Your First Model Train Setup
0 Comments Published by BluDragoness on Friday, February 25, 2005 at 11:52 AM.
A model train setup is a big boy’s toy, a world in miniature in which the creator is God. It’s not something to set up for a young child, and it’s not even for all older children. Setting up your model train is a project that requires patience, time, and commitment, but not necessarily a lot of money.
The first step is to determine where you’re going to have your setup. It does you no good to purchase all the equipment for your model train if you don’t have room for a good setup. You need an area that will be relatively undisturbed, where children and animals do not dare intrude unless invited; and you need to remember to leave enough room to move around all four sides of your table, board, or other platform. Ideal spaces are clean, dry basements (dust is bad for your model train), spare bedrooms, workshops, or safe attics.
Next, you have to determine whether you are going to use an old table to lay your train out on, or if you’re going to use an alternate support, such as sawhorses. It’s important that the base of your train set be stable; test any tables or sawhorses for shakiness by leaning on them with your full weight and shaking them. Any shakiness needs to be stabilized before you build anything else.
You will need a flat of plywood or a similar lightweight, strong material to set your world up on. Before you go out to get it, consider whether you just want your setup to remain in its room, or you intend to take it to model train shows. If you are going to have a portable train set, you need to cut your plywood into sheets small enough to move through the door; and you will have to come up with a clamping system to tie them back together, again without any shakiness or instability. One model train setup designer used simple flat brackets and screws to put his setup together; it may become unstable eventually, but it’s fine for now.
Now that your table and your plywood are waiting for you, you can think about the fun stuff: design. How complex do you want your model to be? Do you want hills? Rivers? Roads? You can have cities, or you can have tunnels through rustic highlands. Sketch out your vision with carpenter’s pencil on the plywood, and draw a rough map of where you want the track to lie. Make a list of the supplies you think you’ll need; for instance, for grass you’ll need to get spray-on grass from a model train supply store. You need to save newspapers to make the paper mache to build hills and other rises, and you’ll need model paints for roads, houses, and any models you build yourself.
At this point, it’s imperative that you determine your model size. The most common size is an H-gauge; but whatever size you choose, you need to make sure that everything you buy for your model is the same gauge size. Purchase enough to start your set, including the train, some track, and a small housing setup or other structures you want on your model.
Almost everyone who builds a model train set wants to have tunnels on their setup. Somewhere on your penciled map, you probably have an ideal place for one. Start with a short tunnel, so that if anything goes wrong you can reach in from either side and fix it. Measure the height of your train plus the height you are going to make your tracks (almost everyone uses a slightly raised track) and make the tunnel roof at least 25% taller than that height, to accommodate any oversize cars. Make the width of the tunnel the width of the widest point of your train plus 25%; if you are going to have a curve in your tunnel, you might want to consider making the interior of the tunnel the width plus 35% to make sure the train doesn’t get stuck on the bend.
The tunnel should be made before building the hill it runs through. You can create it with stiff cardboard, wood, or anything else that will retain its shape when wet papier-mache is mounded over it.
Before you build your landscape or place your tunnel, you need to lay the track. Glue it down with modeler’s glue (you can find that at the same store as the track) and make sure that breaks in the track lay along the splits in the plywood, so that when you take your setup apart it will break the track in the right places and you won’t have to pry anything up. When the track is down, set the tunnel up in the appropriate place, run your train through it once to make sure it won’t get stuck, make any necessary adjustments, and then glue it down (be sure the tunnel isn’t really tight around the train), and build your hill over top of it. When the hill is quite dry, you can paint it. Though you have purchased spray grass to cover it with, you should paint it before putting the grass on; that way, you don’t have ugly newsprint showing through the grass.
Glue down your other essential models, build any other tunnels or hills, and you have your first model train setup. Congratulations!
The first step is to determine where you’re going to have your setup. It does you no good to purchase all the equipment for your model train if you don’t have room for a good setup. You need an area that will be relatively undisturbed, where children and animals do not dare intrude unless invited; and you need to remember to leave enough room to move around all four sides of your table, board, or other platform. Ideal spaces are clean, dry basements (dust is bad for your model train), spare bedrooms, workshops, or safe attics.
