Model Railways

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Do you add flora and/or fauna, and ballast to your model?

I add flora and(or) fauna
0
No votes
I add just ballast
2
20%
I do both
7
70%
I leave the plain baseboard visible
1
10%
 
Total votes: 10

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Nawdic
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Re: Train Sets

Post by Nawdic »

Have treated myself this weekend...

To an upside down train!! (Sorry, posting off my mobile... Epic fail.)
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Re: Train Sets

Post by Doorslammer »

My 6 monthly report. So what's going down in groove town?

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Lined up the tram units for display. Including some hard to gets, the Tetsudo Musume and Doraemon versions included.

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Purchased 6 second hand ED75s, including this original Tomix of 1974, their very first N scale loco. All scrubbed up and running very nicely.

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The opposite of scrubbed up has been the case for some locos though. A DF200 and this EF510 have got the dirty work treatment.

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I had some good news this week as my Lima and Farish coaching stock was rediscovered in a far away box. So pleased at this discovery, they got a nice new 47635 to haul it round. Lovely (please don't blow up again, Farish mechanism -_- ).

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I have also been rather incompetent at the controls. A board of inquiry to be held next week. Oops.
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Re: Train Sets

Post by Pyoro »

At least nothing dropped down the floor. Close, though :?

And very nice trams ;)
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Re: Train Sets

Post by Doorslammer »

Sigh, can't get a break

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Re: Train Sets

Post by Geo Ghost »

If anyone is interested, my local model rail club has a facebook page now =)
You're all welcome to check it out and follow us there. I will try to update it more in the future!

https://www.facebook.com/StevenageAndDistrictMRC


Also, I've had a thought on the topic title.
Just a suggestion on changing the title to "Train Sets and Railway Modelling"

Only a minor thing, but I often think of toys when I hear train sets. However Railway Modelling, in my view, is the more skilful and hobbyist side of it.
Just a thought, not sure if anyone else thinks the same :)
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Redirect Left »

I've renamed it to just Model Railways, as it sounds a lot more adult than 'Train Sets' :p
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Geo Ghost »

Fair enough! :P
Spose you are the topic starter after all ;)
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Redirect Left »

To be fair, the title of 'train sets' has bugged me for a while. As you're right, it does sound somewhat immature. The majority of us here go way beyond what the average joe would call going to Toys 'R' Us and walking out with a Hornby.

I've no idea how this thread continues on, or some of the others i've done for that matter.
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Re: Train Sets

Post by lobster »

Doorslammer wrote:The opposite of scrubbed up has been the case for some locos though. A DF200 and this EF510 have got the dirty work treatment
It's funny how divided people seem to be on this when discussed. Half of them loves the realism, the other half wants the stock to be in pristine condition. Can we add a poll to this to see how the Tycooners stand on it?
To be honest, I can see both points - you're basically "scarring your rolling stock for life", but then look at that delicious realism. I've yet to do it myself, but I probably will eventually, when my N-scale track is taking form.
Redirect Left wrote:The majority of us here go way beyond what the average joe would call going to Toys 'R' Us and walking out with a Hornby.
Speaking of the old Hornsterns, I read the other day they're struggling financially. Quite sad, I've got a load of Hornby stuff and despite it not always being too detailed and kinda fiddly with all the loop-stuff (but then again I was spoiled by 3-rail Märklin easy-of-use as a kid) it's a great size to work with - nicer than H0 to me - and Hornby's always been a front runner on this size as well. Anyone else got something on this?
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Re: Train Sets

Post by Doorslammer »

lobster wrote:
Doorslammer wrote:The opposite of scrubbed up has been the case for some locos though. A DF200 and this EF510 have got the dirty work treatment
It's funny how divided people seem to be on this when discussed. Half of them loves the realism, the other half wants the stock to be in pristine condition. Can we add a poll to this to see how the Tycooners stand on it?
To be honest, I can see both points - you're basically "scarring your rolling stock for life", but then look at that delicious realism. I've yet to do it myself, but I probably will eventually, when my N-scale track is taking form.
I'll be honest, I'm 50/50 about it myself! Thanks to Japan, I can indulge in squeaky clean passenger trains, maybe a bit of the roof just because that goes a long way on it's own. But even my most prestigious sleeper hauling EF66 on Suisei/Akatsuki and Sakura/Hayabusa duties has it's roof adorned with the telltale dirt.

JR Freight locos are in an easy category, they become the great unwashed.

