One of the signature features of Miami are the wall murals. They’re everywhere. This shot was taken on my Downtown Spur layout. You’re looking north up 22nd Avenue. The backdrop starts at the black pick-up truck. The focal point industry is called The Produce Connection and it’s just across the street from Family and Son. The structure was scratch built but it was a pretty easy project, basically a styrene cube. I made a point of getting a good photo of the mural during a site visit and just glued it to the side of the model. The crossing signal is a modified Walthers part.
Creating an eye-catching model of UP’s Anaheim Yard has less to do with skill than effective decision making. That being the case, doing so is within reach for even entry-level modelers.
A world-class musician? Pure skill. A PGA golfer? Pure skill. Artists such as Vermeer and Hopper? The same. Exceptional model railroading results? Not so much. Nope, the lion’s share of a model’s visual impact isn’t related to skills that take decades to learn. In most cases, the necessary techniques are so basic that any first-timer could employ them. The cost of supplies and tools is minimal. Creating a great model railroad scene has far less to do with skill than it does with effective decision-making. (For our purposes I’ll define the term “skill” as anything that requires eye/hand coordination or motor skills. Masterful weathering would be an example). The decisions that are made are what drives the bus. Those crucial decisions center on:
Material selection
Color selection & application
Element selection
Generous spacing between elements
Sheen (Flat vs. Glossy)
Inserting contrast
Basic neatness
Details? Who doesn’t enjoy detailing a model? However, the contribution to visual impact is minimal when compared to other aspects. Detail a model because you enjoy it. Just understand its place in the visual hierarchy. Looking at the seven elements above, in every case, an effective decision is as easy, or often easier to apply than a less effective one.
Materials: In the case of man-made elements, choose the parts and kits that have the finest detail and thinnest cross sections. With structures, look for those appropriate to your era and select ones featuring “ordinary” architecture. Buildings should be ordinary, mundane, and look like they belong. For soils and ballast use natural products.
Color: Lean on the side of low saturation to account for atmosphere and sun fade. When in doubt go “light, pastel, and faded”. Use brilliant, brightly saturated colors with caution. Don’t paint overly thick castings and parts (such railings and windows) bright colors
Composition: Spread your elements out. You are far better off with fewer, widely placed objects, than an overly crowded scene that contains everything but the kitchen sink.
–Give everything a dead flat sheen, even those are actually glossy in the real world. Shine is lost with distance and atmosphere. Pay particular attention to making sure things that are flat in nature are flat on your layout. Examples include masonry, wood, tree trunks, etc. (Glossy bricks and roofs are scene busters)
-Light doesn’t bounce off of a model the way it does in real life. You don’t get the necessary shadows and contrast. Inserting contrast manually with washes adds snap and realism.
-Basic neatness goes a long way. If nothing else, it prevents you from shooting yourself in the foot and letting sloppiness detract from an otherwise great effort.
To illustrate the skill vs. decision making point let’s run through a hypothetical thought experiment. Let’s say we have a motivated high school student, totally new to the hobby and talk him through how to pull off the scene.
Use earth toned grout for the soil base. I’d start with a blend of “Bone” and “Neutral Gray” . Once that’s dried, take a slightly darker hue of gray or brown grout and rub it around in spots with your finger.
Track. Use Micro Engineering or the new Walthers code 70. The finer details and smaller spikes are very apparent in photos. Paint the rail with Rustoleum Earth Brown camo. paint. Lay the track directly on the layout surface with no elevated roadbed cork or otherwise.
Use only natural rock based products for the ballast, preferably Arizona Rock and Mineral. Apply it in several light passes. Make sure you have no grains stuck to the sides of the rail or laying on the ties (even if it does on the prototype). Neatness really, really matters with ballast. Go light. Work in layers.
Walthers Clayton County Lumber would work well for the distant building. Paint the walls Rustoleum Light Gray Primer. Once the walls are dry, give them a wash of dilute India Ink and alcohol to insert contrast in the corrugations. Go easy on the roof color, making it even less of an orange than the prototype. Dial the orange back. (Start with a raw umber followed by a dusting of Rustoleum Earth Brown. Finish it off with an India ink/alcohol wash). Make sure that all of the paint has a dead flat finish
There are decent commercial palms on the market. Don’t rely on the pre-colored plastic that they come in. Paint the trees and do so with a dead flat finish.
Note the wall in the distance, boring yes, but a signature element of the area. Include it. It could be modeled with a strip of styrene. Paint it first with light gray primer and then follow up with a light dusting of white primer.
Commercial billboards are easily found. Just make sure that you paint give it a totally flat sheen.
When choosing the signal boxes be aware that not all parts are made the same. Some have much finer details than others. Develop an awareness of that. If you can find them, the old BLMA products are preferred. Note that the boxes aren’t silver. They aren’t grainy silver. They’re pale gray approaching white.
All of the painting could be handled with rattle cans. The cost of materials would be nominal. The good news is that a standout scene can be achieved largely by making the right decisions when it comes to material selection and color treatment. That being the case it’s achievable for anybody.
Getting out more often to rail fan industrial switching operations has had a direct impact on how much I enjoy operating my layout. The above shot was taken a few months ago in Annapolis Junction, MD.