Next, you have to determine whether you are going to use an old table to lay your train out on, or if you’re going to use an alternate support, such as sawhorses. It’s important that the base of your train set be stable; test any tables or sawhorses for shakiness by leaning on them with your full weight and shaking them. Any shakiness needs to be stabilized before you build anything else.
You will need a flat of plywood or a similar lightweight, strong material to set your world up on. Before you go out to get it, consider whether you just want your setup to remain in its room, or you intend to take it to model train shows. If you are going to have a portable train set, you need to cut your plywood into sheets small enough to move through the door; and you will have to come up with a clamping system to tie them back together, again without any shakiness or instability. One model train setup designer used simple flat brackets and screws to put his setup together; it may become unstable eventually, but it’s fine for now.
Now that your table and your plywood are waiting for you, you can think about the fun stuff: design. How complex do you want your model to be? Do you want hills? Rivers? Roads? You can have cities, or you can have tunnels through rustic highlands. Sketch out your vision with carpenter’s pencil on the plywood, and draw a rough map of where you want the track to lie. Make a list of the supplies you think you’ll need; for instance, for grass you’ll need to get spray-on grass from a model train supply store. You need to save newspapers to make the paper mache to build hills and other rises, and you’ll need model paints for roads, houses, and any models you build yourself.
At this point, it’s imperative that you determine your model size. The most common size is an H-gauge; but whatever size you choose, you need to make sure that everything you buy for your model is the same gauge size. Purchase enough to start your set, including the train, some track, and a small housing setup or other structures you want on your model.
Almost everyone who builds a model train set wants to have tunnels on their setup. Somewhere on your penciled map, you probably have an ideal place for one. Start with a short tunnel, so that if anything goes wrong you can reach in from either side and fix it. Measure the height of your train plus the height you are going to make your tracks (almost everyone uses a slightly raised track) and make the tunnel roof at least 25% taller than that height, to accommodate any oversize cars. Make the width of the tunnel the width of the widest point of your train plus 25%; if you are going to have a curve in your tunnel, you might want to consider making the interior of the tunnel the width plus 35% to make sure the train doesn’t get stuck on the bend.
The tunnel should be made before building the hill it runs through. You can create it with stiff cardboard, wood, or anything else that will retain its shape when wet papier-mache is mounded over it.
Before you build your landscape or place your tunnel, you need to lay the track. Glue it down with modeler’s glue (you can find that at the same store as the track) and make sure that breaks in the track lay along the splits in the plywood, so that when you take your setup apart it will break the track in the right places and you won’t have to pry anything up. When the track is down, set the tunnel up in the appropriate place, run your train through it once to make sure it won’t get stuck, make any necessary adjustments, and then glue it down (be sure the tunnel isn’t really tight around the train), and build your hill over top of it. When the hill is quite dry, you can paint it. Though you have purchased spray grass to cover it with, you should paint it before putting the grass on; that way, you don’t have ugly newsprint showing through the grass.
Glue down your other essential models, build any other tunnels or hills, and you have your first model train setup. Congratulations!
The stuff in train stores can get pricey; there are things that you absolutely have to have, like liquid plastic to form water, waterfalls, and pools, but do you really need miniature gravel for the tracks? Or those expensive cars? Or the spray-on grass – isn’t there a cheaper way?
Yep. For someone with a creative mind, there are tons of ways to not just find your modeling material more cheaply, but to have a model that looks better than the stuff you buy in the store.
Start with the track. You hate the miniature gravel they sell to glue down to the track, but you don’t know how to get away from it. Instead of buying it, go out and find small-grain Styrofoam, like the stuff computer peripherals is packed in. Crumble it fine, and put it in a shallow box – the lid to a paper box is ideal. Spray quick-dry gray paint over the whole mess, and shake it around to keep it from sticking together. Keep doing this – spraying then shaking – until all the grains look gray – and an awful lot like gravel. After it dries, this material is ideal for gravel fill on your tracks, or on your dirt roads.
