Model Railroad Blog

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.)

Canton RR Article

The current issue of Railfan and Railroad has an exceptional article on Baltimore’s Canton RR, a modern switching line. I particularly liked the highly detailed explanation of their switching operations. The photos are superb as is Otto’s illustration. You can buy it HERE. My Barnes and Noble had it in the magazine rack.

I have a chapter (and track plan) in my most recent book 8 Track Plans for Modern Switching Layouts, on a segment of the Canton. The article sheds a lot of light on how to operate the layout.

Free Money Layout – Operations

After my last post, Tolga went back and re-shot his OMNI Logistics photo under better conditions. Note the loading ramp on the far right of the photo. Thanks Tolga!

After my post on the “Easy Money” design, I received a few emails asking how it would be operated so let’s take a step back and talk about that.

To begin, this plan isn’t meant to sustain two hour op. sessions for multiple crews. I see it as something you could have a thirty to forty-five minute solo session with. Life is going to be much easier if you don’t jam the layout full of cars. I’d have four or five in the yard and an equal amount at the warehouse. The loco. would be idling outside of the yard office to start. He’d start by sorting the cars in the yard so they are in the correct order for the doors at the warehouse. Once that’s done, he’d shove to the warehouse. Using the incoming loads as a handle, the empties would be pulled out and put on the sorting track. The loads would then be spotted at the correct doors. The cars don’t stay there as a coupled train. There would be gaps between cars and the brake wheels set on each. The empties are then pulled back back to the yard. Work at the interchange yard, if any, would be a simple out and back move. Spotting a car at the team track would be a simple move from the yard. Keep in mind that not every industry is worked every session and not every door at the warehouse is used every session.

You could add a fun twist by having some cars at the warehouse still in the process of being unloaded which would require them to be pulled out of the way and re-spotted. Another twist would be a scenario where there isn’t enough room at the warehouse for all of the incoming cars requiring them be placed “off spot” on the sorting track until room frees up later on.

In order to keep the layout from becoming overly congested with cars, store those not involved in the op. session on a nearby open top shelf.

Free Money

This is railroading and it’s happening now. Tolga Erbora caught FEC’s CIS local down in the dirt and earning revenue as it works OMNI Transload, a logistics warehouse in Miami.

Subject: Model Railroad Layout Design Service

It was over a decade ago when I sat in on a seminar at Cocoa Beach presented by the late TJ Bissett, a CSX conductor. The subject of the talk was switching logistics warehouses, Saddle Creek to be specific. The talk was fascinating and I could see right away that the subject had major layout design implications from the standpoint of creating challenging and plausible operating scenarios in the smallest of spaces. From a design standpoint they are “free money”. Let’s take at a look at these fascinating facilities as well as how to incorporate them into a layout design.

From the outside a logistics warehouse looks like a single industry, a nondescript “box”. It’s not. These facilities are leased out to a variety of small tenants that want rail service but can’t justify having their own spur. What looks like a building with eight or nine cargo doors is actually four, five, six, (or more) totally independent industries. As such they take a variety of car types ranging from standard boxes, Hi Cubes, standard reefers, block-out-the-sun massive reefers, and tank cars of all varieties. (Note: Tolga wrote me later to add, “The OMNI airport location also has handled flatcars with steel beams and centerbeam flats with forklifts being able to unload on the asphalt to the east side or I believe on a small easement on both sides.”)

Operationally they are a gift from gods. When a local arrives on the scene, cars needed to be spotted at specific doors. The food service industry is going to be pretty pissed if they open the cargo door and see a box of lumber spotted there! Further complicating things (or making it more interesting) is that when the local comes on the scene some of the cars on site may not have been unloaded yet. That means they need to be moved out of the way, the new loads spotted, and then the yet-to-be unloaded cars put back.

The nature of the warehouses is such that they could be easily modeled with a relatively flat structure. Even a model with four or five doors could take thirty to forty-five minutes to switch….and that’s a layout design opportunity!

A reefer sits in front of OMNI transload in Miami. Note that on most days not every single door has a car in front of it.

Tolga Erbora got this rare catch in front of OMNI a few days ago. We aren’t exactly sure what the contents of the tanks are since the placards would indicate it’s not food related. So, here we have some variety, tanks and boxcars.

OMNI transload from street side. Note the pallets of lumber which came in on boxcars.

The Cryo-Trans reefers spotted in front of this logistics warehouse in Baltimore likely contain wine. Not visible is a sorting track just behind the guard rail. Note the boxcar for a different tenant. What’s going on with the three extra reefers on the sorting track? Those are “offspots” . When they came in, the reefers at the door were still being unloaded and were in the way. When they’ve been dealt with, the local will pull them and put the offspots in place to be unloaded.

The Design

A well thought out design covers a lot of bases. It should be interesting to look at when you’re not running trains and offer up a variety of building projects that are fun for the layout owner. It should be plausible. It should be straightforward to build. The plan shown here could be made operational within a weekend and is within reach of a high school student. It also offers plenty of meat for the more experience detailed modeler. If you used Atlas code 83 track the cost would be minimal. Using Atlas’ sectional track 24 inch curves would further simplify things. I’ve include photo wallpaper for the warehouse in the How To section of this site. The “negative space” section in the middle contains no spurs and creates a sense of distance between the yard and warehouse. There is more than enough going on with the plan that putting more track here serves no purpose other than to be an eyesore.

If you like this plan you might enjoy my latest book “8 Track Plans For Modern Era Switching Layouts”.

The team track at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore. These take a variety of cars for customers that don’t have their own spur. The tanks in this shot are for an environmental services firm across town. They offer the chance to incorporate a broad variety of car types in a small space.