Model Railroad Blog

A New Day

For a number of years, perhaps five or ten, the hobby has slowly drifted to a state of hazy stagnation.  There is no air of excitement or buzz.   Fewer are charging to their basements on the weekends and nobody on the outside is clamoring to get in.  They aren’t clamoring to get in because there is no compelling reason to do so.   Even if there were a reason, those on the outside, (or those in the hobby but drifting), see no obviously apparent, clear roadmap, platform, or vehicle to enter and pursue the hobby in a satisfying and attainable way.

Through a combination of societal events, and the natural cycle of things, we’ve reached the point where we need a new entry level platform.  That platform is the small to moderate size, modern era, switching layout.  It’s certainly not a new concept, but a case where the time for this platform has arrived.  People are motivated not only by seeing inspirational layouts but inspirational layouts that they can build.

I’ve felt for many years that there is a vast pool of model railroaders circling the fringes of the hobby waiting for a way to get in, waiting for a reason and means to join.  I can’t entirely put my finger on it, but there seems to be a tinge of sadness at being on the sidelines as well as a lack of self-confidence, a misguided feeling that, because they may not yet possess a vast array of  modeling skills, that they aren’t worthy of joining the hobby full force and without apology.

The common characteristics of these ‘sideliners’ are that they are smart, much more knowledgeable than they realize, personable,  large in number and a group the hobby desperately needs in the game.  Mobilizing this group of ‘sideliners’ and getting them building layouts will add new energy, new ideas, and a breath of fresh air that model railroading needs, and needs badly.  Such mobilizing improves the quality of life for the sideliner.  To a larger extent it improves the quality of life for those already actively in the hobby.   As the sideliners get up and going, their modeling works will ultimately provide inspiration and a jump start all of us.  Magazine circulation will strengthen, industry purchasing will increase, and the slow plodding ship that is the momentum of the hobby will gradually start steaming forward again.

To an extent we have failed the sideliners through a lack of leadership, direction, and support.  We haven’t given them a roadmap.  Although they may not yet have attained a vast arsenal of construction skills, they have no interest in mindless starter layouts on the level of a Brio set.  They don’t want the frivolous Disneyland express.  They don’t want something that looks like a first grade craft project when they are done (nor does their family).  What they do WANT is something that:

  • Is easy to build the first time out given basic construction skills
  • Offers sophisticated operational and visual interest
  • Looks clean and halfway realistic
  • Can be brought to a reasonable state of completion quickly and look tidy during construction
  • Doesn’t take up  a lot of space
  • Doesn’t require a  huge  time commitment

They want something simple and sophisticated.   Yes, the two CAN go together.   There is no reason that the beginner should resign themselves to something one step above a Tyco train set.    A well thought out switching layout provides that energizing combination of visual and intellectual captivation and attainability.  This platform is ready for its time in the sun.  I’m not talking about dopey switching puzzles.  I’m talking about small, simple, intellectually stimulating MODELS of a small piece of an actual railroad.  Switching layouts are:

  • Simple to build
  • Intellectually stimulating and sophisticated
  • Fit any space and lifestyle
  • Inexpensive
  • Can be made operational in a short time span
  • Pack a lot of operational interest in a small space
  • Are easy to dress up the appearance in a manner that makes the rest of the family happy
  • Can be moved or disposed of when you move
  • Are a training ground and spring board for larger layouts
  • A good fit for those with ample resources but scarce time and energy

Switching layouts can be set in any time period but I suggest the modern era for several reasons.   First and foremost, being able to experience railroading’s full mass and power  rolling by in front of us provides constant positive re-enforcement.  If the visceral experience of watching, hearing, and feeling a sixteen cylinder machine the size of a house push a freight car also as big as a house down a grassy patch of track doesn’t get your juices flowing, nothing will.

Rumors of the death of the ‘golden age’ of railroading are greatly exaggerated.   In an industrial setting, modern railroading unfolds with the same power and flavor as in previous ages.  In addition, information needed to model the modern era is readily available whether it be operational practices or infrastructure.

Any reasonably secure, grounded adult understands that there is no relationship between the size of an object and its quality.  Leonardo Da Vinci’s horse sketches are just as worthy as Albert Bierstadt’s full wall murals.  Following that same line of reasoning the modeler should never have the sense of ‘settling’ when they build a small switching layout.

