What cell phone camera was that for the video?
Now that I got two more ET&WNC hoppers (3D prints form Western Rails) on the way and will have eight very soon, I’m going to go back and re-structure the concept of operations on the layout.
Before it was a simple “swapping cars” deal, but now what I want to do is to start off with different cars, but a coal train comes in and each car goes somewhere (three of them to the Army area, eventually I’ll have a coaling area for them).
The second train will be mixed, but now I’m going to put a lot of thought into which car goes where.
I really doubt anyone running on another guy’s layout cares where a specific car goes, but for those who do, the new concept will make more sense. This means I’ll run my first-ever solo op session and take notes along the way.
Most of all, I’d always wanted some hopper cars and it’s great now that they’ll be as ubiquitous on the layout as they were on the real railroad.
@BillYo414 posted:What cell phone camera was that for the video?
Galaxy S20. My old cell died on me last summer so this is relatively new.
Good to know on that Samsung. I'm wanting to start a youtube channel and I'm trying to figure out what camera I need.
I gotta say I am really impressed and inspired now that I have had some time to comb through the thread. Your scenery is off the charts!! I think the most mind blowing thing for me is how the full scale world melts away in your photos and videos. I can't get over those 3D printed cars too. Very impressive!
@BillYo414 posted:Good to know on that Samsung. I'm wanting to start a youtube channel and I'm trying to figure out what camera I need.
I gotta say I am really impressed and inspired now that I have had some time to comb through the thread. Your scenery is off the charts!! I think the most mind blowing thing for me is how the full scale world melts away in your photos and videos. I can't get over those 3D printed cars too. Very impressive!
Thanks for the kind words, Bill.
I always say unless you model a desert, you can never have too many trees (or details). I really think one of the reasons a lot of people model the D&RGW is so they don't have to put down much green grass or trees. I spent some time every year of my youth in that area, so I knew how lush the scenery is there. Frankly, I don't think I've nailed the look of it for how I remember it (I haven't been back there in far too long, sadly) but I keep adding more scenic elements where I think they make sense.
I have a flickr.com page in the signature line, with a lot of photos (if you work from the back you can see the progression of the scenery as well). I had a website but the server recently (and suddenly) declared you have to pay $30/month, so I'm in the process of starting over in Blogspot with updates of what I'm doing at the time.
As for the cell, it doesn't take as good still photos than my previous cell phone did, but it takes really good video. So much so that I shot all the video for my trainmasters.tv segment on it and I think it all turned out very well.
I will definitely check out the site!!
The video looks good. I figure I can start small and get a nicer camera as I go. But I need a new cell phone so I also figure I could get two things done at once.
I really enjoy operations when each car has a specific destination. I used a computer program I wrote to route mine and every switchlist is different within the parameters of what types of cars go to what locations.
I don't find it as interesting to just swap car type for car type without paying attention to the numbers.
I also know a guy who used only one switchlist on his layout. He had worked it out in detail for each siding and car and used it every time. He had 4-5 jobs, and he kept track of which job you had and assigned you a different one next time. And he operated a few times a year, so it might be over a year for you to repeat. However, I thought it was not philosophically right. Each to his own way to have fun.
A couple of days ago, I found a photo from someone else’s layout (I forgot which website I found this on and couldn’t find it again when looking just now), and the builder had copied something I did. I did an article for the 2018 On30 Annual on taking an old tender from a Bachmann On30 2-6-0 and turning it into a water car. This guy had done everything I did, decking the top of the tender in plastic to look like sheet metal, even copying the same type of reinforcements (which I did from my imagination) and the same type of water hatch (a D&RGW K27 part I found at a hobby shop) I used. He added some pumps and valves, but clearly he used my article as a guide. I thought that was neat as its proof my work has influenced someone!
Mine:
His:
And later, another guy confirmed he copied my concept almost 100%:
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Gorgeous layout. Nice modeling! I am going to add a small 0n30 area to my layout. But the focus is lumber, not ore. Still, seeing your work makes me cogitate a bit more. The question is how much you can squeeze onto one layout!
Don Merz
Don Merz
A friend of mine told me last night that he was able to get two sets of Bachmann hoppers painted in EBT "old colors" for me. What a surprise as I have not seen any of those hoppers at shows for many years.
@PRRMP54 posted:A friend of mine told me last night that he was able to get two sets of Bachmann hoppers painted in EBT "old colors" for me. What a surprise as I have not seen any of those hoppers at shows for many years.
