfanning I wasn’t really finding a scene that inspired me.  One afternoon I happened to drift a few blocks away to a neighboring UP spur and found my inspiration at the intersection of East 38th Street and South Alameda Street in Vernon, CA.  The layout will be relatively small L shaped shelf project with just a few turnouts.   As with my old East Rail layout I’ll use the prototype as something to draw ideas from without following it exactly.

e38th8

Just modeling the LAJ alone wouldn’t be justification enough to start the project.  I want it to be a platform to learn new skills, try new ideas, and apply previously used techniques more effectively.  Some things I’d like to experiment with are:

  • Battery power
  • Powdered glue for ballast and soil adhesive
  • Air eraser for weathering and fading
  • Photos instead of paint for roads and pavement
  • Printing on vinyl instead of paper
  • Still lighter bench work
  • More realistic dead grass
  • More realistic vegetation
  • A structure core material that is more stable than .060″ styrene

Room preparation is well underway.  I’ll keep you posted.  (The Downtown Spur layout is alive and well with no plans for dismantling).

Welcome to the New Look!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over five years since I first set up the Lancemindheim.com site.   Done initially simply as a creative outlet,  I’ve been surprised at the volume of traffic that has built up.  Tracking the page landings with Google Analytics I’ve also been surprised which pages garnered the most attention.  The blog page exceeded that of any other page by a factor of five.

Originally the site was built with an old Microsoft web builder called Front Page.  Front page served me well but it has been sunset by all of the hosting companies and it’s capabilities were limited.  One common frustration among my blog readers was that the old format wasn’t really searchable.  By switching the site over to the Word Press platform that issue has been addressed.  In addition it was becoming apparent on my end that the site had become quite bloated and needed some updating and streamlining.

In the months ahead I’ll be transferring content over from the old site to the “Help” and “Blog” pages and ask for your patience as I work on this time consuming task.   I also plan to add a tab for RSS subscriptions, another common request among readers.

Reality Based Layout Design

TheNorm
What was the primary goal of the above design? It might surprise you. The one non-negotiable was having at least fifty percent of the surface area being scenery. So, how do you do that on a relatively small layout and still have a platform for fulfilling operating sessions?

 

Reality based layout design?  By that I mean let’s design for what our lifestyles are ‘actually’ like not what we hope or think they will be.  For any of us that have even a passing interest in operations, the driving factor in layout design comes down to the length of an operating session.  How much layout do we need to give us the operating session we want?   Given that the session length is the what pushes everything on the design front, we need to get a solid grip on it.  How long is our session likely to last?  My experience has been that most people will have sessions that are far shorter than they expect but also run more frequently (which is a good thing).  It’s also critical that you get a realistic handle on whether you will be operating alone or be in a situation where you frequently have guest operators.  You’ll quickly find that it is a lot easier to grab a throttle on a whim and have a short solo session after dinner than it is to round up even a small crew for a ‘formal’ session.  That means those solo, short sessions become the norm.  That’s a good thing.  It means you’re in the game, you’re engaged in the hobby.

Let’s design towards the rule not the exception, the norm not the once every two years.  For the majority of us, the reality is that ninety per cent of the time we’ll probably be operating the layout by ourselves.  Sure, three hour operating sessions sound good on paper but again, let’s talk real world.  In terms of session length we’ll have probably “had enough” after about forty five minutes of running.  However, we’ll also likely be ready for a repeat of more of the same sometime in the next day or so.  In other words for most of us, three, four, or five operating sessions a week that are anywhere from ten to forty five minutes long will be the norm.  Let’s design and build our layouts to that end, not the fantasy world of three hour, multi-operator sessions.

If those solo, forty five minute sessions are the norm, let’s design our layout for that and no more.  Include just enough industries to satisfy the likely ‘everyday’ and then use the remaining space for scenery.  Maximizing ‘greenery’ square footage should be an overriding factor in layout design, not squeezing in ‘more stuff’.  It’s having those ample scenery footprints separating ‘urban zones’ that creates a sense of distance and the needed geographical stamp that tells us where we are.  I can’t emphasize it enough.   During the design process there should be a constant, almost palpable sense of the green scenery expanses constantly pushing industries off the layout edge and out of the design.

The challenge  becomes how do we create a design where fifty or sixty percent of the layout surface area is devoid of structures and still create a realistic operating scenario that lasts forty five minutes to an hour?    A simple load for empty swap, operated prototypically, will probably only take about ten or fifteen minutes.  That means, we’ll need at least four industries to hit our one hour target.  However, switching every industry every session isn’t realistic.  The prototype doesn’t do that so we’d actually need more than four.   Now we’re up to six or seven.   For a typical  switching layout that’s just too much “stuff” crowding the landscape.  It doesn’t allow enough room for scenery.  We’re back to square one meaning a typical looking model railroad as opposed to what we want, a model of a railroad.

There is an easy out.  The key is to pick one industry that requires a lot of car spots.  Doing so gives you the equivalent of  many industries in just a few square feet.  Commonly found, highly realistic, real world examples are corn syrup facilities, food service industries, and logistic warehouses.  Design in one, high car spot industry, and then you just need two or three other industries and you’re good to go.   Also, remember that carriers often use any section of a spur next to a parking lot to serve as a team track and that gives you yet another industry.  If our one high car spot, anchor industry by itself will give us our target operating session length, that takes the pressure out of the design process.  Now we have the luxury of just needing two or three one spot industries to provide variety.

