Some old Slides - and good memories!

 First of all, Happy Easter to everyone!

Work was absolutely crazy for the last six weeks or so. Not only have I been busy with testing of a system I'm working on, the main contract for my company came up for re-compete, and as the proposal manager I really had to ignore everything else until the proposal was completed! 

All that means I got way behind on a bunch of hobby related stuff! My Model Railroad Hobbyist Getting Real column barely made it in on time, and even our Federal and State income tax  returns were filed using the same "just in time" approach. 

I have two things remaining on my hobby "must do" list. The first is an article for the NMRA British Region magazine. I've got the thing written, I just need to take a few additional photos! 

But before I do that I need to finish my keynote address for the Railway Modellers Meet in British Columbia. That meet will be combined virtual and in-person this year, and my presentation will be virtual - you can find out more about the meet HERE. 

One thing I needed to do was dig out a couple of photos of the original Southern New England layout to illustrate a couple of points for my talk. That meant diving into the slide boxes. 

Two things caught my attention and I thought it would be fun to share them here:

The first were these two maps of the SNE. 

The first shows what we eventually called "The Greater SNE". As I recall, Iain Rice, Matt Gaundynski and a few others figured the SNE won control of the Central New England instead of the New Haven, which gave the SNE a line through northwestern corner of Connecticut and across the Hudson deep into New York. It also shifted the modeled portion of the line away from the proposed actual SNE route and into Connecticut. 

After some discussions with Iain, Matt, Jack Ozanich and a couple of others I narrowed the scope of the SNE to reflect the railroad that was actually proposed and started in the first two decades of the 20th century. The map above shows that version. I was struggling with trying to design paint schemes and logos when Jim Hediger suggested I simply adopt the CN family "look."  This map shows the first use of my Southern New England tilted wafer logo that I can recall. 

The second pair of images show a couple of Iain's sketches for the "large New England mill town" on the original SNE layout. I don't think I've ever published these, but if you're familiar with some of Iain's layout design books you've seen variations on this particular layout segment. 

The town was loosely (very!) inspired by Willimantic, Conn., and ignoring the annoying various crossing New Haven lines allowed us to focus on the CV station area and have a fighting chance of fitting it into the space. Iain called it "Okehampton" at but I never took to that name - on the actual layout it was called Mohassuck Springs (see Model Railroad Planning 2000 for that layout, and to compare the track as we laid it with Iain's initial sketch!). 

Unfortunately the mill town only got as far as the track stage. But these sketches were kind of fun to stumble across. I had a lot of fun developing the concept behind the SNE and most days I kind of miss it. 

But in the meantime I need to get back to these other projects...

"Surround" or "Screened" Staging - Inspiration for CP staging

If you study the track plan in the link above you'll note the Staging and Feed mill, both of which represent the Canadian Pacific "side" of Richford, are somewhat underdeveloped. 
At the same time, the Central Vermont Richford branch, which originates in St. Albans, also needs to be factored in (those CV trains will end their run - actually they'll turn - in Richford - but the CV branchline trains need a place to go to/come from. 
I toyed with several arrangements - some of which started getting ever more complicated. 

Inspiration for how I'm planning to address all this is coming from an article in, of all places, the January 1987 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. While I shared several of my early influences HERE, in a post that is among the most read on this blog, I likely didn't encounter the January 1987 issue of RMC until several years after it was published (I was in Navy Main Propulsion school in January 1987 and up to my eyeballs learning the inner workings of ALCo diesels, so I didn't get do any model railroading or rail fanning at the time).  
But when I did see this issue one article did make an immediate impression on me. I was on the Model Railroader staff and looking for a design for a layout to fill a spare bedroom when Andy Sperandeo referred me to this article: 

This is a Christian Day design for a layout depicting the Grand Trunk's operations in and around South Paris, ME.  What was most intriguing about the design was the way he handled the staging. In fact, it was an early version of what has come to be called "Surround Staging" - rather than me typing a long description, a quick study of the track plan makes the concept pretty obvious. 
I actually used a slightly modified variant - with the staging tracks placed behind a low 2-D and some 3-D scenery in what I called "screened" staging in a previous layout - so I know the idea works and is quite effective - and is certainly a heck of lot easier than placing staging tracks below the scenicked level on a model railroad. 