The spray grass also gets pricey, especially at the rate you use it. A cheap alternative – potter’s green. That’s the foamy stuff you stick plastic plants into in pots to keep them stable. If you crumble it up finely, it makes a nice grainy powder. Next trick – put the green powder you created into a wide-holed salt shaker – or recycle one of your old cheap spice bottles with fairly wide holes. Everywhere you needed grass, cover with spray-on glue; if it’s close to things that should not be coated with green, cover them with tissue paper or something else easily moldable that can protect them before spraying. Then shake the green powder all over the sprayed down areas. After it dries, go over the area with a very soft broom or large makeup brush, or with a Dustbuster. And you have grass.
So now you have the tracks, you have the grass and hills – what about rustic streams and rocky hillsides? Water, unfortunately, you will probably have to model with liquid plastic. But the other landscaping – rocks for your babbling brooks to splash over, or to jut out from the hillside – can be gathered from the ground outside. Look around carefully – you want stones with character. You need to have stones that won’t look like boulders or mountains. If you live in an area with shale or slate or other forms of limestone, you can take just about any limestone rock and break it up with a hammer – if you do this, don’t be macho. Use gloves, wear sleeves, and put on glasses or goggles. Sharp bits of stone in the eyes are not any fun. To break the stone properly, hit it at an angle; this will break it off in flakes rather than chunks. A rock hammer is the best way to go, but a regular old house hammer will work.
You should have designed channels in your papier-mache hills to flow your streams through; re-dampen those and carefully embed your rocks into the sides of the channel. Try to place them a little randomly; put a couple at angles you wouldn’t expect. Remember that streams flow downhill, so you want stones to overlap up-to-down. Wherever stones touch, put a little dab of glue or liquid cement, not enough to show up but enough to hold the rocks in place. Place a few rocks randomly along the sides of the bank, and make sure there’s a bit of a pileup of rocks at the foot of the hill. Give your rocks time to dry. Now paint your liquid plastic down the streambed to whatever thickness you want. Voila – a beautiful stream.
Trees can be made of branchy twigs from local trees outside your house. You can also use branchy twigs from bushes, or strong weeds. To make these trees look like trees, remove any leaves, dip the entire twig in an oak wood stain, and after it dries pull apart cotton balls or fluff dyed dark green (a shade or two darker than your grass) and gently and sparingly glue it to the branchy end of your twig. Spray with glue, and, holding the tree upside down, shake your green grass material all over it. You may have to repeat this a couple of times to get good coverage. If you kept a bit of the potter’s green intact instead of turning all of it into grass, it makes a perfect base to stick your tree in so that it can dry before you put it on your landscape.
Remember those expensive models? With H and G gauge model sets, Matchbox cars are almost the perfect size to match the trains. Browse toy stores and the toy section of department stores to look for other models you can use. You’ll probably be able to find vehicles, miniature people and animals, and even miniature houses. If you’re not clear on the scale you need, bring a sample from your train set with you.
The most important thing, though, is to be creative. Creativity is what your model train is all about.
Yep. For someone with a creative mind, there are tons of ways to not just find your modeling material more cheaply, but to have a model that looks better than the stuff you buy in the store.
Start with the track. You hate the miniature gravel they sell to glue down to the track, but you don’t know how to get away from it. Instead of buying it, go out and find small-grain Styrofoam, like the stuff computer peripherals is packed in. Crumble it fine, and put it in a shallow box – the lid to a paper box is ideal. Spray quick-dry gray paint over the whole mess, and shake it around to keep it from sticking together. Keep doing this – spraying then shaking – until all the grains look gray – and an awful lot like gravel. After it dries, this material is ideal for gravel fill on your tracks, or on your dirt roads.
The spray grass also gets pricey, especially at the rate you use it. A cheap alternative – potter’s green. That’s the foamy stuff you stick plastic plants into in pots to keep them stable. If you crumble it up finely, it makes a nice grainy powder. Next trick – put the green powder you created into a wide-holed salt shaker – or recycle one of your old cheap spice bottles with fairly wide holes. Everywhere you needed grass, cover with spray-on glue; if it’s close to things that should not be coated with green, cover them with tissue paper or something else easily moldable that can protect them before spraying. Then shake the green powder all over the sprayed down areas. After it dries, go over the area with a very soft broom or large makeup brush, or with a Dustbuster. And you have grass.