In the above design, if operated prototypically, the corn syrup facility alone would probably take ninety minutes to switch.  (Reference Jim Lincolns article on the subject in Model Railroad Planning 2010).  That single design decision, the decision of industry selection, is the home run we need.  By choosing that particular facility, the op. session length goal has been met before we even start, the rest is gravy.  The above plan would be inexpensive, easy to build, and operationally satisfying.  It’s attainable to anybody from young student to somebody in a retirement community.   The essence of a successful design isn’t about shoehorning in ever increasing piles of crap that won’t ever be utilized.  It’s about coming up with a balanced creation where every element has a purpose that, when combined, results in a layout that fits our real life circumstances.

 

Why Layouts Fail – The Three Headed Monster

3Heads

When I work with a design client, one question I always ask is why previous layouts didn’t get off the ground and gain critical mass.  After almost fifteen years the answers haven’t changed.  The three reasons layouts fail, the three headed monster if you will are:  the layout dimensions were too large, the design was too complex, or poor ergonomics.  It’s not uncommon to have all three at once.   The one issue that, to this day, has never come up is a layout that was too small or simple.  Nobody has ever said, “Well the layout was too simple and I quickly got bored with it.”  It just doesn’t happen.  Where we get off track is grossly missing the mark in terms of how little track it takes to keep us blissfully entertained.  It doesn’t take much, even if we aren’t ‘pure operators’.  For those that are operators, as our knowledge increases, the necessary track volume decreases further.   Here’s a design exercise for those of you with a typical large bedroom or half basement to work with.  Set a hard and fast limit of fifteen turnouts and stick to that.  It will take some discipline but see if you can come up with a design that sticks to that limit.

The third trap, ergonomics, is dangerous because it’s so subtle.  Our discomfort and dissatisfaction with a layout with poor ergonomics is often hidden in our sub-conscious.   We find our enthusiasm dwindling with each passing year and aren’t sure why.  The key word here is ‘easy access’.  It is absolutely critical that ALL track be within easy ‘grab and go’, arms reach, accessible distance.  For your average person this means no further than 27 inches from the fascia.  It also means avoiding hidden track at all costs.  Long tunnels, hidden staging, hard to reach staging are deal killers.  The scary part is the problem isn’t so obvious during the first year when your enthusiasm is so high that you are willing to overlook any and all inconvenience.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m frequently viewed as a champion of small layouts.  That’s not the case at all.  I’m a champion of designs that quickly and easily get people immersed in the hobby.  It just so happens that for most people smaller and simpler layouts are the best way to do that.

What We Want & How to Get It

 

Which DCC system is best?  What is the best aisle width? What era should I model?  What radius should I make my curves?  Ultimately questions such as these end being no more than  minutiae, generally irrelevant.

There are two primary reasons we engage in model railroading.  First is the satisfaction of assembly and as a creative outlet.  The second, and most important, is to re-create an emotional connection in miniature.  To be transported in such a way that meaningful emotions are triggered.   Without this self awareness we are just gluing pieces of plastic together and watching something move back and forth.

Having a creative outlet and experiencing the satisfaction of assembly goes far beyond the trivial.  It goes beyond basic recreation.  It reduces stress, increases our quality of life, and more and more studies show that if applied intensely delays the onset of dementia.

The emotional aspect is far more important and for most modelers exists only in the sub-conscious.  Somewhere in our brain is a rail experience that unleashes a wave of pleasant thoughts or memories that washes over us.  If we are effective in our modeling we can trigger those feelings every time we interact with our layout.  In the end, this is why we do what we do.

How do we do it?  In terms of the satisfaction of assembly it’s just a matter of keeping on, keeping on.  Spend time modeling.   The emotional trigger takes more work.  The higher our modeling quality, the more realistic our layout appears and the more effective we will be in re-living our experience.

The pursuit of realism is grossly misunderstood and, as a consequence, modelers don’t proportion their efforts in relationship to the benefits they provide.  In the chase for realism most modelers focus on two areas, prototypical accuracy and ‘details’.  There is nothing wrong with either but those aren’t the primary contributing factors.   If a window frame has six mullions instead of eight the brain won’t pick up on it.  If a freight car has seven rivet panels instead of eight, the same thing.

The two primary drivers of realism are, in order of importance, scene composition and color treatment.  They are the visual foundation.   Composition and color are the sledge hammers that drive home the experience we crave.

Scene composition has to do with the elements we select, their proportions, and the space between them.  If you miss the boat in this area (generally by spacing things two closely), it’s virtually impossible to recover no matter how skilled of a modeler you are.  Unfortunately, as important as this subject is virtually nothing is written about it.   The best you can do is to recognize when it’s done effectively and study the successful modelers work carefully.  Mike Confalone, Jim Six, Tom Johnson, Paul Dolkos, and Steve Peck are several among many that jump to mind immediately.

Color has to do with far more than hue.  It has to do with placement, patterns, the use of black, and understanding what color you are looking at.  Effective color application takes practice but can be learned.  In this area more help is available.  One of the best resources are the primary contributors on the Rust Bucket forum.  They are the masters of color and exceedingly generous with their time.   Their advice is useless, however, if you don’t actually follow their suggestions.  My experience has been that modelers are more than willing to go to clinics, ask for advice online, and read articles but rarely take the step of actually putting such knowledge  into actual practice.

Once we can bring our desire for emotional connection into the conscious realm and understand what skills it takes to maximize the experience we are on our way to elevating what we get out of the hobby.