Model Railroad Blog

Planning vs. Design

A successful model railroad plan (notice I didn’t say design) is one that ultimately puts the hobbyist in a position where they are consistently spending hobby hours engaged in a manner they find satisfying.  Researching, building, operating, photographing all qualify. (Sorry, random long term kit accumulation and excessive chat forum participation doesn’t).

The person who spends many satisfying hours building a replica of the freight house near their childhood home is just as successfully immersed as the person who spends an equal number of hours joyfully building a model of a star wars set behind an old west ghost town.  The person who spends hours at the archives playing sleuth is just as engaged as the structure builder.  The problem is that far too few people engage in any of these activities with enough consistency that it could be called a hobby.  That’s the sad part.  Often the individual, desperately in need of an outside activity, tries to jump in the pool and flounders about only to leave in frustration not having found the diversion they craved.

The culprit?  Lack of a viable plan.  Notice I used the word plan and not design. The terms planning and design are generally used interchangeably and synonymously when, in fact, they are two quite different things.  Design is more tactical in nature concerned with track and bench work arrangements.  Planning is more strategic, more important, and needs to happen before a design can be started.  Poorly planned layouts and approaches to the hobby are a larger reason people struggle than poor layout designs.    If you don’t have the right overall strategy the tactics become irrelevant.

Why don’t we plan?  There are several reasons. We are ignorant of the need to do so.  If we are aware of the need we don’t understand the importance.  If we do understand the importance we don’t know how to do it because we don’t know what the central issues are.   Finally, we don’t like to plan because it requires self examination which typically is harder than drawing a track plan.

So, what are some of the key aspects of planning?  In general it’s coming up with an approach that tips the odds of success overwhelmingly in your favor.  (Remember our definition of success above).   A good plan energizes you enough that you want to spend a few hours a week engaged in the hobby over a period of years.

 

Key questions are:

  • What aspect(s) of the hobby do I truly enjoy the most.
  • What resources can I, without question, consistently bring to the hobby.  By resources I specifically mean time, energy, and commitment.  Lack of awareness of energy levels, available time, and commitment are probably the the largest stumbling blocks to being a successful participant in the hobby.
  • If I build a layout, how will I interact with it?  Will my satisfaction come from being an operator, railfan, or simply the joy and satisfaction of building things. Maybe having a miniature copy of a place and time you find truly appealing is your motivation.
  • What is my commitment to self awareness to find something that truly interests me.   If the overall theme is “just something with bridges, tunnels, a coal mine and pier” is that what truly interests you or are you just settling?
  • What is my attention span for a given theme?  If you only want the layout to last several years that’s fine as long as you acknowledge it.
  • If your primary interest is operations, what type of operations?
  • Do you even need a layout?  If one’s primary and sole interest is building rolling stock or structures you are certainly a dyed in the wool model railroader assuming you do actually build the kits.  If so, perhaps a display case, diorama, or module is a better fit.

 

A successful plan will leave you with accurate answers as to:

  • The size of the layout
  • It’s complexity
  • The desired elements
  • The layout theme

If you can’t realistically answer questions as to your core interests, resources, and how you plan to interact with the layout you aren’t ready to pick up a pencil and start drawing track plans.

The “Bullpen” (Efficient Rolling Stock Management)

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 that we aren’t aware of what is sapping our enjoyment.  Such is the issue with rolling stock storage.

The only rolling stock that should be on a layout are those pieces that have a realistic reason for being there.  The problem is that most of us have more pieces than  have a justifiable reason to be on the railroad.  Some have WAY more but that’s a story for another day.    Things get thorny without us even knowing it.  Absent a good storage system, those excess cars ultimately end up where it’s easiest to put them……on the layout.  They gradually accumulate until things really become mucked up.  This overcrowding detracts from the experience without us even being aware of it.  Let’s see how we can address the problem.  Rolling stock can be broken into three categories:  pieces that need to be on the layout, those that will likely be cycled onto the layout in the near future, and finally those items that for a number of reasons won’t see use in the near future.  Those that won’t see use in the near future should be removed from the railroad, packed in their boxes and either put on a shelf or disposed of.  Easy enough.

It’s the second group that creates problems.  We have a large pool of cars waiting to get in the game, the sports analogy being pitchers in the bullpen. These are cars that won’t be in the current operating session but likely will be mixed into the flow shortly, replacing cars currently in service.  We have a problem.  We don’t want them on the layout now.  It’s human nature that if we don’t put them in a place that is super convenient to access, they won’t get used (which is why we put them on the layout when we shouldn’t have).  If we put these ‘bullpen’ cars in boxes, subconsciously we dread rummaging through the pile of boxes, reading box labels, opening the container, dragging the car out and then doing the same for the car being removed from the layout.

What we need to encourage us to keep the layout surface clean of unneeded cars is a very simple, easy to interact with, method of cycling cars on and off the layout.  The system needs to be close to eye level, not involve opening and closing things, and have an open top.  It needs to be a system that I call ‘grab-n’-go’, a system so easy we can comfortably and seamlessly handle car cycling.   The solution is any type of open top shelving system that keeps the cars fairly close to eye level.

