Model Railroad Blog

The Problem Child

Your switch list looks easy enough, just switch one industry, a logistics warehouse in Miami’s East Rail industrial park. Three cars are spotted there and you have three incoming loads. Pull three cars, set them aside, spot the incomings, job done right? Well, sometimes. In the real world there’s the way things should “go” and then there’s how things actually play out. Sometimes a crew has an incoming string of cars destined for specific spots BUT not all of the cars presently there have been unloaded. They were “supposed” to be ready but, hey, sometimes shit happens and they aren’t. I call them the “problem children”. What’s a royal pain for a rail crew is an opportunity for a relaxing forty minute operating session that only needs one turnout. Working through this common situation isn’t hard but does take some time.

Here’s the graphic of how the op. session is staged to begin with. The glitch is at door 3. We have an incoming load but the car that’s there now hasn’t been unloaded. The foreground track can be used for sorting. What we’ll have to do is spot as many incoming cars that we can. Any incoming loads we don’t have room for will be set nearby to be dealt with on another day.

Different crews use different strategies. I began by using the sorting track to block the incoming string of cars ordering them by the order of the warehouse doors. I had to take into account that the incoming load for door 3 couldn’t be spotted. I then pulled all of the warehouse cars and did some back and forth shuffling until I was done, all of which took me about forty (relaxing) minutes.

Here’s the end result. The “problem child” is back at door 3. The blue CSX box was supposed to go to 3 but there wasn’t room so I spotted it nearby. The next time the crew comes by the car will be spotted….and depending on CSX’s mood there may be a surcharge for the extra switch. (Note, I should have used different car colors to make my point. I did not. Sorry. FYI I used two different Railbox’s and two separate white reefers during the session)

When I operate my own layout the fun for me is visualizing actually being there. I try to avoid a “grocery list, beat the clock” approach. That’s just too dry, implausible, and takes the fun out of it for me. I try to forget that I’m dealing with six long pieces of plastic that I can easily see from all angles. Rail equipment is bigger than my house, weighs tons, and doesn’t stop on a dime. In the real world sight lines are limited. You have to deal with vehicle traffic at the crossings. It takes time for a crew to walk. There are pauses while the crew does some head scratching and strategizing. Then there’s the environment. There are “hot days” and then there are “Miami hot days” which are so suffocating you can’t understand what it’s like until you’ve been there. Taking all of that into account with just one turnout, one industry, and understanding how rail operations work you can have a thoroughly enjoyable evening running trains.

Dogs and Tennis Balls

Most modern industrial parks only have a few industries. Of those, typically the same one or two are consistently worked on a weekly basis.

Take a golden retriever or German shepherd to the park and fling a tennis ball across the field and you will have one ecstatic dog.  They’ll chase that slobbery sphere endlessly until they’re to the point of dropping from exhaustion.  Take them tomorrow and they’ll be just as thrilled.  The day after that, same thing. Happy. Over and over and over, they never get tired of it.

When it comes to my personal operating sessions I’m basically like that retriever.  I can run the same scenario day after day and not get tired of it.  I’m easily entertained I guess.  Simpleton or not, it is pretty prototypical.  By and large prototype railroads do the same thing week in and week out in terms of the work they do.  A typical branch has one or two large customers that account for most of the car movements.  Sprinkled in may be a few more that get a car every quarter, six months or maybe just once a year.

Be that as it may, the amount of operational variety you need to feel entertained has a direct impact on the design of your layout.  The more industries you need to work in an op. session in order to have fun, the closer the structures will need to be spaced.  You may also have to make the structures smaller in order to make room for them. You’ll lose a sense of realism which may or may not matter to you. As I always say, be selfish, do what brings you the most enjoyment.  However, it’s always worth asking yourself if you are indeed going to work those additional industries if you put them on the layout?  What’s the visual damage of “over stuffing” your scenes?  Do you care? Is it worth the tradeoff?  With any design approach just make sure it’s a well thought out decision where you’re clear on the pros and cons and not something you do by default or out of an irrational fear that you’ll be bored with the layout.

