Model Railroad Blog

Capturing the Essence of Industrial Switching Operations

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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 the operations chess game we lose sight of the most important goal of all.  Specifically,  how do we capture the essence and atmosphere of what we are modeling?  How do we make it feel like we are actually there and watching the real thing?  As with music, each operational type, whether it be mainline through trains, locals, or passenger trains, has it’s own distinctive beat.

Industrial switching operation is characterized by a slow, purposeful, rhythmic cadence.  Locomotive crawl at a few miles an hour as they pull cars from the deck and deal them with precision to the customer’s door.  The atmosphere is one of mass, momentum, and the sound of 2000 horsepower prime movers constantly throttling up and then cycling down…over and over and over.  There is the sound/motion disconnect of momentum as we hear the power rev up and exhaust billowing skyward long before we see actual movement.  There is the constant sound of idling diesel cylinders and air release as the engineer waits patiently while the brakeman walks, hooks up hoses, uncouples, and walks some more.  It…is….slow.

In the real world there is no way to speed it up even if you wanted to.  Model railroad operating sessions are a different story.  To watch a typical ops. session you’d think it was a trip to the dentist, to be dispatched and completed as quickly as humanly possible rather than drawn out and savored for the flavorful experience that it is.

One would think our model brakeman have the wings of Mercury as the engine screeches to a halt at a switch, the switch is instantly thrown, and then the loco. launches like a top fuel dragster down the spur.  The process is repeated at the same lightning speed throughout with total ‘mission’ focus.  In short order the layout owner rejoices in the fact that the job is ‘done’.  Wait a minute that didn’t keep him too busy.  The layout must be too small…..  No it’s not too small it’s just that nothing was done the way it really happens on an actual railroad.

So, how do we translate that to our switching layout?  First there has to be a desire to do so.  There also has to be  knowledge and awareness of how things really happen in the field.  Most grasp the concept of running the locomotive a little bit slower.  That’s only a small part of it though.  Everything should happen slower.  Let’s take a look at some things that will enhance the industrial operations experience.  All you will need is a good sound equipped locomotive, a hot cup of coffee, and the willingness to throttle one area of your life back into slow motion.

Train Dynamics

An EMD GP38-2 weighs 125 tons, considerably more than your SUV.  Even with 2,000 horsepower, it takes awhile to get rolling and it takes a while to stop.  It’s not like a Porsche Boxster where you hit the throttle and go.  By contrast a Lifelike GP38-2 weighs ounces.  It takes some fiddling to get it to move and react like the real thing.  As we operate our model engines it’s helpful to keep in mind just how much 125 tons really is!

Typical model motors have a huge amount of top speed that is completely and utterly useless to us.  For our part we really only need the 0 to 30 mph end of the scale.  The 30 to 250mph isn’t of much value is it?  We’d like to have a fair amount of turn on the throttle knob in that 0 to 30mph range.

Every model has different operational characteristics so use the following settings for general guidance only.  They may be a bit much for other units.   In my case I’m using a Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder in a Proto 2000 GP38-2.  I start first with momentum and deceleration.  For this specific model I set the momentum very high to a value of 160 (out of a max of 255).   As high as that number seems in some cases, for this application it doesn’t feel like overkill (in other locos it would be way too high). Although it would be realistic to set the deceleration to an equally high value, I really don’t like to do so.  I want total control of the stop function so set deceleration to a relatively low value of 30.

A very handy, simple, and often overlooked feature of many decoders and DCC systems are custom speed curves.  In basic terms a speed curve allows you to easily input a setting that totally alters the top speed of the locomotive as well as the intermediate speed points in between 0 and top end.    In most cases a few keys strokes inputs the curve and you have what feels like an entirely different locomotive.  My DCC system (EasyDCC) uses linear curves (other types are logarithmic and exponential).  I selected curve 6 which gives a top speed of 60% of normal.   I use 28 speed steps instead of 128.  With a little practice and a light touch on the throttle the momentum, speed curve, and 28 steps combine to create a situation where you hear the prime mover rev up for a few moments before the engine starts to move.  (With 128 steps I would get movement as soon as I so much as breathed on the throttle).

Throttle use really does require a mindset of a light touch and relaxed patience.  Spinning the knob like a ship’s wheel and catapulting your locomotive, drag racer style, at every move isn’t very “railroady”.  Get in the habit of just cracking the throttle and ‘waiting’ for movement rather than spinning it and ‘forcing’ movement (which usually requires frantic back spinning of the throttle to compensate for your impatience).