Bullpen 002s

In thinking through my situation I opted for an 8″ x 24″ floating shelf picked up at The Home Depot.  These shelves are inexpensive, very easy to install, and have an ultra clean look to them.  I mounted it fairly high so as not to have to bend and squint to identify the cars I was looking for.  I did not add track to the shelves so as to avoid having to deal with the hassle of aligning the trucks on the rail.  The cars just sit on the flat shelf surface.  I added a lip of 1 1/2″ molding to serve as a guard rail and that was it.  Even this small shelf holds twelve, fifty foot cars.  At most, I’ll only need one more shelf to hold what would typically get cycled onto the layout.  All other pieces are classified as for use in the distant future and are stored in boxes in my shop.  This floating shelf system makes cycling cars from the ‘bullpen’ a breeze and encourages me to avoid storing them on the layout.

Bullpen 003s

These cars are in ‘The Bullpen’ meaning they will likely see an operating session in the next few months.  Cycling them on and off the layout is a simple ‘grab-n-go’ which encourages me to keep them on this shelf and off the layout where they would clog things up.

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 be something that is around for a decade or longer.  If the model railroad is of any size at all, it would certainly take that long to get it to completion.  Several things can come up though that may such a long term approach an ill fit for some of us.  Our lifestyle may change long before we get close to completion. Moving to a different house being a prime example.  The more likely issue though is that our interests may change.  Three years in, something that holds more appeal may catch our eye.  If we are so committed to our one or two decade project we may have to constantly brush aside other opportunities.  Finally, if we put any time at all into the hobby our skills will increase over time.  Five years into a layout, it will become painfully obvious that the portion we are working on now looks substantially better than the initial work done with older skill sets.  Over time that can begin to grate on you.

Here’s where I’m going with all of this.  For many of us,  consideration should be given to layouts with shorter life spans, say three to five years.  By keeping the layout size and complexity manageable, we can get it up and running quickly, flog every ounce of fun out of it, and then move on to a new and exciting theme.  Such an approach will keep us energized and excited.  Shorter term layouts will be put together with a more consistent look because they represent a narrower band of our skills progression.    Turnouts, trees, bench work, and electronics can generally be salvaged keeping the cost down.  To be clear, I’m not talking about getting two months into a layout and then constantly changing your mind and never getting anything up and going.  I’m talking about driving a manageable model railroad purposely towards  completion in a medium time span, and then re-stoking the fires with a new project.

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 rail and applying ballast.  Both are critical in terms of the final appearance of the layout.   Both are almost impossible to correct if you mishandle them.  If you are using Atlas code 83 or Walthers track it is very important to paint the rail a darker color to downplay the out of scale spike details.  Rail brown (essentially a tan) or Rust (pumpkin orange) will highlight the deficiencies of the track and are incorrect color palette selections.  Don’t use them.  All you need are rattle can sprays of Floquil Roof Brown and Grimy Black.  Paint the rail and ties entirely with the Roof Brown first and then fog on the Grimy Black.  Do short stretches and immediately wipe the railheads clean moments after painting.  Keep your area well ventilated for safety and wear a respirator (a dust mask is not a respirator).  That’s all there is to it, Roof Brown fogged with Grimy Black.  (For those using Micro Engineering rail, going with lighter rail colors is less of a problem).

For the ballast it is all too easy to get lazy and run down to the local hobby store and grab some Woodland Scenics product.  Not only is their color and shape too uniform, it is tricky to work with.   You need to use natural rock ballast products from Arizona Rock and Mineral Company.    This product is not that hard to track down at large dealers and is easily obtained by calling the owner Phil Anderson directly.   Even for those of you in the UK it’s worth the effort to get the better Arizona Rock product.  Phil is a modeler himself and extremely helpful on the phone helping you pick blends.  I use a mix of N and HO scale “CSX/Wabash”.  Other good soils are ‘concrete’, ‘industrial dirt’, and regular ‘dirt’.

So folks you’ve come this far don’t fail yourself now!

Layout Room and Photography Lighting

photolites

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 is the best room lighting and the other being what is the best for photography.

As far as room lighting goes, and I think this is what most people are asking, I don’t think it matters that much for normal viewing and running trains. I use ordinary fluorescents now and couldn’t tell you what temperature or CRI (color rendition index) I have in the fixtures as I write this. My ambivalence goes back to the early days of my East Rail layout. Given the small layout size I thought, why not go for the best, state of the art, fluorescents I could track down. I studied. I did research online. I drove across town to purchase specialty daylight fluorescents with a very high CRI. With much anticipation, I installed the bulbs, hit the switch, and……. I think totally underwhelmed would be the best way to describe the impact. I suppose it’s subjective but I didn’t think the time and effort optimizing the bulbs gave a proportionate visual payoff. From that point onward I stopped worrying about it much and just try to get fluorescent bulbs of matching temperatures.

The best lighting for photography is a totally different subject. For everyday room lighting, fluorescent are inexpensive and can light an entire room brightly and without throwing off a lot of heat. However….when it comes to photography they are a no-go. Photos shot under fluorescents are flat, lifeless, and muddy. They are awful. No matter how much time you spend in photoshop, it comes back to the old adage of, ‘you can’t polish a turd’. The good news is that excellent photographic lighting is very simple and inexpensive. You will need two tungsten bulbs from a photography store (say seven bucks each) and two inexpensive clamp on reflectors from the hardware store. Put a bulb in one reflector, clamp it to a chair back or trash can, put it several feet to your back and point it the ceiling. This will throw off a good canopy of diffuse light. Remove and discard the reflector from the second fixture and insert the bulb. This will be your sun. Hold it in your hand about four feet from the model and shine it down from a 45 degree angle or whatever sun angle you prefer. Experiment with different sun angles and distances. Set your camera on the tungsten light setting and aperture priority. I generally set the exposure compensation to +.75 or +1.0. Take some shots, see what you have, and make adjustments until you have what you want.