So now you have the tracks, you have the grass and hills – what about rustic streams and rocky hillsides? Water, unfortunately, you will probably have to model with liquid plastic. But the other landscaping – rocks for your babbling brooks to splash over, or to jut out from the hillside – can be gathered from the ground outside. Look around carefully – you want stones with character. You need to have stones that won’t look like boulders or mountains. If you live in an area with shale or slate or other forms of limestone, you can take just about any limestone rock and break it up with a hammer – if you do this, don’t be macho. Use gloves, wear sleeves, and put on glasses or goggles. Sharp bits of stone in the eyes are not any fun. To break the stone properly, hit it at an angle; this will break it off in flakes rather than chunks. A rock hammer is the best way to go, but a regular old house hammer will work.
You should have designed channels in your papier-mache hills to flow your streams through; re-dampen those and carefully embed your rocks into the sides of the channel. Try to place them a little randomly; put a couple at angles you wouldn’t expect. Remember that streams flow downhill, so you want stones to overlap up-to-down. Wherever stones touch, put a little dab of glue or liquid cement, not enough to show up but enough to hold the rocks in place. Place a few rocks randomly along the sides of the bank, and make sure there’s a bit of a pileup of rocks at the foot of the hill. Give your rocks time to dry. Now paint your liquid plastic down the streambed to whatever thickness you want. Voila – a beautiful stream.
Trees can be made of branchy twigs from local trees outside your house. You can also use branchy twigs from bushes, or strong weeds. To make these trees look like trees, remove any leaves, dip the entire twig in an oak wood stain, and after it dries pull apart cotton balls or fluff dyed dark green (a shade or two darker than your grass) and gently and sparingly glue it to the branchy end of your twig. Spray with glue, and, holding the tree upside down, shake your green grass material all over it. You may have to repeat this a couple of times to get good coverage. If you kept a bit of the potter’s green intact instead of turning all of it into grass, it makes a perfect base to stick your tree in so that it can dry before you put it on your landscape.
Remember those expensive models? With H and G gauge model sets, Matchbox cars are almost the perfect size to match the trains. Browse toy stores and the toy section of department stores to look for other models you can use. You’ll probably be able to find vehicles, miniature people and animals, and even miniature houses. If you’re not clear on the scale you need, bring a sample from your train set with you.
The most important thing, though, is to be creative. Creativity is what your model train is all about.
Everyone who wants to get into model trains has seen a train show – the huge, elaborate layouts, the breathtaking miniaturized scenery, and the rows upon rows of tracks. One of the biggest mistakes made by beginners is to think they can build something like that right away. You can’t. You’re going to have to work hard just to learn to build your first small layout. But if you want a jump ahead, there are a few things you should remember.
When you're starting out with a model train, it seems like everything takes too long, but the most important thing you can do is take your time. Everything in building your model is going to be a little slow; that's because you're trying to build perfect miniature examples of the world around you. You can’t do that fast and have good results. Take your time with each piece, get it right, and then go on to the next.
Start small. Don't go into model railroading with grandiose ambitions to have a track that fills the room. That will come later. Instead, settle for something less than ten feet wide, and don't get too fancy with the track layout. A simple oval or figure eight with maybe one side track is okay for starting out. Look at your first layout as your training wheels. You can take everything apart and put it together again for this one because it's small; but if you screw up a large model set, you may give up because of the vastness of the job of putting it right. The large layouts, in fact, are so difficult that many people who have been into modeling for years have never built anything larger than 8 feet by 10.
Haunt hobby shops, toy stores, and other places you can find models. You don't have to buy them, but you can get some great ideas for building your own versions. One modeler I know build a great layout with a gorge and a wooden bridge over it made entirely from popsicle sticks and wooden dowels. It's huge, it's perfect, and it's gorgeous. And it didn't cost $60 like the one he saw in the store.
Get a basic tool kit. Nothing fancy, but at least have a hobby knife, a set of jeweler's tools, needlenose pliers, needle files, fine tweezers, and a scale rule. A great idea is to periodically visit the tool section in Sears or another store that has really great tool selections; this will give you fresh ideas for things you can do to improve your site.