"Screened Staging" on a prior railroad. 

I suspect if you tried to build Christian's plan in the size room he shows in this piece I think you'd be disappointed at the results. But I know I'm not the only one who's been inspired by the concepts demonstrated on this seemingly simple track plan. Andy once lamented to me that he couldn't get Christian to do any layout design articles for MR! 
In fact, combine the South Paris Switcher with Andy Sperandeo's San Jacinto branch, a design that was completely misinterpreted as underwhelming at the time it was published, and you have the acorn from which many of today's "achievable" layout designs have sprouted. 
I'm going to hold off sharing the specifics of how all this is (hopefully) going to work on the track plan until I have a chance to draw it out to scale. 

Best kept secret in Washington DC?

There's certainly no lack of secrets in Washington, D.C. Perhaps the best kept secret in DC has nothing to do with politics, politicians, spies. 
That secret is the Museum of the United States Navy, located on the grounds of the Washington Navy Yard - itself a historic landmark. 
Frankly I think it's one of the better museums in a city with no lack of museums. And while visitors to the museum will learn lots of interesting facts about the sea service and the role it's played in American culture and history, the highlights for any modeler has to be the impressive collection of ship models on display. 

Ever wonder how big an O scale WWII aircraft carrier would be? Wonder no more. 

USS LEYTE, CV 32. This model is an actual 19'-8" long. (sorry about the reflections of the glass cases)

Closeup of Leyte's flight deck. 

USS Constitution, 1/8"=1 foot (1:96 scale). This particular model was in the Oval Office during JFK's administration and was removed immediately after his assassination. It was later in the office of James Brady, White House Press Secretary when he was severely wounded during the attempt on President Reagan's life. At that point the Executive Branch transferred the model to the Navy Museum. 

Some of the ships from the Great White Fleet display. Personally, I find these pre-Dreadnaught ships to be far more interesting than the Civil War ironclads that preceded them. 

Fascinating cutaway model showing the interior of an English 120-gun man-o-war. 1:64 scale model ("S" in model railroad lingo). This is not an official "Admiralty" model but instead was likely made by a sailor. One of my favorite models in the museum if only for the fascinating details that capture life aboard an 18th century ship. 

USS Crosley - a destroyer transport. If you've ever seen the film "Mr. Roberts" you're familiar with life aboard these ships. 

Can't think of a more appropriate ship to show on this blog than this one - USS Vermont.  

Today I had a chance to stop by the museum in order to pick up a set of drawings for a project I'm getting ready to start on. But as I had a few minutes before I had to head over to the Humphrey's Building for a meeting I took a quick look around. 

Although some of the ship models are "permanent" some of the models on display rotate from time to time. Currently there's a display with models showing the ships of the Great White Fleet and another "semi-permanent" WWI exhibit display featuring several models of WWI-era vessels. 
Most of the WWI and WWII era models were contracted by the shipyards building the vessels at the time the actual ships were built. They are constructed to specifications intended to make sure the models endure. With the exception of the model of Old Ironsides,  all these models have served the Navy longer than their prototypes. 
So, if you're in DC and think  you've seen everything the Smithsonian or Mount Vernon have to offer, spend a half day at the US Navy Museum. It's well worth it. 