Top Speed

In most switching environments it’s unusual to see speeds in excess of 25mph.  Usually they are much less than that.  This should be in our mind at all times.  Anything over that speed is just not very realistic.  The pay off is that slow speeds effectively ‘stretch’ smaller layouts (well actually they would stretch a big layout too).

Pauses in the Action

Most grasp the idea of cruising down the branch at a relatively slow speed but then quickly pick it up a notch when it comes to car move,rments. Slow applies to everything, speed AND movements.

I mentioned ‘mission mode’ earlier.  Model railroaders really do have a bad case of it.  They focus on getting the job done and getting it done ASAP.  If that’s your cup of tea go for it.  Get that nasty op. session over with so you can go mow the lawn!

In the real world though there are a lot of pauses in the action.  In most cases it’s because real brakeman, as much as they’d like to, just can’t fly.  They have to walk.  They have to get out of the cab, walk to the switch and throw it.  They need to walk to the car and uncouple it.  They need to walk to the industry gate and unlock it.  They need to walk back to the locomotive.  They get extremely ticked if the train takes off and leaves them without waiting for them to walk back.  All this means that there is a substantial amount of time where the engine is just idling waiting for tasks on the ground to be completed.   On a model railroad you know where the line is between relaxation and boredom.  What’s the rush though?  Take a pause between moves.  Stop your engine, go warm up your coffee and come back.

Real tasks

Out of ignorance modelers skip a lot of real tasks that, if incorporated would add interest and extend an operating session.  For example, in some environments crossing gate protection alone doesn’t instill a total sense of confidence in the engineer.   Even you are in the right, peeling a Camry off of the pilot will result in a lot of paperwork back at the office.  For this reason it’s common at some intersections for the engineer to bring the loco. to a complete stop at the crossing, lay on the horn, and then inch across.  The use of fusees to protect grade crossing movements is becoming more prevalent.  Model versions of the fusees are easy to install and add an interesting dimension to operating sessions as you halt the action and activate the warning device.  These are just two examples of practices that can be added that add interest without feeling too contrived.

To give you a sense for how this can all play out on a model railroad I ran a solo op. session on the Downtown Spur this morning.  It is common on the prototype to have a case where the graveyard shift can’t get all of the work done.  The morning shift will then handle any leftover mop up duties on the spur.  I set up a similar morning shift clean up session that, on the surface seemed incredibly simple.  One car was to be spotted at Florida Bottling and an empty at Trujillo was to be swapped out for a load.  Drop two cars, pick up one.  No tricks.  No gimmicks.   The length of the session?   A full 50 minutes!

You would be amazed at how much incorporating momentum, slower speeds, pauses, and real world tasks will enhance and extend the operating experience.   And that’s what we really want isn’t it,  a better experience that lasts longer.  We want the sensation of actually being there.

Enough Rope To Hang Myself

I was sixteen when the model railroad bug bit in earnest.  In the early years of the hobby EVERYTHING is interesting and we really want it all.  At that time my parents were on a two year overseas sabbatical and we lived in a small apartment.  Our Cape Cod house in the states, complete with basement, was rented out until our return.

While overseas, I poured through my Model Railroader magazines over and over until they were threadbare.  Since our apartment was small, and a temporary arrangement, I limited my hobby activities to building freight cars and small structures.  That was a productive enough use of my time.  So far, so good.   In retrospect I did have room for a small switching layout and should have built one as a learning platform.   We returned to the states my junior year of high school with my enthusiasm for the hobby at fever pitch and moved back into our old home.

That’s the point where my dad gave me the rope…enough to hang myself.  “I’ve been thinking.  We really aren’t using the basement that much.  I’ll tell you what, if you want a third of it for a layout, go for it.   I’ve got a lot of leftover lumber from my woodworking you can use for the bench work.”  Our basement was about forty feet long with a completely unobstructed run along one wall.

In a matter of days I had my track plan drawn up.   In this case the word ‘plan’ is a real stretch.  It certainly didn’t approach the most remote boundaries of anything that could be called a design with purpose.   I was going to fill every inch of that sucker up.  I’d read about hand laying track.  Nothing but the best for me, that’s the route I would take.  The fact that I hadn’t hand laid so much as an inch of track before was just a minor obstacle in my mind.   Having a forty foot long spaghetti bowl track arrangement laid tie by tie, spike by spike, that would be a sight to behold…onward soldier.