Never, never, never run your trains on the floor. Fuzz is hard to get out of the wheels, and you'll ruin the whole set. Keep the animals and small children away too; dogs love to chew things that smell like their owners, and cats shed. And small children do many things that are very bad for model train sets. Only allow children with adult supervision.
Keep your tracks clean. Because electric trains depend on electricity conducted through the rails to the locomotive's wheels and then to the engine, a dirty track or dirty wheels will hinder your train from running. Keep it dusted, at a minimum, and keep debris off the tracks. When the tracks are dirty, rubbing them down with a clean, dry cloth will sometimes work. If you need more to remove dirt, try a pink pencil eraser, or a typewriter or pen ink eraser. You can purchase a special rubber eraser with abrasive made specifically for model trains, too. Never clean your track with sandpaper or any other harsh abrasive; it will do more harm than good.
One of the most common problems encountered by model train hobbyists is the train jumping the track -- either cars or locomotive derailing. Usually, you'll find the problem in the track, the wheels, or the couplers. Check the tracks for alignment, and make certain all the sections are firmly pushed together and that their joints align smoothly. If you have a model board that's in pieces, especially check the joints along the edges of the boards. Anything angling your tracks can cause derailments, so pick up a pocket leveler (you can find them at hardware stores) and make sure your board is perfectly flat.
Tiny bits of debris on the track can derail your train -- remember the old urban legend about putting a dime on the tracks to derail the 5:00 Express? Well, it works on the scale of model trains. Examine the track carefully with a bright light. Check your wheels for defects. Any wheel that has a broken flange (a common problem) must be replaced. Wheels that are twisted or forced too close or too far apart will also derail. Defective couplers can also force your train off the track. If the coupler won't move at all when yuo try to move it from side to side, it needs to be unstuck or replaced.
The most important thing to remember as a beginner is to have fun. When you stop having fun, the hobby ceases to be a hobby and becomes something else. Take your time, use your imagination, and enjoy!
When you're starting out with a model train, it seems like everything takes too long, but the most important thing you can do is take your time. Everything in building your model is going to be a little slow; that's because you're trying to build perfect miniature examples of the world around you. You can’t do that fast and have good results. Take your time with each piece, get it right, and then go on to the next.
Start small. Don't go into model railroading with grandiose ambitions to have a track that fills the room. That will come later. Instead, settle for something less than ten feet wide, and don't get too fancy with the track layout. A simple oval or figure eight with maybe one side track is okay for starting out. Look at your first layout as your training wheels. You can take everything apart and put it together again for this one because it's small; but if you screw up a large model set, you may give up because of the vastness of the job of putting it right. The large layouts, in fact, are so difficult that many people who have been into modeling for years have never built anything larger than 8 feet by 10.
Haunt hobby shops, toy stores, and other places you can find models. You don't have to buy them, but you can get some great ideas for building your own versions. One modeler I know build a great layout with a gorge and a wooden bridge over it made entirely from popsicle sticks and wooden dowels. It's huge, it's perfect, and it's gorgeous. And it didn't cost $60 like the one he saw in the store.
Get a basic tool kit. Nothing fancy, but at least have a hobby knife, a set of jeweler's tools, needlenose pliers, needle files, fine tweezers, and a scale rule. A great idea is to periodically visit the tool section in Sears or another store that has really great tool selections; this will give you fresh ideas for things you can do to improve your site.
Never, never, never run your trains on the floor. Fuzz is hard to get out of the wheels, and you'll ruin the whole set. Keep the animals and small children away too; dogs love to chew things that smell like their owners, and cats shed. And small children do many things that are very bad for model train sets. Only allow children with adult supervision.
Keep your tracks clean. Because electric trains depend on electricity conducted through the rails to the locomotive's wheels and then to the engine, a dirty track or dirty wheels will hinder your train from running. Keep it dusted, at a minimum, and keep debris off the tracks. When the tracks are dirty, rubbing them down with a clean, dry cloth will sometimes work. If you need more to remove dirt, try a pink pencil eraser, or a typewriter or pen ink eraser. You can purchase a special rubber eraser with abrasive made specifically for model trains, too. Never clean your track with sandpaper or any other harsh abrasive; it will do more harm than good.
