Model Railroad Podcast

Model Railcast Show #97
Tue, Feb 16, 2010
Posted by: Tim Harrison

Show #97 - A Change of Scale- Steve Benezra's switch from HO to On30

Yard Office 0:00-8:56

-Updates- This is Show 97 despite my insisting it's 96.
-RPO
-Special Announcment for Alkem Scale Models Bernie's Steel Mill book availible around 3/31/10
-Sponser Roll Call

Roundhouse with Steve Benezra; Leaving HO for O n30
8:57-1:06:29


The Reasoning
1. Why the switch to On30 9:00-18:28
2. Getting over the barrier of getting rid of 20 years worth of HO stuff.  The selling of my HO gave me much more $$ than I needed for the On30 railroad.


Research and Comparisons 18:29-45:35


3 Modeling the ET&WNC (Tweetsie) RR.  This is an amazing prototype to model.  I will be modeling the 1920 era.
4.Simplification-Ground throws, no switch machines, no signals(they didn't have any on the Tweetsie, not even a semaphore), no CTC.  In other words, back to basics
5. Getting back to scratch building, something I miss doing.  Modeling large structures are fun.

Further Thoughts, Operations, Availibility, and some Tips 45:36-1:06:27

6. The size of structures is O- keep that in mind.
7. It is a very operation oriented railroad, varied traffic and just at a slower pace with interesting motive power(with sound) and rolling stock.
8. Easy to work with.


Links:
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/OscaleNGResourcePage.html
A good resource page for On30. Lots of links to manufacturers of anything related to On30
 
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/on30/
An interesting site with various odds and ends about On30. Good instructions for decoder and sound installations in On30 locos. Many links.
 
http://bouldervalleymodels.com/
A must see site if you want to convert HO mechanisms to On30. They have many conversion kits available.
 
http://www.backwoodsminiatures.com/
A British company which sells On30 items and, more interestingly, conversion kits for On30 items and HO mechanism.
 
Blue Ridge Stemwinder: An Illustrated History of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad and the Linville River Railway
The definitive book on the ET&WNC railroad 387 pages, 100s of great photos. Published in 2003. Price $44-59 depending on vendor.
 
http://cfordart.com/20yearsofthestemwinder/order.html
A CD of all the published issues of the Stemwinder, the publication of the ET&WNC Historical Society. All 62 issues are on CD. Great compliment to the John Waite book. Many line drawings of engines, rolling stock and structures for building and kit bashing accurate models. Available for $45, a terrific deal.
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/On30conspiracy/
Yahoo discussion group on all On30 topics.
 
http://www.on30annual.com/
Published by Carstens. Back issues available from 2006-present.

 That's a Wrap
  • Length: 1 hour 8 minutes
  • 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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comments(10) • agreeboasted(1) • no waytoasted(0) • Listen
 
 
Commentsshow votes
Posted by: alkemscalemodels MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Feb 17 2010     www.alkemscalemodels.com
Thanks for the plug for the book. It went to the printers about three weeks ago. Should be available between 31 March to 31 April. In the meantime I've been offering some HO scale detail parts for blast furnaces. The first part is a goggle valve. Next will be gas burner detail set and a hot and cold blast gate type valves. Check www.alkemscalemodels.com for more details.
Posted by: alkemscalemodels MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Feb 17 2010     www.alkemscalemodels.com
Got to listen to the rest of the show as I dozed off last night. The excitement in Steve's voice is palpable. It's great when a hobby fire can be reignited like that. I was interested to hear about the merchant blast furnace operation. I look forward to seeing how that fleshes out.
Posted by: dramos_1701 MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Feb 17 2010     www.nyhrr.com
Great show Tim and Ben. Hope you enjoy the switch! When are you posting some photo's on the change.

Dave Ramos
Posted by: steveb MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Feb 17 2010    
Dave,

I hope to post some photos within the next month or so. There won't be any structures but I may build some simple boxes where structures will be located. It is interesting working with a 24-30" depth in O scale. Structures take up a lot of the space. I believe you had a show on selective compression a couple of months ago. This will come into play when building the blast furnace and the tannery located in Johnson City.

Steve
Posted by: jdnewemail MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Feb 17 2010    
Great job on filling in Tim, you should get a raise. It is interesting on how Steve is switching to On30, I hope he post some pictures of his work. Last thing I hope Ryan gets well soon.
Posted by: markpierce MRCS Pioneer on Wed, Feb 17 2010    
Enjoyed the show. Easy to do since I've spent much of my life modeling narrow gauge. However, unlike Steve and the majority of narrow gauge modelers who have eschewed or minimized the interchange/transfer activities between narrow and standard gauge railroads, I've embraced them; making them the center piece. I've built three interchange/transfer yards, two of which were incorporated into larger layouts. These are attractive since (1) each transfer point (ore dump, freight platform, etc.) is equivalent to two industries, (2) they contrast the different track gauges and rolling-stock sizes, (3) and offer, but don't require, the opportunity for fascinating dual-gauge trackage. They also make great switching modules by themselves.

Mark
Posted by: bobcatt MRCS Pioneer on Thu, Feb 18 2010     bobcatts2bits.blogspot.com/
Eastern narrow gauge is an under-appreciated area of the hobby. There are many great prototypes to model, or be inspired by, that don't involve the Rio Grande.

Steve picked a great RR in choosing the ET&WNC; it will be very interesting to watch his progress as he fleshes out the scenery and equipment roster.

Thanks for sharing the reasons behind your decision to change.
Posted by: steveb MRCS Pioneer on Thu, Feb 18 2010    
Mark,

I debated with myself (I always win them) about having a full blown dual gauge interchange in Johnson City, Tenn but decided to have the interchange tracks be in staging. I don't have experience building dual gauge turnouts and that was a major factor in my decision. I will have some standard gauge track with a couple of standard gauge coal hoppers delivering coal for narrow gauge engines. That scene will give visitors a chance to see the difference in size between O scale narrow and standard gauge rolling stock. If I can get a non-operating O scale steam engine, it would also be a nice comparison. Of course my railroads are always changing irrespective of scale/gauge so in a year or so there may be a dual gauge interchange on my railroad.

Steve
Posted by: CVSNE MRCS Pioneer on Thu, Feb 18 2010     snery.com
Enjoyed listening to the show - as I think I mentioned on a previous podcast I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the "ET" (and it's kissing cousin in Pennsylvania, the East Broad Top).
I enjoyed listening to Steve's interview. This represents a real "C" change from CTC controlled mainline HO scale - but it sounds like he's having a blast!
One other "advantage" - or at least a neat factoid is that Bachmann makes its On30 stuff with the couplers set very close to O scale "standard gauge height" - which drives some of the Western narrow gaugers nuts since DRGW and RGS cars had lower couplers and a real "hunkered down" look. The ET, since it regularly used its locomotives to switch standard gauge cars on dual gauge track, had all its couplers set at standard gauge height. (they also had a unique hinging feature which allowed them to be centered for either 3-foot or standard gauge track.
Got a little long winded there - just wanted to say I enjoyed the show!
Posted by: deemery MRCS Pioneer on Thu, Feb 18 2010     www.earlyrail.org/SLN
Well, the Alkem models ad has to be the heaviest-duty ad I've heard on any model RR podcast... Definitely hard-core :-)
 
 
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