Digital vs. Print

It seems like yesterday when the internet launched and was quickly followed by the meteoric rise of Amazon.com. The old timers in the group may remember that Amazon started out in a books only format. With stunning speed, brick and mortar bookstores dropped like flies. Like many, I really thought they were toast forever. A few years ago I noticed something interesting, they weren’t all toast. Scrappy Barnes and Noble dumped the big, high rent stores, and rented smaller spaces in mid-tier and upper tier strip malls. Then, word came that B&N was actually opening more stores. What happened? The sky wasn’t falling, we just had a new environment and the better businesses adjusted, survived, and then thrived.

As I listen to model railroaders discuss the print vs. digital aspect of our hobby I hear a lot of self-righteous chest pounding from both sides, each trying to convince the other that their approach puts them closer to heaven. Lost in the discussion is that nobody really cares what the hell somebody else is reading or where they get their information. Continuing my ongoing theme of being selfish, a lot depends on how immersed you are in the hobby, and what you’re looking to accomplish on any given day. Do what’s best for yourself given your situation but at least have the facts so you can indeed serve your needs most effectively. For the casual recreationalist and the non-modeler fans of the hobby, digital media, surfing Facebook, and the forums probably meets their needs. For the modeler that’s more immersed in the hobby, for lack of better terms the more serious and driven modelers, a blended approach is needed to attain the pinnacle of superior designs, plausible operating sessions, and top flight construction workmanship.

What’s at play, and it’s fascinating to me, is the science of how the brain processes and retains information depending on the format. In an exceptionally well written blog on the subject Lisa Fitzgerald writes, “Neuroscience suggests that printed marketing materials tend to outperform digital when it comes to reading comprehension, recall, emotional impact and persuasiveness.” She goes on to write, “The researchers first asked college students which medium they preferred to use for studying, and which they felt offered them the best recall. Students overwhelmingly chose digital content for both responses. However, when they were tested on their actual retention of information, the results demonstrated that these student clearly had better recall after reading printed materials.”

If this sounds like I’m laying the foundation for a print only argument I’m not. The article concludes with my point, “For various reasons, it may be optimal to distribute and read less complex materials—including simple how-to guides, marketing collateral, short fiction and some kinds of professional documentation—solely through digital channels. That said, studies have found improved comprehension and recall when content is consumed in a printed/analog format.”

For staying socially connected and low key “brain candy”, I use Facebook. For “How To” tutorials and watching prototype operations you can’t beat YouTube. But, if you’re truly serious about advancing your skills, you need the dig deep, vetted, well-edited, hard copy print copies. Probably the best example is the world changing V&O series in RMC decades ago. A more recent example is the exceptionally well written and edited Canton Railroad piece in Railfan and Railroad Magazine (August 2023) which, if you sit down over coffee and read several times, tells you how to design a model railroad. For myself, I utilize a blended approach of online media, print subscriptions, ad hoc single issue purchases, annuals, and books. You would be hard pressed to find a truly great modeler that doesn’t read print on a regular basis.

The Cost of Participation

Today, a somewhat pointless observation, but an observation nonetheless. In recent years I’ve noticed how little money I spend on the hobby. The amount of time I spend modeling is the same as ever, it’s just the cost has become negligible.

It’s not an ideal reality but the cost of entry to model railroading is a little steep and it often comes at a time when modelers are younger and have smaller budgets. You’ll need a control system which will run you upwards of a grand. A single DCC locomotive costs over $300. Turnouts are now approaching forty dollars. Once you get launched though, things become much easier.

First, the components just mentioned can be used over and over and tend to last for decades. Over time, many modelers drift towards scratch building, the cost of which is negligible, and the “play time” involved in building the model significant. For thirty dollars worth of materials you’ll have enough to keep you busy for a month or more.

As they gain experience, modelers “may” become more adept at design and create plans that are more efficient and more streamlined. This equates to less track and fewer turnouts, which again, reduces cost.