The bench work went up fast enough.  Soon, I was off and running to the next step, the track.   Hmmm, not as easy I thought.  After a few weeks I got the first turnout done.  Time to run a train through that turnout.  Well….that’s not working so well.  It looks like a turnout but is acting like a derail.   I’ll lay some flex track (which is what I should have done in the first place).  Some success, trains are running.  Second problem … where are they running to? The track plan was totally meaningless.

To make a long story short, the entire project collapsed under its own weight and complexity, lack of purpose, and wildly unrestrained ambitions.   It was a blessing though.  It was a critical lesson learned at an early age.

In terms of personality types I’ve been told I’m a “rescuer”, always trying to save people from themselves.    As you read through my blogs you might think I have something against large layouts,  I don’t….as long as the builder has some previous layouts under his belt and knows what he’s getting into.  Far too often though  I’m seeing an adult, new to the hobby,  stringing the proverbial rope up to my boyhood oak tree as they embark on that voyage to build the ‘huge dream layout’ as their first effort.    In these cases I typically have flashbacks to that first layout of my teenage years and have the impulse to scream “don’t do it. “    As I get older though I realize more and more you need to let people make mistakes and hopefully learn from them.   Some will leave the hobby in frustration, never to return.  Hopefully, more will learn from their missteps and adjust.

 

Easy Way/Hard Way

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Achieving successful looking modeling results is 80% color and material selection with experience/skill probably only accounting for around 20% .  The great news here is that beginners can achieve great results right out of the starting gate and more experienced modelers can improve their results quickly simply by switching to better materials.   One crucial area where this is brought home is ballast selection.  High quality ballast materials look so much better and are  much easier to work with.  Part of the problem is that the inferior ballast materials are  readily available and in such mass distribution that there is a natural tendency to use them.  DON’T!   What you need are ballast and soils made from natural materials that have subtle color variations and granule sizes.  Artificial ballast colors are too uniform in color and grade and are not stone so they tend to be difficult to work with.     If you want to make your life easier and improve the looks of your layout the first step would be to place a call to Phil Anderson at Arizona Rock and Mineral Company.  He will require a minimum order of six bags.  Listed below is a suggested starting order for ballasting rail as well as material for a soil base.  He ships within 24 hours and you’re looking at about $45 parts and shipping for that order.

Arizona Rock and Mineral.  Phil Anderson.   www.rrscenery.com   928-636-9275 (Mountain Time)

  • (2 bags)   138-2 CSX Blend (this is just a basic salt and pepper color) HO scale
  • (1 bag)     138-1 CSX Blend N scale
  • (1 bag)     1221 Steam era yard mix N scale (very useful off black color)
  • (1 bag)     1290 Concrete (a good muddy gray)
  • (1 bag)     2000 Industrial Dirt

Note that I’ve listed a number of N scale grades.  This is because they have finer grains.  I generally do a lot of mixing in a paper cup.  For track ballast I mix the N and HO grade CSX blends together.  For dirty soil I mix the N scale CSX ballast and concrete together with a pinch of industrial dirt.  Use your imagination.

For ballast adhesive I’ve made a change in the last year and only use pre-mixed matte medium.  I suggest this from Scenic Express.  I’ve also changed the method of applying the matte medium to that of solely spraying it on with a fine mister bottle (as opposed to eye droppers or bottles).

It Was A Disaster, I Quit!

 

Some lessons can only be learned the hard way, through experience and by doing.  My son is now a sophomore in high school and is at that age where he is increasingly interested in the dating ‘experience’.   Without exaggeration I think it’s fair to say he has his eye on a new female ‘person of interest’ every week.  A few weeks ago one of those ladies showed reciprocal interest and asked, ‘Oh, by the way, can I borrow fifteen dollars?”  Uh, oh.  You can see where this is going.  Sure enough, in short order said lady and his fifteen dollars were gone, never to be seen again.  Upon repeating the story at basketball practice the other dads were quick to put it in perspective by stating that as you get older the game doesn’t change but you can start adding zero’s after the fifteen.  Lesson learned and off he went, wiser for the experience.