I love clean stock too, but let's face it, I'm showing off a modelmaking hobby. I believe if my scale surroundings are suitably dressed as they would be in real life, then my stock must also look it's best in recreating that too.
lobster wrote:
Redirect Left wrote:The majority of us here go way beyond what the average joe would call going to Toys 'R' Us and walking out with a Hornby.
Speaking of the old Hornsterns, I read the other day they're struggling financially. Quite sad, I've got a load of Hornby stuff and despite it not always being too detailed and kinda fiddly with all the loop-stuff (but then again I was spoiled by 3-rail Märklin easy-of-use as a kid) it's a great size to work with - nicer than H0 to me - and Hornby's always been a front runner on this size as well. Anyone else got something on this?
A few factors to consider:

1. Hornby for many years has this reputation for poor hauling capabilities out of the box. A lot of our local club members have given me feedback frequently that their new loco looks fantastic, but has the guts of a dead ant. Kind of tragic, they have been left standing by many of the other Euro, US and Japanese models available, which have all proven to be more capable without modification.

2. As the population has aged, the more discerning modellers demand high detail, sound, multiple loco control, all sorts of bells and whistles that technology has afforded us. With 3D printing on the horizon, there are many more options from smaller and ever more diverse companies that are chasing the very same dollar that the bigger companies are already chasing. The quality gap really is narrowing, there will not be a total standout company that will run away with the suitcase of cash any more. Therefore, making a quid ain't that easy.

3. And hopefully technology will advance so far as to attract some more of the younger potential hobbyists, because that's declining too. Gaming and extreme sports and all sorts of new avenues that are a bit more exciting and attractive to the younger eye. With a few more computery gadgets and inventions of our own, can we sustain this industry well into the future? Or are we going to see a bubble of activity that will burst in the next few years?

I want to be optimistic, but the reality is, I'm struggling to see how. Even our own exhibition just got cut down in space by 40% to save on costs. We're all having a struggle right now. :(
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Re: Train Sets

Post by Redirect Left »

lobster wrote:It's funny how divided people seem to be on this when discussed. Half of them loves the realism, the other half wants the stock to be in pristine condition. Can we add a poll to this to see how the Tycooners stand on it?
Your wish is my demand! Hopefully the edit function allows me to delete polls later on, and perhaps we can change the subject of the poll with new votes every few week!

Speaking of this. How do people feel about graffitiing models? I have a friend who has rolling stock that has been weathered, quite realistically to look abandoned and beyond repair* on one of the sidings, complete with a brownish rust in many areas, but oddly to me at first, it even came complete with the graffiti and smashed window effects you often get out in the real world, everything from the casual 'X woz eya' to one of the more glamorous almost mural like graffiti displays. He runs his rolling stock with weathered looks, and some of the 'active' trains have a weathered look, but its designed to look as if someone has walked up and using their finger, scrawled little messages in the dirt, similar to what happens on the back of unwashed white vans "clean me" etc. At first I was confused over why he did this as I thought it looked a bit tacky, but after some time, I thought it did bring it to life somewhat!


* he needed a spare motor for another unit, and this one had bodywork damage from a collision that ended up on the floor, so scavanged it for spares and reused it in quite an effective style, in my opinion!
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Re: Model Railways

Post by lobster »

Very nice indeed! I've eventually voted for the weathering is good option, as in the end it's really how you want to contribute to realism if you'd ask me. There's been quite a few tracks - I have been visiting some dutch model train thing with GoneWacko on what could be called a bi-yearly basis - which have great vertical landscaping and very detailed and realistic surroundings, but the cleanest of trains running within them. Quite the juxtaposition, if you'd ask me. Anyway, I do like it if people re-use their old, broken machines for a good cause. It can really lead to some special details for your track.

On the graffiti thing, I think that's part of the weathering really. It's hard to pull it off being subtle enough for it not to be overly noticeable, but if you do it really adds to the realism. After all these things can go quite far, both around the tracks as well as on it. :)
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Re: Train Sets

Post by Doorslammer »

Redirect Left wrote:
lobster wrote:It's funny how divided people seem to be on this when discussed. Half of them loves the realism, the other half wants the stock to be in pristine condition. Can we add a poll to this to see how the Tycooners stand on it?
Your wish is my demand! Hopefully the edit function allows me to delete polls later on, and perhaps we can change the subject of the poll with new votes every few week!

