Model Railroad Podcast

Model Railcast Show #90
Sun, Dec 13, 2009

Show #90 - Early Rail 2 - Era specifics on Cars, Locos and more
                   with Don Ball, Dave Emery & Cyril Durrenberger

 Crew Lounge

  • Updates and News
  • MRH Scavenger Hunt - Win a 4Gig Sansa MP3/Video Player full of MRCS
  • RPO - show 89 feedback

 Round House
  • Part 1 : Guest Introduction
    • Dave Emery - Sandy Lake & Northern (era 1898)
    • Cyril Durrenberger - Houston East & West Texas (era 1906)
    • Don Ball - Stockton & Copperopolis (era 1892)
  • Early Rail link from Dave: Late 19th Century Railroad Resources
  • Part 2 - Early Rail Rolling Stock - what to look for and model
  • Part 3 - Addition Early Rail Questions - Scale? Round Houses? Prototype Modelers?
That's a Wrap

Length: 2 hours

  • The Model Railcast Pioneers support this show!  Thanks Guys!
  • Support your model railroad community, sponsor the Model Railcast Show, contact Ryan
    ryan (a-t) modelrailcast.com

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Posted by: schul4 on Mon, Dec 14 2009    
Great show! It's cool listening about the earlier railroad era.

Posted by: deemery MRCS Pioneer on Mon, Dec 14 2009     www.earlyrail.org/SLN
Here's a summary of the Railroad Safety Appliances Act: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_Safety_Appliance_Act

And, thanks to Westerfield, here are 'before and after' shots showing the original late 1890s boxcar and the same car with safety appliances:
http://www.westerfield.biz/11701_1306_full_1.jpg
http://www.wester field.biz/11751_1309_full_1.jpg

Another thing to notice is the change in lettering style, from the older "PRR Company" to the 20th century "Pennsylvania Lines" and the white line underneath the reporting marks. We mentioned the addition of dimensional data, which you can see on the modern car. Late 19th century cars, though, often (usually?) had notations on air brake and couplers, so during the Safety Act transition, the train crew could make sure they aligned cars with compatible couplers and hoses.

dave

Posted by: alkemscalemodels MRCS Pioneer on Mon, Dec 14 2009     www.alkemscalemodels.com
Good show. I hear the On30 alarms going off. Kirk Reddie once said that On30 is like playing with action figures.

As attractive as the On30 locos are, you need to consider your overall G&Ds to make sure you can fit what you want in the large scale. Take a look at the WW&F chapter in my track plan book where you can compare an HO and On30 version of the same prototype RR.

Cyril's approach of building some modules to complement your main layout is a good compromise.

Posted by: motrak MRCS Pioneer on Mon, Dec 14 2009     www.motrakmodels.com
The show was great. It's good to hear from Don, Dave and Cyril.
I have seen pictures of Dave's work on the New England Mills. Great work.
Shows are getting better Ryan.
Rick Devlin did ended up buying some Hydrocal from me to do his project. Can't wait to see it.

Posted by: railman28 on Tue, Dec 15 2009    
Alps Printers are still available. They are only sold oversea. but they can be bought from hobby dealers in New Zealand and Australia.

Posted by: bobcatt MRCS Pioneer on Tue, Dec 15 2009     bobcatts2bits.blogspot.com/
Nice to hear from Don, Dave and Cyril. I did find it a bit hard to catch some of what Cyril was saying - I'll attribute that to road noise during my commute. Dave, you did a fine job setting up the Early Rail reference page.

re: loco suspensions - I urge those interested to investigate compensation rather than springing if you want to increase the tracking reliability and pulling power
http://www.clag.org.uk/41-0rev.html

re: house cars - My copy of "Science of Railways" from 1920 specifically refers to "box and other house cars" on one of the illustration plates.

Great show topic! Tim & Ryan, I assume you'll cover the USRA period next?


Posted by: dio51662 MRCS Pioneer on Tue, Dec 15 2009    
"Good show. I hear the On30 alarms going off. Kirk Reddie once said that On30 is like playing with action figures. "

The same Kirk Reddie, editor of a major n-scale magazine who says because its because of physics that you must keep pizza cutter (deep flange) wheel sets to keep n-scale cars on the track. Kirk Reddie who stated in his magazine he didn't see the advantage of using DCC, the same Kirk Reddie who aurgued that stripping code 55 rail out of Atlas flex track and replacing it with code 60 peco rail (which is what his buddy was doing on his layout) was more cost effective than just replacing pizza cutters with low profile wheels so you can run Micro trains cars on Atlas code 55 track? PA LEEZE!!!