I was a little surprised with the response I received from my recent Operations 101 YouTube videos. What it comes down to….I think….is that most of us don’t really know how to “play” with our trains. We put all of this effort into building our models….,we engage with the hobby community, and still it comes to “What in the sam hell do I do with all of this?!!”
What doesn’t help is the negative image people conjure up when they hear the term “operations” or worse yet…”FORMAL operations”. Boredom. Stress. Being forced to follow rules and procedures we don’t want to follow. Total confusion and disorientation when visiting another modelers layout. Confusing paperwork. The hobby has brought it upon itself and I’m as guilty as anybody (my apologies to anybody that attended my early operating sessions). Let’s step back for a second and do a re-boot.
I do, in fact, have friends with larger layouts that routinely and successfully host monthly sessions with multiple operators. They are in the distinct minority. My readership base skews towards smaller, modern era, industrial and branchline themes. The multi-operator, long mainline run, session you normally associate with “operating sessions” doesn’t apply to you. You will be operating solo. That fact alone changes everything. It gives you total freedom to set a session up anyway you please. Common sense dictates that you should do so in a way that maximizes your satisfaction does it not? Nobody cares how you do things. They really don’t. That being the case, let’s take a look at some ways to approach operating that might make things more satisfying. Obviously, these thoughts are totally subjective.
For me, the chess game aspect of operations has zero appeal. Moving a six inch long piece of plastic (aka a freight car) in front of another piece of plastic (aka a structure) does nothing for me. What does interest me is capturing the prototype experience. Visualizing the power,mass, vibe and rhythm of prototype railroading is what I enjoy. To do that I need a library of mental images that I can ratchet back and forth from when I’m running. The only way to build that library is through watching videos and rail fanning. (A subtle caution on the videos….as a practical matter, video producers need to edit out much of the process. If you dig around you can find some where this cropping is not done or at least is limited).
So, the first step is building that mental library. The second is to gain a basic understanding of what happens when the prototype performs switching operations. Professional railroaders, on the whole, are great folks that are extremely generous and patient when it comes to explaining things. That’s your first source. The other is going back to the videos and studying them. Finally, if you can, do some rail fanning.
Once you know the steps involved, what a real railroad actually does, you’re then in a position to apply those procedures in a way that you find most satisfying. The steps that a modeler incorporates, or chooses to skip, will vary from person to person. How fast you run? Up to you. How long to pause between moves? Up to you. Props or no props? You get the idea.
Personally, I try to run at least once a week and generally go for thirty to forty-five minutes. My approach is: Run….Pause…..Sip…..Visualize….Relax….Repeat. I’ll do a move, pause while I visualize an operation going on in the field (Three step, walking, opening a gate, etc.), take a sip of coffee or adult beverage, then move on to the next step. This is a hobby. We’re evolving into a “cat chasing a laser pointer…check your phone every few minutes” species. Industrial switching operations provides an opportunity to escape from that hamster wheel…but only if you let it.
Sidebar. Professional railroader Tom Holly has been very generous with his time when it comes to educating me on how the pros do it. We all appreciate it Tom! As part of my “training” he sent me THIS video of a NS switch crew in action. If your scroll to the 2:30 mark you’ll see what’s involved in the basic act of throwing a switch. First you have to unlock it. Then you do a quick visual check of the points. Note the pace they are working at. The locos are moving slightly above walking speed. He also sent me THIS CSX training video explaining the importance of and procedures related to hand brakes. I represent dealing with this step with a short pause.
On the same subject, Matty Gunn produced THISexcellent video of a very basic loads-for-empties swap that gives you a good sense for speed, pacing and the steps involved.
Due to popular demand I’ve just uploaded a second operations tutorial video. My goal in doing these is to encourage folks to run their layouts more often and give them at least some rough examples of how they might structure these solo sessions. I’d also like to soften some the negative stigma associated with operating sessions.
Solo sessions are easy and should be relaxing. It’s up to each individual how they want to structure things…which procedures to copy and which to ignore. It’s really about living the operations experience in miniature not playing a railroad version of chess. Take your time, chill, take pauses and visualize what’s happening on the ground. There is a systematic and measured flow to prototype switching. These guys do the same moves week in and week out. There isn’t time pressure. There “usually” isn’t much confusion as to what needs to be done. They know what’s ahead of them when they come into work and they just do it. If they run out of time, it’s handled the next shift.
Depending on how it’s received, I may do a few more from time to time. In doing so, I wanted to illustrate the pace I run at, give a clearer understanding of how I approach things, and perhaps offer a different perspective on how to approach the subject of solo switching ops. in general. Switching operations should be relaxing and done at laid back pace. With a fifteen minute run time, the clip is on the long side. In actual practice I’d probably run this sequence out even longer to more like twenty minutes.
For me personally, the fun comes from visualizing what an actual crew would be doing on the ground. The key step is taking lots of pauses to represent the time taken for the conductor to do his job. How long to pause? As long as you feel like. The fun would probably be lost if you “forced” yourself to any specific time period. Relax, do the moves, grab a snack. Sip your coffee. Enjoy the show.
Finally, take note that this entire session only uses one turnout and about ten feet of track. There are no hidden “gotchas” or unrealistic runarounds. For a solo session like this you don’t need paperwork. In the real world the crew would likely have it but I question if they even refer to it since they do the same thing day in and day out.
