Model Railroad Blog

The “East Rail” Name

It’s February 15, 2006 at the “East Rail” industrial park (looking southward). Looking at the tracks to the right we have (back to front): No. 1 Main (back), No. 2 Main(middle), and the “East Rail” siding (foreground) . East Rail got its name by virtue of being “East” of the double track main. At the time this shot was taken, the crew had to shove a several block long cut of cars around a blind curve for spotting at The Seaboard Warehouse. Each car had to be spotted at a specific door so the engineer (in white shirt) was totally dependent upon radio communications from the conductor (orange shirt). Prior to the move, the engineer got out of the cab and the crew had a several minute long meeting to discuss the task at hand. Once the work started, they were probably five hundred yards apart and out of sight from one another. This is industrial railroading! When you’re switching your layout, take your time, sip your favorite beverage as you think through how you’re going to work things. The pros don’t roll in at 20 mph, hit the brakes, and slam cars around. This video will give you a sense for pacing…surgical precision starts at the 6:00 mark. (thanks Justin!)

East Rail 2 Update

Before and after views of the East Rail 2 layout room

The bulk of my time since the last update has been spent on cleaning and renovating the East Rail 2 layout room. Photos of me elbow deep with a scrub brush removing asphalt tile adhesive doesn’t make for the most captivating blog posts hence the radio silence. The DC area is prone to basement flooding. About three years ago during a weekend monsoon, about a quarter of an inch of water covered the entire floor, deposited a microfine layer of silt everywhere, and wicked up the studs and baseboards an inch or so. Mess doesn’t begin to describe it. East Rail is located in what was a little used storage and photography room so I’ve been putting off cleaning it up. With the layout coming together, it was time. The mold-laden baseboards were stripped and replaced with pvc (waterproof) ones. The walls were refinished, patched, and repainted. The peeling floor tiles were removed, the floor got a deep clean, and a new coat of concrete paint was applied.

On to more pleasant tasks. I started working on the final scenery pass on the canal side, a step which focused on applying sections of Martin Wellberg’s excellent grass mats. The trick with these is handling the edges. I added a step to his directions. Specifically, after cutting a patch to shape I sprayed them with Super77 spray adhesive and then applied dots of tacky glue over the surface. The mat was put in place and I ran my finger firmly around the edges to push it tightly down. Finally I ran an air thin section of polyfiber around the edges.

Hollywood and The Downtown Spur

Film often contains a large art component and a lot of thought goes into the backdrop locations they use for their shoots. Picking the right one can really set the tone. The Downtown Spur has appeared at least three time on film and t.v. I suspect there have been others.

Miami Vice. Crockett Meets Tubbs

The key scene unfolds on the iconic bascule bridge over the Miami River adjacent to FP&T. See the 4:00 mark.

James Bond “Goldfinger”

A scene plays out right in front of Miami Iron and Metal. Go to the 2:00 mark of the clip.

Burn Notice. Season 1. Episode 6. Unpaid Debts.

Go to the 15:00 mark for the start of the scene which begins with a look down the “canyon” between Proveedora Jiron and Florida Bottling. It then moves over the Gulf Atlantic Warehouse with glimpses of Trujillo and Sons in the background.

All of this ads a layer of fun when running the layout….knowing you’ve walked right by some famous photo shoots a dozen times.

Downtown Spur Op. Session

There is probably no person on earth that knows the nitty gritty details of CSX operations in Miami more than Tolga Erbora. It was a pleasure to have him run a one person operation session of the layout during the Mid-Atlantic RPM open house. He documented everything on video which you can watch HERE.

His attention to detail was amazing and I learned a few things. For example, at the end of a branch run what do you do with the EOT device? Never thought about that but it would be on the wrong end of the train. The answer, you need to move it to the other end! Watch for the move at the 15:48 mark. Enjoy.

The Caricature Pendulum

In August I wrote about the caricature trap, caricature being a treatment that has an “amped up”, contrived, “model railroady” look to it. There’s no shame in that…..as long as it’s intentional….as long as it something you enjoy looking at. Often though it’s not intentional, and that’s where it’s time to take a pause and evaluate if the look you have is the look you want.

A key section of the East Rail 2 layout is the middle “L” where I’ve employed negative space as a scene separator. It’s very noticeable. In the top photo is my first run at things. Here you can see how the caricature issue can swing too far the other way to the point of being overly bland and lifeless. It can be tricky to dial in. On the original layout I put a billboard in the scene next to the 35th Avenue, the road that frames the left side. The only problem is that 35th Ave. is a quiet, two lane road in an industrial park. There is no way anybody would put a billboard there. The sign was a caricature, a little amateurish.

So, now I’m stuck. The scene in the top photo is too bland. Putting a billboard there for some snap would be model railroady. What to do? The solution I ultimately settled on was a flat of an industry called Garland Foods. The color was carefully chosen to contrast with the green foliage. Flats can be very dicey and if you don’t take some key steps they will really muck up your look. Some tips for working with flats against the backdrop to keep them from wrecking a scene are:

-Keep them low one story affairs

-Keep them distant and lower on the horizon

-Set the viewing perspective at ninety degrees

-Hide the edges of the flat as I did with the trees on both ends.

Scene composition takes careful thought and sometimes you don’t have a lot of leeway either way. If you don’t have enough snap it will look lifeless. Go too far the other way, which is usually what happens, and it slips towards looking like a toy.