There is no shame in being a beginner or building small layout.  The reality is that exceptionally handsome layouts that don’t insult your intelligence CAN be built on a first attempt.  Those sitting on the sidelines do belong in the hobby.  Those adrift in the hobby do have a catalyst to jump start their interest.  In both cases, the small, modern era switching layout, is a platform whose time has come.

 

 

The First Layout, A Better Example

JulyRMC

Model railroading is a lot more fun when we achieve some degree of success early in the process.  Having a layout that never reaches critical mass or doesn’t run reliably just isn’t that enjoyable.  I believe not having a satisfying first experience is the reason a lot of people leave the hobby in frustration.  One of the largest reasons people do lose interest in the hobby is that they take on layouts that are simply too large and/or too complex.  The newcomer often bites off too much before they have the skills to build a large layout.  Newcomers also get sent down the wrong path by choosing one of the ultra complex spaghetti bowl layouts featured so frequently in track planning books.  Mislead by the 4′ x 8′ size of the stereotypical spaghetti bowl starter layout, the newcomer doesn’t realize that radical elevation changes, up and overs, and the numerous curves common in the 1950’s era spaghetti bowl plan makes them poor candidates for a layout that can be built reliably on the first try.  Veteran hobbyists aren’t immune to biting off too much either. Even experienced modelers grossly misjudge how little time they have to work on the layout and take on something too large.  Veteran’s who enjoy prototypical operating sessions often grossly misjudge how hard it can be to round up the necessary crew members on a consistent basis and then watch as their grand vision sits idle in the basement.

The July issue of Railroad Model Craftsman features one of the best conceived layouts I’ve seen in some time, Vince Lees 28th Street Terminal.  Vince laid two hollow core doors end to end and rather convincingly modeled the prototype.  He built it using readily available components and kept it simple on all fronts.  Simple doesn’t mean un-sophisticated.   When the situation calls for it, the layout can keep four operators occupied for four hours.  It’s really the perfect combination of a scope that can be completed in a reasonable period of time and still hold a lot of interest for the real diehards.  I point Vince’s layout out because it is a great example of matching a modelers interests with a realistic and attainable concept.  Any newcomer could pick up two doors, carefully lay down some Atlas track, hook up a power pack and have a bullet proof model railroad right out of the chutes.  After they get it running they could go back and add more detail.  That sounds like a lot more fun to me than wrestling an 18″ curve up a 4% grade for an overpass on the old spaghetti bowl designs.

Scratch Building

GenA

This scratch built structure cost less than five dollars to build and produced several weekends of modeling enjoyment.  The simple box shape was not that difficult to build using sheet styrene.  The end result was something unique, something that ‘fit’ with the layout, and wasn’t something I could ever find a kit for anyway.

I was browsing through the structure listings of one of the larger online suppliers.  As I scrolled through the pages, I was particularly struck by how expensive the plastic structure kits were.  I’m not talking about intricate craftsman kits but rather routine, average size, injection molded kits priced in the $40 to $60 range.  Putting together a cluster of a few of these would certainly be out of reach of your typical teen on an allowance or retiree on a fixed income.  Cost aside, there are other issues that you run into with many plastic structure kits.  As a custom layout builder I assemble a lot of them throughout the year.    Frankly, I’m astounded and appalled at how poorly made many of them are.  If I make my living building models and am struggling with a kit, how is a sixteen year old just getting started going to fare? When you plop down $60 to $100 for an average kit it is reasonable to expect that the parts not be warped, that the parts fit, and there by limited flash.  Often that is not the case.  In addition, commercial kits have large production runs.  If you populate your layout with them, it will look pretty much like everybody else’s layout.  The New River Mine, ADM Grain Elevator, and Atlas Interlocking stand out in any photo.

I’ve made a point before that I firmly believe that being of modest means (or close to being broke) is an advantage in our hobby.  Having limited funds means you have no option but to learn to make things for yourself rather than purchase them.  In other words you will be forced into learning to be a model builder.  Long term it’s a blessing. Building a structure from scratch is much easier than one would expect and is often a matter of getting over the mind set that it is difficult.  Like anything else it takes practice but after a half dozen attempts you’ll get into a groove.  You will often find that scratch building is EASIER than building a kit with poorly cast parts.