Don Mitchell's Southern Mountain Railroad blog

Some of you may recognize the name Don Mitchell from the pages of Model Railroader. Don published many innovative layout designs over the years. The first time I met Don he took Christine and I on a behind the scenes tour of the La Mesa Tehachapi Pass layout (incidentally, Don was involved in the design of that railroad and is still an active member of the club), followed by wonderful early dinner and tour of Coronado Island during which we discussed model railroading (Don was one of John Allen's friends, and regularly operated on the Gorre & Daphetid), the Navy, food and cooking, and a wide range of other topics.
I've fallen out of touch with Don over the last decade or so, but was thrilled to discover he's been posting about his home layout on the Model Railroad Hobbyist blog over the last year or so. 
There's numerous thoughtful insights on layout design, composition, and interesting operations throughout this thread, so instead of trying to summarize, I'll merely direct you to his Southern Mountain Railroad posts on the Model Railroad Hobbyist blog here. 

Wordless Wednesday #148

I've been sick on and off for several weeks. But the fascia is complete (Thanks Stic!). And pictures of me laying track aren't that interesting....so here's a treat from Dick Ewell's magnificent Hoosac Valley. 

Inspiration and a clear path

While my approach to building, and rebuilding, my layout has given me a reputation of taking the “Ready, Fire, Aim!” approach, that’s not really accurate. 

Think things through before taking action, lest you find

yourself in an untenable situation.

I tend to approach designing layouts by defining a particular location in the basement where a specific scene will go, and then design and build that scene before moving to the next.  There is an inherent risk here – you can quickly end up with a finished layout where all the various segments don’t necessarily function together as a cohesive whole either operationally or visually.
The subject of much discussion on this blog, and in private emails with some of my friends, has centered on the section of the railroad where the White River Jct. yard had been located.  Although I’d made some modifications to the area it really wasn’t working (I won’t dwell on those issues here, as “whys” have been discussed ad nauseam in previous posts).
Prior to the inclusion of White River, the original plan layout design called for some form of Essex Junction, Vermont, certainly a CV signature scene, in this area. I ended building a version of Essex at the other end of the modeled railroad (Essex Junction v1.0?). This was subsequently removed when the neck of the peninsula was rearranged earlier this year). Through most of the summer and fall, while things have progressed well on the other end of the layout, I couldn’t really get the plan for Essex Jct. v2.0 to “gel.”  The solution, I thought, was to forego Essex and all its appeal entirely and instead include a “yard” (you know, since model railroads apparently have to include a “yard” if for no other reason to give the yardmaster something to do).
I worked diligently on designing this new yard over the course of several weeks starting back in the early spring.  Luckily, I realized what a mistake it was before committing to actually building the thing.  Prototype yards, even small ones, are massive.  Model railroad yards tend to be fairly imperfect depictions of the prototype - 90% of the time we basically fill a shelf with parallel tracks.  I was in real danger of simply repeating the issues I had with the White River yard in slightly modified form.  Unlike the other sections of the railroad, this would have forever looked like nothing more than a shelf full of parallel tracks at best, or at worst some sort of out-of-place appendage to the rest of the railroad.  It would do nothing to complete the picture.
So there this section of the layout sat, a sea of bare homasote awaiting some inspiration.
That inspiration arrived a few months ago in the form of some layout photos from Neil Schofield, showing his scene at Orleans, Vt. You can see one of them (taken by Neil and used with his kind permission) below.

Orleans, Vt., in HO scale as modeled by Neil Schofield.  N. Schofield photo, used with permission.

What inspiration could I draw for my transition era CV from a scene showing a street running in front of a couple of stores and clearly set in a different era?  Turns out, plenty of inspiration. Although there’s no denying the wonderful job Neil is doing creating his vision of upstate Vermont in the 1980s, what I found most inspiring was the sense of place they evoked and the way the prototype is driving the modeled railroad. 

A Google street view of the scene Neil has modeled.

This sent me back to the layout to determine if perhaps I gave up on Essex Junction too quickly, dismissing it as “too hard” to fit in my space.  I’ll likely do another blog post with more details on Essex Junction v2.0, but essentially the scene has two “sections” – the trainshed/station area, and a couple of blocks away a wye with several industries inside it and alongside it.  I know there’s an effective way to model the “wye” – simply leave off one leg of the thing.  After all, that’s exactly what I did with Essex when it was located on the other side of the basement.