Yeah, Bachmann has been confusing with their offerings. First, they utterly flood the market with On30 stuff, then stop making some of in altogether. Now, some of the cars people thought would never be tough to find are so rare that some people question if they ever existed.
I was lucky, in that when I decided to make this layout, I found what Bachmann had that I could to represent ET&WNC stuff, and bought a bunch of them. I modified, decalled, and weathered them all to my taste then put them back into the boxes for the day when they could be used.
So glad I did that now, as many of them are difficult to find at any prices now.
As for my hoppers, those are 3D prints from Western Rails. They were wooden hoppers, something no other RR had. The ET&WNC never had steel hoppers on their 3-foot line.
@p51 posted:A couple of days ago, I found a photo from someone else’s layout (I forgot which website I found this on and couldn’t find it again when looking just now), and the builder had copied something I did. I did an article for the 2018 On30 Annual on taking an old tender from a Bachmann On30 2-6-0 and turning it into a water car. This guy had done everything I did, decking the top of the tender in plastic to look like sheet metal, even copying the same type of reinforcements (which I did from my imagination) and the same type of water hatch (a D&RGW K27 part I found at a hobby shop) I used. He added some pumps and valves, but clearly he used my article as a guide. I thought that was neat as its proof my work has influenced someone!
Mine:
His:
Fantastic modeling!
Just finished weathering the hoppers.
I found that the coal pads that come with Bachmann gondolas fit perfectly into these hoppers if you notch the underside of each end and break off those tabs.
Now, there are three of these 3D print hoppers on the layout. With the 5 other On30IMA laser kits, I have eight...
What loco is that with the red trim on your Flickr page?
Don Merz
@Don Merz 070317 posted:What loco is that with the red trim on your Flickr page?
That'll be one of the three Bachmann On30 4-6-0s in the black/red ET&WNC paint scheme from 1943 to the end of operations in 1950.
I changed the builder plates and number plates on them, put real coal in the tenders, added crews, oil cans and shovels, and weathered them. I love watching them wheel around.
One still exists (#12), running at Tweetsie RR at Blowing Rock, NC.
A good guy with a HOn3 layout that does an excellent job recreating ET&WNC scenes made this postcard from a photo on his layout looking just like the real ones.
He mailed one to me, and it just went into my binder with all the original postcards and paperwork I've collected from the real railroad.
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That postcard collection is a treasure. And his postcard project is pretty impressive too. I love it!
Don
I have enjoyed reading through your thread and admiring your exquisite modeling and photography. Even though I am currently a tinplate guy, if I were to get back into scale modeling, On30 would be my choice, having limited space and budget.
I have a few Bachmann On30 pieces from years ago. I always admired their shays and climaxes too. You said they are not making a lot of their On30 offerings any more? I bought mine more than 15 years ago- maybe closer to 20, I think around the time they came out. For the money, they were hard to beat.
I just finished working on my new switch lists. Now every other train coming off the mainline interchange is a coal train, and I think it'll make more sense to operating crews, whenever the day comes when I can have people come over to operate.
I'm going to run all 4 sessions to be sure it works, soon.
Lee, as a Lionel AC guy, who have only dabbled in DC trains, can you tell us what transformer(s) -is power packs the correct term?- you are using on your layout and what you recommend?
It's a complete system, power supply and controller it looks like? And enough power for the entire layout including lights, or do you power that separately? Thanks, this is helpful should I make the plunge into On30.
@Will posted:It's a complete system, power supply and controller it looks like? And enough power for the entire layout including lights, or do you power that separately?
Yes, that system runs the trains, but it needs a lot of wiring and plugs.
The structure lights are all lit from the Woodland Scenics plug and play system.
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I was just playing around with my cell phone at lunch time today...
At the Buladeen, TN depot, everyone is getting ready for the 12:15 from Elizabethton:
Meanwhile, down at the Winner, TN depot, a couple of women are waiting for the next westbound train.
At the "Baker Company" motor pool, the CO'd command car really needs a washing after being taken on some back roads:
Across the tracks from the Unaka company factory, an older man comes to reflect at the memorial to the War Between the States. Though Tennessee was a Confederate state officially, they sent almost an equal number of units to fight for the Union:
That first one could pass as an old photograph without even trying.
@BillYo414 posted:That first one could pass as an old photograph without even trying.