Speaking of this. How do people feel about graffitiing models? I have a friend who has rolling stock that has been weathered, quite realistically to look abandoned and beyond repair* on one of the sidings, complete with a brownish rust in many areas, but oddly to me at first, it even came complete with the graffiti and smashed window effects you often get out in the real world, everything from the casual 'X woz eya' to one of the more glamorous almost mural like graffiti displays. He runs his rolling stock with weathered looks, and some of the 'active' trains have a weathered look, but its designed to look as if someone has walked up and using their finger, scrawled little messages in the dirt, similar to what happens on the back of unwashed white vans "clean me" etc. At first I was confused over why he did this as I thought it looked a bit tacky, but after some time, I thought it did bring it to life somewhat!


* he needed a spare motor for another unit, and this one had bodywork damage from a collision that ended up on the floor, so scavanged it for spares and reused it in quite an effective style, in my opinion!
It can be massively effective so I don't mind at all! But there are very few who would be able to brave going that far with it.
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Translink »

A hew shots from the Headhunter's Barber Shop and Railway Museum layout. (O Gauge)

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Layout is a bit patchy as you can see, some work still needs done, especially rolling stock repaints (so you don't get GNR loco hauling GWR carriages as you currently do LOL)
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Translink »

Can anyone recommend any decent O gauge semaphore signals?
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Redirect Left »

I've been looking into the feasibility of creating a replica of London and its transport system, spanning the most outer tube stations and everything in between, including overground stations and network rail stations.
As it turns out, completely not feasible, due to the enormous size it'd be, and thats before you get to the other issues like how annoying so many stations in that small space on a layout would be, or accessing the centre of the layout.

So here is my maths, it isn't good (maths may also be massively wrong, I seriously fail at maths)

Based upon
Most Southerly: MORDEN (Northern Line)
Most Easterly: UPMINSTER (District Line)
Most Westernly: CHESHAM (Metropolitan Line)
Most Northernly: CHESHAM (Metropolitan Line)

Distances between two furthest stations (as the crow flies, not by road/rail)
NORTH/SOUTH - 45.4 MILES (239712 ft)
EAST/WEST - 61.9 MILES (326832 ft)

Gives a size of...
N Scale: 0.31 by 0.41 miles (1:160 - UK size is usually a tad bigger at 1:148, but I used the international size for this)
OO Scale: 0.59 by 0.81 miles (1:76.2)
HO Scale: 0.52 by 0.71 miles (1:87.1)

or in feet:
N: 1619 / 2208
OO: 3145/ 4289
HO: 2752 / 3752

I'm somewhat disappointed though. It would have been a most amazing challenge to replicate Londons Underground/Overground, and all the technical stuff to ensure it all ran as smooth as the real version does!
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Pilot »

If you can ever afford to buy a big warehouse (are there any at the scale you're talking about?!) and build it all, that would be amazing! You could probably make a decent amount of money selling entrance tickets to it too, much like the Minatur Wunderland in Hamburg.
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Redirect Left »

There certainly are warehouses that big, however they're more commonly found to be eBuyer, Amazon or supermarket distribution centres. I doubt warehouses that big are left abandoned or empty.

I was actually thinking of trying to do a miniature version of Minatur Wunderland. Using a smaller area (London was my first thought), but highly detailed small area so it still is impressive. London also has overground/underground, so it'd be interesting to try blending that together, almost like a two tiered thing.

Not only do I love the idea itself, but i would be absolutely challenged off my rear by the logistics or getting it all going and making it hopefully a bit less prone to delays and bum ups than the actual London network! Question is, is it the sort of thing that could be funded (either crowd or investors) and gather enough interest to later keep its bills running.

I dream big ;)
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Redirect Left »

Does anyone have experience with getting model trains up and down levels reliably without putting too much strain on things?

I know for big sets and other larger pieces, they use huge helixes. However i'm a bit squeezed for space.
Does anyone know about straight upward angles? I'm trying to plan out a layout that spans multiple levels of shelving tacked to the wall? I'll be using small two carriage units, larger units up to 6-7 carriages, and freight trains.
I can try and program it so that larger trains will stay on a certain shelf and not venture up or down if needs be, although i'm hoping to get all units to free-roam the entire layout around the walls of the flat.
Another thing I thought of was, does moving a train upwards put excess strain on its motor, potentially heating it up excessively and shortening its life span?

Unfortunately I currently have no working models to try this myself, and i'm struggling to find a design software for model railway that reasonably can draw a multiple layered shelving set. It also doesn't tell me about angles, obviously i know a 45' angle is too extreme, i'll be probably be looking at no more than 5 to 10 degrees per incline, does anyone have any experience with angles to know these things?
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Re: Model Railways

Post by Pilot »

Why not make a little train lift? That way the trains can go up vertically, and would probably save you space as well.
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