Ted DiIorio
Modeling the East Broad Top RR
1943 in HOn3


Posted by: dio51662 MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Dec 16 2009    
I had a very, let's say heated debate with him on the n-scale yahoo list a few years back about this. The DCC statement was in one of his editorials, the code 60 nonsence was an article he published from, I think his name was Joe Pagano. I did a detailed analysis of the costs of just putting low profile wheels on cars as oppossed to stripping out code 55 rail from Atlas flex, inserting peco code 60 rail back into it, and using ME code 70 turnouts (which were $2-$3 more) instead of the Atlas code 55 turnouts all in the name of being able to use the MT pizza cutter wheel sets (which bump on the Atlas spike heads) which Joe (who has a PE after his name) and Kirk claim you needed to keep the trains on the track. (as stated in the article) Kirk always argued that Micro Trains was the "defacto" standard and that the NMRA didn't know squat. I lump people like Kirk in the N-Scale community as mini Lionel guys. Put a rail down the center of the track and they'd fit right in with the toy train guys. If thats what you like its fine with me but as a publisher, when you bad mouth a product, and boldly point out inacuracies as fact, I have a problem with that. WOW this brought back some memories. LOL

Posted by: dio51662 MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Dec 16 2009    
BTW, nice picture. :) Glad to see Tim on the website.

Posted by: alkemscalemodels MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Dec 16 2009     www.alkemscalemodels.com
I remember that article with the rail swapping. I have visited Joe's old layout, the WP one. The main concern was the loco wheels, that are not easily converted. This is probably not the place to debate Kirk's Reddie's N scale predilections, but I have spent many hours with Kirk over numerous trips, visiting both his and many other N scale layouts including some of the best in the US and Canada. (Kirk frequently reminds of the road trip to Canada and our experience at the border crossing). I can assure you that Kirk is more oriented toward fine N scale end of the hobby though in his magazine he attempts to keep his arms open to all aspects of the hobby. That includes collectors, kato unitrackers and the code 40 crowd. He is a great guy and is doing a bang up job of promoting N Scale and making a profit while doing it. N Scale railroading is one of the better model train magazines out there.

Posted by: ricky123 MRCS Pioneer on Thu, Dec 17 2009    
Hello All, An other fine show. Good questions and great editing made for a very informative two hours. Keep up the good work.

Rick Devlin

Posted by: darkterritory MRCS Pioneer on Fri, Dec 18 2009     www.Housatonicrr.com
Just had the chance to listen to the show yesterday - great job one and all. It was great to hear so many of my early rail buddies on the show, I didn't even mind so much that I wasn't there myself! Actually its probably best I wasn't, gave everyone else a chance to get a few words in edgewise!

I thought you guys all came off great, and really gave our little niche of the hobby a good showing. Thanks for all the shout-outs during the show too!

Posted by: LVRRMAN on Fri, Dec 18 2009    
What Craig meant to say was, that he really had lots to say, and that since he has, in fact, traveled back in time to 1892 (we have proof!), that it makes him very well versed in all things made of wood and couplings of the link and pin variety! Seriously, good focus on stuff, though I admittedley did not listen to the show! (no interest in pre-1900 modeling, sorry!). I believe that another listener made a suggestion about covering other eras in railroad equipment modeling, such as the war years, and of couse, the modern era would be good, too (again, no interest in that personally, but it's not about me here!).

Posted by: soberman on Fri, Dec 18 2009    
Excellent program and found the discussion informative. Hummm maybe I should model the 1890's? No, can't afford to change direction after only three weeks,I need to stick with what I am doing for a couple of months!! Look forward to more shows in this series and the comments made about other topics all sounded interesting.

David Karkoski

Posted by: CVSNE MRCS Pioneer on Fri, Dec 18 2009     snery.com
Ryan,

Not sure where you got the idea I said there was no reference information available on cars before 1957 - what I said in the comments section for 89 was pretty clear:

"I think anyone can build a resin freight car kit. And it's virtually impossible to accurately model freight cars before 1957 without learning how to build these cars."

Good job on the show.

Posted by: jbaakko on Sat, Dec 19 2009     rr.blockchoice.com
White decal printing!

Decal Pro FX

Advertiser on Model Railroad Hobbyist.

Early American figures:
Musket Minuatures

 
 
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