Kurt Thompson works the Essex Junction switcher job in Essex Jct. v1.0. A workable track arrangement that captured the look of the prototype, it lacked room for the structures themselves so wouldn’t ever visually capture the look of the prototype.

The crews that operated "Essex 1.0" found it was an enjoyable job with the right blend of action and down time.  If I duplicated the basic approach to a "two-legged wye" in the new location for Essex I found I could include many of the buildings that had to be left out of Essex 1.0.

That's perhaps the biggest inspiration I got from Neil's photos. His railroad is firmly in context with the other elements that make the scene recognizable. I suppose he could have included a spur and yet another place for his crews to switch, but the resulting scene would have looked model railroad and not created the same sense of place.

Thanks Neil. I feel like I've gotten over a bad head cold!

Magazines - Aspirational Clutter?

It's no surprise that my blog post "Hoarding, Collecting or Savvy Buying" is one of the most popular on this blog. Most model railroaders I know (including me!) are buried in inventory. This time around, the "inventory" I'm talking about is not those yet-to-built kits, detail parts and endless stacks of "someday" projects.
Instead, I'm talking about what to do about the one common element that unites virtually every model railroader - the seemingly endless stacks (or boxes, or shelves...) of old model railroad magazines.
To understand my point you need to realize the publishing industry sees a magazine as nothing more than an advertising delivery system. - The goal is to tempt consumers with editorial content to read and enjoy and for them to (hopefully) buy stuff from the advertisers, and then dispose of the magazine just in time for the next issue to arrive and tempt them with more wonderful products and services.
Model railroaders seem to have missed the "dispose" part of the equation - it's truly remarkable how many old magazines are sitting under model railroads. I remember when I worked at Kalmbach the non-hobbyist employees were always surprised when a reader would come by the office for a tour and more often than not quip "I've been getting MR and Trains since I was a kid, and I still have every issue!" (I should add they often had similar collections of RMC, Mainline Modeler, Narrow Gauge Gazette, et al....)
Two events coincided to bring this up as a blog post. I don't as a rule spend a lot of time reading non-railroad blogs (though there are a few finance/investing bloggers I follow) but recently came across this blog while searching about the internet for storage ideas for my wife's art room. 
You can read the full post here (http://www.365lessthings.com/magazines/). 
It's an interesting post but these two paragraphs really resonated with me. Read them and see if this doesn't remind you of a model railroader (or three) you might know:

"Then there is the futile exercise of saving magazines for those few articles that you might want to refer back to later on. Or cutting them out and filing then in plastic sleeves in a folder somewhere. My experience of this is, without proper, time consuming indexing, it is difficult to find those articles again when, or if, you ever do want to reference them. This is another form or aspirational clutter. And once again it is so much easier to find this information on the internet, with a few key words typed into your computers search bar."

"I am speaking from experience here. I once used to save every issue of several paper crafting magazines and save clippings from catalogues etc. Now I find all the inspiration or information I need with the tap of a few keys. No, heavy lifting, no allergy issues from the dust when dragged out after long periods, no having to dust them in between times, no big bulky bookcase to store them in, no wasted money, no wasted trees, no frustrating advertising, no agonising over if and when to declutter them, and no constant aspiration of actually doing something with the information in those articles I once thought I couldn’t live without."