Advantages of scratch building include:

-Extremely low cost.  Once you have a few rudimentary tools and a stock of styrene, a typical scratch built structure is probably a quarter the cost of a kit, maybe even less.

-You get exactly what you want.  You aren’t limited by what is available on the kit market.

-Unique look.  Scratch built structures will make your layout stand out as unique and have a more cohesive look since the model railroad won’t be covered with something ten thousand other people own.

If you want to get started, I suggest picking a simple, smaller structure.  Work from photos. Accept the fact that your first attempts may not look that great and be willing to discard them as ‘practice’.  In terms of tools you won’t need much: sheet and strip styrene, perhaps some window castings, X-acto or razor  blades, a straight edge, and some solvent.  Rather than purchasing commercial hobby glue I just use lacquer thinner from a paint store and an old paint brush.    Rather than sitting on the sidelines saving up for a structure kit that won’t be that great anyway, take control and jump into the scratch building game.

Avoiding the Layout Design Death Spiral

JL

In MRP 2010, Jim Lincoln gives an excellent example of having your cake and eating it to.  That is, having fascinating operations without needing  much track to do so.

 

During the design phase, model railroaders are often terrified that their layout will be boring, that it won’t have enough elements to keep their interest.   After all, who wants to invest all of that time and effort into their passion only to end up with something that isn’t satisfying?   We overcompensate for this fear by squeezing more and more track onto the plan until it is at the bursting point.  We look at it and squeeze in still more  just to be safe.  The end result, to be blunt, is often a mess – a layout with more industries and scenes than the square footage can support visually.   The root cause of this layout design death spiral is simple.  It is a lack of information.  If we as modelers can teach ourselves how railroads and industries really work, we quickly find that it takes far fewer elements, and much less track, to hold our interest.  We can let out our breath, relax, reduce the amount of track on our layouts, and  enjoy a model railroad that is both interesting to operate and also has enough open space to have visual balance.

A little digging transforms industries we initially thought to be boring into scenes that are much, much more interesting than we initially thought. If that rather blah one spur industry all of sudden becomes a complex operation then we need much fewer of them.

This point is brought home in an exceptionally well written article by Jim Lincoln in Model Railroad Planning 2010.  In his article, Jim breaks down the operations for a small corn syrup facility.  If you look at the photo above you see two tracks with what appears to be identical, boring, black tank cars.  Not so.  The cars are not the same.  Corn syrup comes in multiple grades and each offload pipe can only be used for the same grade of syrup or the product will be contaminated.  Now things get interesting.  We now realize the eight cars in the above photo are all different (different grades of syrup) and that they need to be spotted at a specific pipe for offloading.  If the cut of cars arrives and there are still a few tankers being unloaded then those cars have to be pulled, the new cars placed, and the old cars put back into place.

That small two track spur now becomes an hour long switch job on a model railroad.  The point is not corn syrup operations specifically but how having information on operations in general allows us to trim back the amount of track needed to make a model railroad interesting to operate.

A sophisticated design is not a complex or crowded one.  In fact, often the opposite is true.  A successful design creates a maximum amount of operational enjoyment with a minimum amount of track.

Deliberate Practice

A number of years ago Florida State professor Anders Ericsson published a study of individuals that  excelled in their chosen fields of endeavor.   An excellent summary of the article was done by Geoffrey Colvin in Fortune Magazine. Click HERE for the article.

In summary, Ericsson’s conclusion was that acquiring a high skill level in an activity had very little to do with inborn talent and very much to do with hard work and practice. Not any practice but ‘deliberate practice’.  The key though was how he defined ‘deliberate practice’.

In the article Colvin writes, “The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call “deliberate practice.” It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don’t get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day – that’s deliberate practice.

I see this consistently in model railroading.  I’ll be contacted by somebody that has been in the hobby for some time that, for one reason or another, has decided they want to improve their modeling or photography.  They usually send me photos at the first contact and then follow up every several months.  For many months the results look pretty much the same as they plug along trying to improve.  Then, in a matter of weeks some magical switch seems to flip and they go from being a good modeler or photographer to an exceptional one.   Had they just kept going along using the same techniques and mindset they would not have improved.  However, these folks were very deliberate.  They read up on new techniques, sought feedback, analyzed their efforts, read books, and spent a fair amount of time at the work bench (or behind a camera).   It wasn’t just the time they spent modeling or doing photography it was that they ‘deliberately practiced’.