Thanks. I love getting shots from 'eye level' and then messing around with some photo software to make them look like someone snapped a shot with a Speed Graphic camera, and it's now faded over time:
I never liked soft lighting on a layout, as you see that in real life only on a very cloudy day. I use LED cans, so none are overlapping and in shots it looks more like direct sunlight. As anyone who's watched a movie shot indoors that represents the outside can tell you, the lighting is easy to spot when it doesn't look like sunshine.
@p51 posted:Thanks. I love getting shots from 'eye level' and then messing around with some photo software to make them look like someone snapped a shot with a Speed Graphic camera, and it's now faded over time:
I never liked soft lighting on a layout, as you see that in real life only on a very cloudy day. I use LED cans, so none are overlapping and in shots it looks more like direct sunlight. As anyone who's watched a movie shot indoors that represents the outside can tell you, the lighting is easy to spot when it doesn't look like sunshine.
The effect is phenomenal! Eye level shots are some of the most exciting in my opinion.
Lighting is the one thing I'm most intimidated by on my layout. Thankfully I have some time before I have to worry about it. But I feel I have to get it done before I start doing scenery.
I have just been invited to join a local round-robin operating group, all really good guys I'm familiar with (more than one MMR and most have been published lots of times) and I'm honored to be asked to join them.
As I got the COVID shot over a month ago, I'm far more open to the idea of taking part in op sessions than I certainly would have been before that (which is to say NOT at all before then).
It'll be so nice to eventually have people over for ops eventually. The last people who came over for ops was the OlyOps event in October 2019...
I went over to a friend's home last Tuesday for a 3 hour ops session on his large N scale layout followed by dinner. There were 7 participants and all were fully vaccinated. None of us wore masks during the 5 hours we were in his basement / home. All of us felt safe doing this because we were full vaccinated. NH Joe
For my recently-acquired ET&WNC spike (recovered from just before milepost 13 between Valley Forge and the covered Deck Bridge near Hampton), I bought this framed tile thing at Hobby Lobby yesterday.
Today, I had to get a carbide bit to drill through it, and I then used steel wire to wire it in place.
I them made my own label for it and printed it on photo paper.
Here it is in place:
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That's cool. I have collected a few railroad spikes over the years. The one that baffles me the most is the one I found in the backyard. I do NOT live near any railroad tracks and the old mine was a half mile from my house and was underground, not surface mining.
How old would you guess your spike is?
@BillYo414 posted:How old would you guess your spike is?
The 3 foot gauge line there was abandoned in 1950 and ripped out in 1951, so the spike probably predates WW2.
@p51 posted:The 3 foot gauge line there was abandoned in 1950 and ripped out in 1951, so the spike probably predates WW2.
Nice. I love to see old pieces of history slip by and be preserved.
A lot of very fine modelling, in 1/48 scale; But how many 2ft 6in. Prototypes actually existed in the USA??? Plenty of notable 2footers, and of course the Colorado 3 footers and the numerous lumber lines, but 2'6" (On30?
Here in Australia, we have 2ft ( sugar cane) 3'6" ( major state lines) and one or two 2'6" ( Puffing Billy, Victoria);
Other State and National lines are 4'8.5", and 5'3".( 2 adjoining states only).
Is the use of On30 in the US a matter of convenience/compromise, as to availability of models off the shelf...I remember when Great On3 layouts were almost all scratch built, with high quality Brass Locos; are modelers getting too easy in Track and Rolling Stock sourcing, and accepting what the Big Trainmakers sell them???
E G WWI Trench Engine in 0n30, when it should be in 0n600mm, or On24/2???
Just my observations in searching for Models which can be converted to QGR 1880s Baldwin Imports, with new chassis in correct On42.
Or in the case of Trench Engines, correct On24. On handlaid track ( 12.7mm, .500 inch)...cane tramways.
DocAV Brisbane Australia.
@Astrid Vallati posted:Is the use of On30 in the US a matter of convenience/compromise, as to availability of models off the shelf...
Yes. Plus Bachmann's intent was to go after the ceramic village enthusiasts without having to make investments in On3 track.
Rusty
Wikipedia lists them, though the timeframe covered is ambiguous: Search on "2 ft 6 in gauge railroads in the United States".
The book American Narrow Gauge Railroads by Hilton would be a good source.
And finally, the old magazine Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette is a hugely valuable reference if you can find back issues.
Don