Reading this post coincided with an online discussion several model railroaders were having of the best way to store old magazines. I, like many of you, have tried the "cut out the articles of particular interest" approach, placing all those articles neatly in file folders that I never look at.
The consensus from the online discussion was to keep the magazines intact - after all your interests may change in 10 years and you don't want to be stuck without a one-page article from the April 1948 MR  or whatever. 
The "ideal" solution was to keep the magazines intact and invest in a series of large, heavy open side file cabinets kept under the layout and mounted on wheels. 
I've taken the opposite approach - and have decided that our home, and to a greater extent the layout room, is no longer going to look like a public library and storehouse for stacks of paper that I rarely, if ever, use. To that end, many of the magazines have gone - and likely more will follow.
I found the premise that magazines represent aspirational clutter to be interesting. The word "aspiration" is an interesting one - it always seemed far more pessimistic to me than the similar-sounding "inspiration."
Aspiration, to me, smacks of dreams that are reached for, but never quite achieved. 
Inspiration expresses a more positive outlook on things.
I  think it's interesting that the blogger quoted chose the word she did.
Instead of providing inspiration the magazines represent clutter - something that can easily impact the creative process.
I can say that having disposed of a lot of magazines over the last couple of years I truly don't miss them. I still find inspiration in what other modelers are doing, but more frequently that inspiration is neatly stored in a box on my desk  connected to the internet and not in magazine files underfoot.

Mudsucker on the Cheshire

Jim DuFour photo

Okay, I'll admit my last post made me sound a little (but not much!) crankier than usual. That post actually came from an email I sent a friend who reported a less than satisfying visit from a model railroad "expert."
A combination of that, and some modeling "blahs" that have set in lately, led to that post.
I find looking at trains running on a beautifully executed layout is a great cure for those model railroading blahs....

Here's a link to a video showing one of my favorite layouts - Jim DuFour's HO scale Cheshire Branch of the Boston & Maine.
The video follows B&M 2-10-2 #2908. The Whyte system of locomotive classification indicates a 2-10-2 is a "Santa Fe" type - on the B&M they were nicknamed "Mudsuckers."
Click on the photo above for the link or click here:
http://youtu.be/LG0WnUKiZ7k
Enjoy!

The Ambassador in Waterbury

The Ambassador in Waterbury, P. R. Hastings photo, courtesy Mr. Robert C. Jones

Sometimes there's one book, or even one photo, that can send our modeling life off in entirely new directions. 
For me, it was this Phil Hastings photo of the Ambassador going through Waterbury. 
I was at a Navy training school in Newport, RI and decided to take a much needed break from studying the innards of the ALCO 251C engine in a marine application to seek out some nearby hobby shops. At the time I was happily modeling the Central Vermont - the railroad that I knew from the 1970s and 80s - lots of green, black, red, and blue Geeps and ALCO RS-11s (ironically, equipped with the same 251C that I was studying). 
I wandered into a local hobby shop and noticed a six volume set of hardcover books on the Central Vermont. As I flipped through Volume V of Robert C Jone's "The Central Vermont Railway" I stumbled across this Phil Hastings photo printed across a two-page spread. 

Sure, I'd been to Waterbury, and had taken photos of trains from much the same spot that Phil was standing on that day back in 1954. But what was missing when I went there was something I can only call "texture" of the steam-to-diesel transition era. 
I bought the book (eventually I'd obtain the entire set, which I consider a "must have" for the CV fan) and have to say it was that book - primarily that photo - that turned me from being content to model "today" to modeling the same railroad as it used to look. 
I suppose it should come as no surprise that Waterbury, more specifically the angle of that Hastings photo was a scene I wanted to capture in miniature "front and center" on the railroad. 
I need to tweak some of the angles, and the water tank and station might need to be a little further apart but even though the scene is unfinished I thought I'd share it here. 

Fare thee well, RMC!