One of the most common problems encountered by model train hobbyists is the train jumping the track -- either cars or locomotive derailing. Usually, you'll find the problem in the track, the wheels, or the couplers. Check the tracks for alignment, and make certain all the sections are firmly pushed together and that their joints align smoothly. If you have a model board that's in pieces, especially check the joints along the edges of the boards. Anything angling your tracks can cause derailments, so pick up a pocket leveler (you can find them at hardware stores) and make sure your board is perfectly flat.
Tiny bits of debris on the track can derail your train -- remember the old urban legend about putting a dime on the tracks to derail the 5:00 Express? Well, it works on the scale of model trains. Examine the track carefully with a bright light. Check your wheels for defects. Any wheel that has a broken flange (a common problem) must be replaced. Wheels that are twisted or forced too close or too far apart will also derail. Defective couplers can also force your train off the track. If the coupler won't move at all when yuo try to move it from side to side, it needs to be unstuck or replaced.
The most important thing to remember as a beginner is to have fun. When you stop having fun, the hobby ceases to be a hobby and becomes something else. Take your time, use your imagination, and enjoy!
Basics of model trains
0 Comments Published by Vivek Kumar on Thursday, February 24, 2005 at 5:33 AM.
Model trains are intended to give you pleasure, no matter what is your age and profession. And these model trains can make a life long hobby, if you have a good train set and additionally know what the parts it constitutes and other terms related to railroading. Here, we will discuss some basic points about the model trains. It is very obvious that a typical train set includes a locomotive, three to five passenger cars, enough track to make a circle or an oval, a transformer, and a set of wires that go between the transformer and the track. This set-up is just like the trains that are run actually to commute the people. These model trains rail tracks have one piece as a "re-railer" section that helps you put the cars and the locomotive onto the rails more easily.
The size of the model trains is dependent upon the age of the user and the space that you have in your house. These model trains are graded for a particular range of age and you can pick one according to your need.
Being a mechanical engineer graduate, I would love to enlist some glossary terms that are included in these model trains. Here are few of them:
Couplers: These are the devices that are used to join passenger cars and locomotives and are placed at the end of each compartment. These are generally knuckle shaped devices; however, some companies are offering more shapes including the "horn-hook" and the "Rapido-style" coupler.
Drivers: These are large wheels on a steam locomotive connected by side rods.
Flywheel: Flywheel is a turned, solid-metal cylinder mounted in line with a model locomotive’s motor that actually smoothes out the motor's rotating motion to the drive train. It also acts as a energy storage device if the locomotive is producing more but the engine is not using enough.
Rail joiner: It is a small metal clip, as clear from the name itself, which joins two sections of rail together.
Re-railer: As told earlier, this is a section of track that guides wheels or passenger cars and locomotives onto the rails.
Tender: It is the name given to the car immediately behind a steam locomotive that carries fuel for the firebox and water for the boiler.
Throttle: This device controls the speed of the locomotive and is just like a potentiometer controlling a voltage regulator.
Truck: It is the frame assembly under each end of a car and the diesel locomotive that holds the wheel-sets.
Wheel-set: It is, as clear from the name itself, the wheel-axle assembly that fits into the truck. Generally trucks have two or three wheel-sets according to the size of car.
It is general glossary section to tell you something about the components of your model train and gives you an idea as how the train is running and making you enjoy! A little more knowledge can give you a complete satisfaction but that tends to be a little more technical and so I have opted not put it here.
The size of the model trains is dependent upon the age of the user and the space that you have in your house. These model trains are graded for a particular range of age and you can pick one according to your need.
Being a mechanical engineer graduate, I would love to enlist some glossary terms that are included in these model trains. Here are few of them:
Couplers: These are the devices that are used to join passenger cars and locomotives and are placed at the end of each compartment. These are generally knuckle shaped devices; however, some companies are offering more shapes including the "horn-hook" and the "Rapido-style" coupler.
Drivers: These are large wheels on a steam locomotive connected by side rods.
Flywheel: Flywheel is a turned, solid-metal cylinder mounted in line with a model locomotive’s motor that actually smoothes out the motor's rotating motion to the drive train. It also acts as a energy storage device if the locomotive is producing more but the engine is not using enough.
Rail joiner: It is a small metal clip, as clear from the name itself, which joins two sections of rail together.