Year by year you accumulate more tools, most of which will last you for life. You accumulate large scrap boxes which you can draw on for inventory.

As skills increase, you are more able to fix and build things yourself. As a result, not every problem involves throwing money at it.

Any cost saving tips for those at the beginning of the curve? Within reason, try to avoid buying more “stuff” until you’ve built what you already have. If you have four unbuilt Cornerstone kits on your shelf, build those before purchasing a fifth. Same for freight cars and locomotives, if you don’t have a layout, limit the number you accumulate. The risk of spending thousands of dollars on locomotives for the “someday layout” is that when “someday” arrives (maybe a decade down the road) the newer products will be of higher quality than what you bought previously and put in storage. Plus, having a locomotive sitting unused for long time periods isn’t a good thing. Oxidation sets in. Things dry out. It may not even run when called upon.

If you’re just getting started, hang in there, it gets easier and less expensive, down the road.

Caricature

Some of the most renowned artworks of all time featured fairly mundane subjects. Hopper and Vermeer didn’t need to resort to caricature to make their point.

Caricature: A painting or drawing of a person or thing in which the features and form have been distorted or exaggerated.

People engage in model railroading for a variety of reasons.  Satisfaction of assembly and seeing trains in motion are two biggies.  The largest though, whether the modeler realizes it a conscious level or not, is the desire to re-create in miniature a scene they’ve come across at some point in the past and found to be meaningful to them.  Visual images experienced in person tend to be the strongest although it could also be from a photo or video.  In short, they saw something that evoked positive feelings and they want to be transported to that place when they enter the train room.

How we interpret and modify that real world subject to fit our always too small space plays a major role in how much we enjoy our layout.  The closer our models are to that mental image, the better.  The key phrase is “our own mental image”.  It’s a personal goal primarily because, truth be told, nobody else really cares that much. Seriously they don’t.  Removing the need for outside validation helps us focus to an extent but we still have to satisfy the toughest critic, ourselves.

All of which brings me to the point of today’s blog, caricature.  Embedded in model railroad culture is the tendency to exaggerate and amp up the features of the prototype subject we are modeling. In other words, to create a “caricature” of it.  How far modelers take it falls on a spectrum but, in general, they tend to take it pretty far.  Although the mental imagery of their specific prototype may evoke very powerful positive feelings, when they get to modeling it somehow it isn’t enough.  To jack things up, elements are squeezed in, colors are saturated, industry after industry is shoehorned into the design. Perhaps a building fire with emergency equipment is thrown in.  Maybe a police officer chasing a burglar is added. You get the idea.

Imagine going into the best steakhouse in town and ordering a prime rib. When the waiter places it in on the table you add hot sauce and salt and order a side order of pizza and tacos because those taste good too.  It’s the same thing.

Why would somebody have a subject that matters to them and then alter it to the point of caricature?  The biggest reason is fear.  Modelers have a great deal of anxiety that when their efforts are complete, they won’t be enough, that they’ll be bored.  As a result they keep “adding salt to the prime rib”.  Another reason is sensory flatness.  They’ve reached a point where it takes a ton of visual stimulation to satisfy them.  Finally, they don’t have a strong enough bridge back to the original subject.  Their recollection isn’t clear enough.  They don’t remember why they chose it in the first place. Site visits to your area of interest and truly studying what makes it what it is can rebuild that link between memory of the 1:1 subject and your layout.

Ultimately, the only judge that matters is yourself.  Just make sure that your interpretation of the subject was arrived at consciously as opposed to subconsciously sliding into caricature by default.  There are plenty of examples to follow where the modeler didn’t resort to caricature to create something stunning.  Allen McClelland’s V&O, Mike Confalone, and Marty McGuirk are a few that come to mind.

(A final note:  As an experiment I’ve added a comments section to recent blogs.  I’m a little concerned that I may not be able to keep up with the correspondence but let’s see how it goes. Feel free to comment. Depending on my work load I may or not be able to respond to all of them.)