Model Railroad Podcast

  





hosted by: Ryan Andersen & Will Ayerst
Model Railcast Show #37
Sun, Nov 2, 2008
Posted by: Ryan Andersen

 Show  37 - The Short Show

Yard Office
Updates and Feedback from Ryan and Tim


Round House
Tim and Bernie chat about Large Scale

 

Departure Links

Track Plans for Realistic Layouts by Bernie Kempinski
(order his book from this link and get an autographed copy!!)

Allen Keller Video of Paul Dolkos' layout. 

Model Railroad Layouts List on Pennsy RR

 

Download the enhanced (better sounding) version of the show with chapters:  MRC Show 37(AAC)

 
comments(7) • agreeboasted(2) • no waytoasted(0) • Listen
 
 
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Posted by: dramos_1701 MRCS Pioneer on Mon, Nov 3 2008     www.nyhrr.com
Hi gents! I enjoyed this week’s podcast. The interview with Bernie Kempinski was great. Bernie was talking about tight radii and that was intriguing to hear what the prototype did. I have a great deal of experience in tight radii curves and turnouts on the Harbor Railroad. A good friend (Tom Callan) handed me the tariff books for the New York Harbor from the early 1950’s and my yards where listed by the railroads as “extreme curves no greater than a 50’ car” warnings.
Keep up the excellent work! I enjoy listening to the cast and all the great information coming from it!
Posted by: ChrisNH MRCS Pioneer on Tue, Nov 4 2008     model-railroad-hobbyist.com/blog/671
The short show worked out for me this week, I was able to burn it to one CD and had just finished it up when I pulled into my driveway after going to an op session. I do normally like the longer shows, but this was a timely change of pace. I look forward to a heftier show next week!

I want to add, with all this discussion about books and track planning, that the one book you absolutely positively have to have is John Armstrong's track planning book: "Track Planning for Realistic Operation". It is in its third edition now but you can get the older editions dirt cheap. I doubt much as changed between them. Rather then lots of specific track plans and specific prototypes, it instead deals with all the nuts and bolts of developing a track plan. I would consider any modern track plan book a supplement to this.

That book along with Wescott's Benchwork book and Frary's scenery book are the foundation a good model railroad library can be built on..

Bernie mentioned John Armstrong's questionnaire for clients about their givens and druthers. He discusses that over a number of pages in the book "18 Tailor-Made Model Railroad Track Plans". I would not at all consider it a must have, so many other good books to get first, but worth reading the first three chapters if you have a friend who has it or see it at a flea market.

Regards,

Chris
Posted by: ChrisNH MRCS Pioneer on Tue, Nov 4 2008     model-railroad-hobbyist.com/blog/671
I mentioned in a comment last week I had the Paul Dolkos Boston & Maine pinned on my cube for a while.. You can view the PDF of the track plan I printed if you are a MRR subscriber: http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=1310

The layout was in October 2005 and December 1995. Its appeared here and there in a number of his articles in Model Railroad Planning. I think it may have been in the September 1986 issue too but I have not gotten to that in my backlog. I just got 1986-1989 recently.

Chris
Posted by: dmcree MRCS Pioneer on Tue, Nov 4 2008     www.tamvalleyrr.com
Hey there,

I read Bernie's book a long time ago when it cam out and it is great. It has a lot of interesting ideas and it really emphasizes quality over quantity - bigger is not always better in layouts. In fact after I rread it I downsized my plan for my Donner Summit layout and made it a lot simpler. I have been contemplating single-tracking the upper deck - its not prototypical for the 50's but after UP bought the SP they single-tracked this area so I could live with it. I could also think of it as selective compression in the width axis. Thanks Bernie for all your hard work in putting together the book and sharing your ideas.
John Armstrong's book is required reading for anyone planning/building a layout. I can't talk for Bernie but track planning books that come later seem to all assume you are well versed in Track Planning for Realistic Operation - its the basics.

Duncan
http://www.tamvalleyrr.com
Posted by: Jay Smith MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Nov 5 2008     neclayout.webs.com
I loved the voice mail at the end!
Posted by: wildchild on Thu, Nov 6 2008    
Hey Men,
You guys are going from strength to strength! I have listened from the beginning, and am full of admiration for Ryan especially, as we follow him on his (at times painful) journey from newby to model railroader. I think it timely however to point out a few things. There is a vast difference between a model railroader and someone who plays with toy trains. Given that this is the "MODEL RAILcast show", perhaps we need to move on from Thomas and 18" radius set track. The growth of this podcast is astounding, as is the level of expertise and the seasoned experts now contributing. It would be great to hear from Tony Koester! You definetly have the right formula, and personalities, Keep knockin' 'em dead. Will, if you are looking to interview another legendary Model Railroader who models the same area as you intend can you please see if you could get David Barrow, the man who models the Cat Mountain & Santa Fe? He has inspired a lot of model railroaders over the last 25+ years, including me. Keep up the great work and don't be afraid to go out to 2 hours, let them find the fast forward button!
Karl.
Posted by: zonie on Fri, Nov 7 2008    
Most enjoyable episode, even though it was shorter than usual. I have decided that length wasn't important, but, the quality of the subject matter.

Regarding large scale, I found that the best way to look at the scale is this way; 'O' scale is (US) 48 scale foot equal 1 real world foot, 'G' scale is anywhere from 29=1' to 20.3=1', and so forth.

On30. What is fun about this scale/track gauge, is that it is possible to freelanced 3 foot gauge or 2 foot gauge on the cheap. There were 30" gauge railways in the US, but they were mostly industrial railway (logging, mining, plantation, ect...), and not a common carrier. By the way, Model Railroader refers to On30 as On2 1/2... My favorite special interest group regarding On30, is the On30Conspiracy bunch on Yahoo!

Now I am probably going to confuse everyone, there are some people that use HO track for another narrow gauge concept, 3/8n20, meaning HO trackage is used to represent 20 inch gauge railway. There were really 20 inch gauge railways, as I mentioned before, the Arizona Copper Company/Detroit Copper/Shannon Copper, once operated in the Morenci-Clifton area of Arizona. [IMG]http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q19/wcgutman/Morenci-Clifton/100_0096.jp g[/IMG], once again the location of the photos I have taken of the area.

What I am currently working on is Gn15, which is 'G' scale on HO trackage. Yes, there were a few 15 gauge railways, mostly plantation or estate railways over on the British Isles. The book, Narrow Gauge Railways by Humphrey Household, covers the topic of the 15 gauge pretty well.

Well, that all I will input at this point.

Wayde
 
 
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