Re-railer: As told earlier, this is a section of track that guides wheels or passenger cars and locomotives onto the rails.
Tender: It is the name given to the car immediately behind a steam locomotive that carries fuel for the firebox and water for the boiler.
Throttle: This device controls the speed of the locomotive and is just like a potentiometer controlling a voltage regulator.
Truck: It is the frame assembly under each end of a car and the diesel locomotive that holds the wheel-sets.
Wheel-set: It is, as clear from the name itself, the wheel-axle assembly that fits into the truck. Generally trucks have two or three wheel-sets according to the size of car.
It is general glossary section to tell you something about the components of your model train and gives you an idea as how the train is running and making you enjoy! A little more knowledge can give you a complete satisfaction but that tends to be a little more technical and so I have opted not put it here.
Model trains have always fascinated me, from way back when I was a kid to now. My cousins had a Lionel train setup in the attic when I was young and it was always a treat to go up those stairs and see the trains. My uncle ran them (they were really his), and the bored cousins smirked while my brother and I ran around looking at the village, with the little people and buildings, and of course, the trains. My favorite was the log car, and my brother liked the engine that could go both ways. The setup looked huge to me, almost like a real village, and it certainly took up a big part of the attic. It was always kinda dark up there, and the twinkling lights of the village lent a magical air to the whole experience. My uncle always seemed glad to take us up there, probably cause the awe in our eyes matched his. After I grew older I didn't go up and look at the trains as much, but it was so much fun when I was young.
I've wondered how outdoor train setups work. I've seen some grand ones - at the State Fair of Texas there's a garden display with large-gauge trains running around the site. There are tunnels and bridges, and the trains go past little Texas landmarks, like the Alamo. I sat and watched the trains for quite a while last October, and I really like it when the engine first comes around a tree. It's really a beautiful display, and they have it set up every year, at least all the years I've been to the fair. Another of my favorite train displays, which is no longer there, I've heard, was at Thanksgiving Point, which is between Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah. This is an extraordinarily beautiful place, with themed gardens, a huge waterfall, and a dinosaur museum. The trains had a corner at the entrance to the gardens and there was a mountain with a tunnel; it was quite a large run for the trains. There's a Noah's Ark that sprays water nearby too. I'd like to go back there, cause that's really a nice place.
My husband and I travel a lot, and we've been to several restaurants that have model trains zooming around inside. One I liked was a steakhouse in Idaho that had the trains going at eye level around the booths, and then they climbed up a hill and zipped around the top of the place near the ceiling. It was most unexpected to first see the trains there, even though it was named some kinds of train name. A lot of the places are named "Choo-Choo" or "The Depot" or whatever, but one we went in for breakfast was a Greek place. There were little trains running all around, up by the ceiling, down low, and even in and out of the kitchen. I never expected a train to be running around a Greek restaurant, and especially at breakfast, but it was so fun, and we stayed almost until lunch talking to the owner about the trains. I love to see the kids when they first see the trains - they are usually totally intrigued, or frightened out of their wits.
My daughters were never interested in trains much, but my granddaughter loves Thomas the Tank Engine. We took her to Grapevine, Texas to see Thomas when he came around, and she was fascinated with trains then. They had a model train set up, a gift shop with all things train for sale, and the steam engine that lives there had a Thomas face for photo time. We took a ride on the train, and Hannah clutched her train prizes from the gift shop all the way home. She's a girl of my own heart.
I've wondered how outdoor train setups work. I've seen some grand ones - at the State Fair of Texas there's a garden display with large-gauge trains running around the site. There are tunnels and bridges, and the trains go past little Texas landmarks, like the Alamo. I sat and watched the trains for quite a while last October, and I really like it when the engine first comes around a tree. It's really a beautiful display, and they have it set up every year, at least all the years I've been to the fair. Another of my favorite train displays, which is no longer there, I've heard, was at Thanksgiving Point, which is between Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah. This is an extraordinarily beautiful place, with themed gardens, a huge waterfall, and a dinosaur museum. The trains had a corner at the entrance to the gardens and there was a mountain with a tunnel; it was quite a large run for the trains. There's a Noah's Ark that sprays water nearby too. I'd like to go back there, cause that's really a nice place.
