Work progresses on the “pink warehouse” at 1401 22nd. The walls are .060″ styrene. The roof is half inch gatorboard which I like because of its light weight and resistance to warping. Coloring will be via photo laminates.
The hardest part of the project was the curved and inset front entrance.
An impromptu session on the layout consisting of three car movements, and only using four turnouts, took about sixty minutes. 3 + 4 + 60.
Gaining an understanding of how much model railroad we need in order to be “entertained” is one of the fundamental pillars of a”successful” design. Easier said than done if you’re just starting out.
A major challenge of being new to the hobby is that the modeler doesn’t have the experience to know how much layout is required to spin off the degree of play value they require to feel satisfied. They (including me at that stage) don’t know what they don’t know. In order to compensate, and build in a margin of error, they overload their “wish list” of desired features. It may only take “X” amount of layout to keep them entertained but they don’t know that yet. So, in an effort to avoid putting heart and soul into an effort that falls short in the fun department, they set a scope of “6X”.
Typically it’s not “just a bit” of overcompensation, it’s taken to an extreme. The end result is a myriad of design problems, chief among them being 6X won’t fit in their space. A close second being they have yet to gain the construction fundamentals to build 6X. What often happens is the layout never gets off the ground.
Everybody is different, each of us requiring different levels of element density to be satisfied. It may be a bitter pill to swallow but you can’t gain that self-awareness by surfing the net or conducting endless hypothetical thought experiments on your computer. Spending two years sketching and hand wringing will tell you absolutely squat. Investing three months building a small test layout will tell you tons. You’ll gain the self-awareness and the intuition needed to understand how long construction tasks take and how much operational fun you get from different arrangements.
I encourage people to think in terms of how many minutes of op. session enjoyment a plan will spin out. Keep in mind that you’ll usually be running by yourself and most people have “had enough” after an hour or so of running and playing around.
As a point of reference, let’s look at today’s blog title: 3 plus 4 equals 60. That’s three car movements, utilizing four turnouts, spins out a leisurely 60 minute session. Yesterday I put a cup of coffee on, and ran a session consisting of picking up one empty and dropping two loads at the end of the line. I didn’t use car cards. I wasn’t running with wrinkled brow or any degree of seriousness. I took frequent pauses to represent the conductor walking back and forth. I set the fusee’s for the road crossings. I ran at a slowish pace but it certainly wasn’t a 1 mph crawl either. I was surprised when I looked at the clock to see that an hour had passed. In other words it didn’t take that much to keep me entertained.
If you’re new to the hobby, and interested in branch or industrial switching operations, a good starting point is a plan with four to six turnouts. Get off the computer, slap a shelf on the wall and start experimenting.
As a sidebar, here are two examples that might prove helpful in establishing the pace of operations.
Example of plain vanilla prototype car pick up HERE.
Examples of good model railroad switching pace can always be found on Rick’s SoCal Models YouTube page. This is about the speed I run at.
1401 22nd Street, NW facing NW. 2006 photo
With East Rail 2 now finished, it’s time to pivot back to work on the Downtown Spur. The DTS layout is approaching the finish line with only three or four fairly straightforward structures to build. Currently on the workbench is the pink Streamline Moderne structure at 1401 22nd Street. The inset, curved face makes things a little tricky.
If anybody is interested in operating the layout, drop me a line and I’ll see what we can do. I live in the northern Washington, DC suburbs. The best time on my end would be Friday or Sunday afternoon.
A view across the canal with the team track in the foreground.
The first step in creating an effective model is having a clear understanding of the elements that contribute to the end result, and the percentages of those contributions. Looking solely at the visual impact something contributes, and not taking into account prototypical accuracy, those elements are:
Today I’m going to discuss neatness of assembly. Neatness is often thought of as the lack of sloppiness. That’s true, but only partly so. A “neatly” constructed model covers an entire range of issues which includes, but isn’t limited to: Parts that are aligned and don’t lean or have skew. Parts that are fully seated. No flash on the edges. No errant globs of glue. Decals that are perfectly aligned and aren’t “frosty”. No gaps at parts joints. No parts lift or curl. No paint runs. No ballast stuck to the rail. The list goes on and on.
Working this vital modeling element into our repertoire requires:
Understanding how important the issue is, and caring are only the starting points. Make no mistake about it, neatly assembly something is a skill, and not always an easy one to master.
Any active modeler, no matter how experienced, fights with it continually and focuses on it with every project.
The bottom line is this, neatness is a major visual contributor to an effective modeling result. It’s a skill and costs nothing more than effort, dedication, and awareness.