The same applies to model railroading.  You simply can’t advance your skills without jumping in, building things, making mistakes and learning from them.  When you look at a well executed model or layout it has to be with the knowledge that it took a lot of missteps, twists, and turns for the builder to get to that level.

When I meet a new modeler I’m always curious about their layouts, past and present.  It’s fairly common to have the person look down, shuffle their feet and say with some discouragement that yes, they recently built a layout but it didn’t turnout out very well.    I’ll follow up with a question about what they mean by ‘not so well’.

“Well, the curves and turnouts were too tight, the trains constantly derailed, the aisles were too narrow, and the grades caused a lot of problems.  The hidden track was a pain and I laid a lot of track too far from the aisle.  The ¼” plywood I used for roadbed warped”.  They’ll say the layout was a ‘disaster’ or a ‘failure’.   After that experience they are reluctant to try again for fear of experiencing similar results.  Maybe they feel they don’t have the skills necessary to participate in the hobby and should consider a different pastime.  Maybe they should  play it safe from now on and just watch others participate.

In these cases the modeler is absolutely, dead wrong.  It wasn’t a disaster, or a failure.  Just as Thomas Edison discovered a thousand filaments that didn’t work in a light bulb, the modeler has taken the same path.

They learned an enormous amount from these early attempts.  If they were to try again, the next result would not only be better but light years better.  They’ve learned what they didn’t know.  They’ve learned where the trouble spots are.  Now they know what skills and knowledge gaps need to be filled.  These are all valuable lessons that could never be learned had they not built the ‘failure’.

After 35  five years in the hobby, I still find a lot of ways ‘not’ to do things, that is, I still make a lot of mistakes. If nothing else I discover a lot of things I’d do differently the next time.   The one thing I have learned is to practice on a scrap first so the mistake can be discarded without damaging a good model.

The mistakes of accomplished modelers won’t show up in magazines.  You only see the things that worked, not the five that didn’t.  What these modelers have done is noted past mistakes, adjusted, and tried again.

Don’t fall into the trap of not starting until you can achieve perfect results.  Don’t wait on perfection.  Jump in and enjoy the process.  Evaluate your results with dispassionate objectivity making mental (or written) notes on those things that worked and those that didn’t.   The key skill is to be able to recognize and make note of the mistakes.

Beating yourself up or giving up does no good.  Not doing anything for fear of making a mistake is far worse.  Look back on your past projects as valuable learning lessons necessary to move on to the next skill level.  If a layout didn’t turn out, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, make adjustments and get back in the saddle.

 

If I Had A Million

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Five years after I placed the first slab of bench work East Rail provides as much enjoyment as ever.   Here’s how it looks today.

Between work, family activities, and construction of the Downtown Spur my East Rail layout has sat essentially ignored and unused in the corner of my shop for what has probably been close to a year.  To protect it from saw dust, paint dust, and god knows what else, I’d carefully draped and clamped plastic wrap tightly down from the fascia.  Every several months I’d glance over at it and wonder if the time had come to seriously consider selling it or harvesting the useable components and scrapping the rest.

A few days ago I wrapped up a project in the shop and decided to lift the veil and see how East Rail had fared over the past year.  More dust had gotten in under the wrap than I would have expected but nothing that rose to the level of damage.  For some reason the desire to run it some more crept over me and I spent a few relaxing evenings carefully dusting, vacuuming and cleaning the rail.  In short order it was good as new.  A flip of the throttle switch and I was immediately transported to 37th Avenue as the locomotive lazily went about its chores just as the real life counterpart does almost daily.

Call it an epiphany but one thing become abundantly clear, this is the best layout I’ve ever built, the only yardstick being the enjoyment it provides.   The Downtown Spur is fun from the standpoint of the long main line run and the variety  of potential projects to work on.  My N scale Monon produced many pats on the back largely due to the fact that it hit dead on the primary interest of the hobby, the steam to diesel transition era.  But from a purely personal standpoint, East Rail has been undeniably the best.

In Linn Westcott’s track plan book there is a chapter called “If I Had a Million” where he outlines how he would have obviously used the money – to build an absolutely massive, barn filling model railroad.  To each his own.  I can say with certainty what I’d do with my model railroad million.  I’d put $999,000 of it into a condo overlooking the Miami River and use the remaining $1,000 to build East Rail 2….all twenty square feet of it…tucked into the corner of the den.