My husband and I travel a lot, and we've been to several restaurants that have model trains zooming around inside. One I liked was a steakhouse in Idaho that had the trains going at eye level around the booths, and then they climbed up a hill and zipped around the top of the place near the ceiling. It was most unexpected to first see the trains there, even though it was named some kinds of train name. A lot of the places are named "Choo-Choo" or "The Depot" or whatever, but one we went in for breakfast was a Greek place. There were little trains running all around, up by the ceiling, down low, and even in and out of the kitchen. I never expected a train to be running around a Greek restaurant, and especially at breakfast, but it was so fun, and we stayed almost until lunch talking to the owner about the trains. I love to see the kids when they first see the trains - they are usually totally intrigued, or frightened out of their wits.
My daughters were never interested in trains much, but my granddaughter loves Thomas the Tank Engine. We took her to Grapevine, Texas to see Thomas when he came around, and she was fascinated with trains then. They had a model train set up, a gift shop with all things train for sale, and the steam engine that lives there had a Thomas face for photo time. We took a ride on the train, and Hannah clutched her train prizes from the gift shop all the way home. She's a girl of my own heart.
The term "gauge" with respect to model trains refers to the distance between the two rails, more specifically the distance from the inside of one rail to the inside of the other rail. Here are the measurements of some different model train gauges:
HO gauge - 16.5 mm O gauge - 1-1/4 inches
N gauge - 9.0 mm
S gauge - 7/8 of an inch
Z gauge - 6.5 mm
Below are the scales, the ratio of life size equivalents:
HO scale - 1 / 87
O scale - 1 / 48
N scale - 1 / 160
S scale - 1 / 64
Z scale - 1 / 220
HO gauge - 16.5 mm O gauge - 1-1/4 inches
N gauge - 9.0 mm
S gauge - 7/8 of an inch
Z gauge - 6.5 mm
Below are the scales, the ratio of life size equivalents:
HO scale - 1 / 87
O scale - 1 / 48
N scale - 1 / 160
S scale - 1 / 64
Z scale - 1 / 220
An accident happens at a railroad crossing in which a train smashes into a car and pushed it several hundred yards down the track. Though no one is killed, the driver takes the train company to court.
At the trial, the engineer insists that he had given the driver ample warning by waving his lantern back and forth for almost a minute. He even stood and convincingly demonstrated how he'd done it. The court believed him, and the suit was dismissed.
"Congratulations," the lawyer said to the engineer afterward. "You held up extremely well under cross-examination."
"Thanks," he said, "but they sure had me worried."
"How's that?" the lawyer asked.
"I was afraid they were going to ask if the gosh darn lantern was lit!"
At the trial, the engineer insists that he had given the driver ample warning by waving his lantern back and forth for almost a minute. He even stood and convincingly demonstrated how he'd done it. The court believed him, and the suit was dismissed.
"Congratulations," the lawyer said to the engineer afterward. "You held up extremely well under cross-examination."
"Thanks," he said, "but they sure had me worried."
"How's that?" the lawyer asked.
"I was afraid they were going to ask if the gosh darn lantern was lit!"
I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something magical about model railroading. It simply is one of the more charming hobbies that exists.
There is nothing quite so endearing as an older (I'll let the reader define that one) gentleman showing off his prize minature railroad. This is generally not something that was simply bought and constructed but something that has been nurtured and developed over decades.
Perhaps it is the fascination with the raw power of the machinery, at full size, of course. Or, perhaps instead it is an attempt to reach back to the not so distant past when trains were high tech (believe it!) in an attempt to recapture the perceived quality of life and/or innocence.
Who knows? But then, who cares? It is just cool.
There is nothing quite so endearing as an older (I'll let the reader define that one) gentleman showing off his prize minature railroad. This is generally not something that was simply bought and constructed but something that has been nurtured and developed over decades.
Perhaps it is the fascination with the raw power of the machinery, at full size, of course. Or, perhaps instead it is an attempt to reach back to the not so distant past when trains were high tech (believe it!) in an attempt to recapture the perceived quality of life and/or innocence.
Who knows? But then, who cares? It is just cool.