Last Friday Carstens Publishing closed its doors. Along with that announcement came the notice that Railroad Model Craftsman would be suspending publication.*
Since then the model railroad inter webs have been buzzing with comments, posts about RMC and what it's demise means to the individual hobbyist and the hobby as a whole.  I truly feel for the employees of Carstens Publishing, and for the Carstens family, many of whom I've known for a long time. This is a particularly emotional and difficult time for them all. 
I've always had a soft spot for RMC. My first appearance in print in a model railroad magazine was in RMC. I have to thank RMC editor Bill Schamburg for recommending me to a headhunter who was searching for young editors for a "hobby publishing house in the upper Midwest." That turned out to be my entree into working on the MR staff - a time in my life of many professional and personal blessings. 
I always enjoyed seeing the Carstens gang at various conventions and shows. Colonel Hal Carstens sat in a number of my clinics over the years - he had a real interest in the Central Vermont. One time, without realizing Hal had snuck in after the room was dark, I referenced one of Hal's photos - an overview of the White River engine terminal in Ed Beaudette's Central Vermont Railway (published by Carstens). I couldn't include the picture in the clinic but mentioned it was a great image and that it, and Ed's book, were well worth checking out. 
At that point a deep voice in the back of the room quipped "All you have to do is ask…"  
I returned home from to find an envelope from Hal with a beautiful 8 x 10 b&w copy print of that image and the note "Marty, Ask and you shall receive. Think you might be able to find a use for this in your next CV clinic?…." (remember, I worked for the 'competitor' at the time! I was thrilled to include Hal's photo in my clinic with the credit to "H. Carstens, Carstens Publishing!!")
I do feel that over the last few years, RMC had something, well, missing. But I still enjoyed reading it and continued to purchase every issue. It's just something about it didn't grab me like it once had. 
Growing up, the highlight of the model railroad month was riding my bike to the hobby shop on a Saturday afternoon, walking into the store, and heading right for the magazine rack to see if the new issue of RMC was there. There was precious little I could afford to buy - but I could always scrape together enough to purchase the latest magazines. And, if I had only enough for one magazine and was forced to choose between Model Railroader and RMC, the Carstens product almost always won out. 
I was going to blog on some of the great articles I remember reading in RMC "way back then."  Then I realized I've already done that. In fact, it's one of the most popular posts on this blog. You can read it HERE
Fare thee well, RMC! Thanks for a great ride. 

*There are rumors of one or two parties who are interested in acquiring the rights to RMC. Although I sincerely hope this is the case what I know about magazine publishing, and acquisitions of magazines, makes me less than optimistic. 

Wordless Wednesday #27

Wordless Wednesday #7

Model Railroad Influences

What model railroad articles or authors influenced you as an aspiring young/beginning model railroader?
Although I find inspiration nearly everywhere I look on the internet and in the magazines today, my earliest influences, like most modelers, were in the pages of the model railroad magazines. And despite the fact that I would later be on the staff of Model Railroader, the majority of my early influences were found in the pages of Railroad Model Craftsman. Some of my model railroad heroes shared their work with us through the pages of this magazine at that time - names like Dave Frary, Bob Hayden, and Art Curren. Little did I know I'd get to know the three of them as friends and co-workers when I joined the MR staff - at the time they were model railroad giants to me. 

For the generation of modelers that came before me, John Allen is often heralded as the greatest inspiration. And though I admired (and still admire) his creation, I never really considered him one of my direct inspirations. To this day if you ask my generation of model railroaders who their greatest inspiration was I think Allen McClelland would win hands down. His Virginian & Ohio series ran in RMC about the time I was in high school – and was a real shift in the way model railroaders considered everything from design to operation. In many ways, the V&O and its creator defined the “modern” model railroad layout. I devoured every word of that series. Allen’s fictional railroad was so well thought out that I remember searching (in vain) through a railroad atlas in the local library for the V&O.

Another modeler, who’s work we didn’t see anywhere near enough of at the time, was Dick Elwell. His Hoosac Valley Railroad remains a favorite – and unlike the V&O it still exists today (although in a different house than when I first encountered it in the pages of RMC). See this post for some photos of the current version of Dick's masterpiece. 

Two other modelers who were an influence on me are not as well remembered as Dick and Allen today – but they still provided me with a significant amount of inspiration. Interestingly, they both modeled 19^th century railroads. I'm not sure what that means, if anything, except perhaps their work was unusual enough that it really made an impression on me. Or maybe because my first HO set was an AHM 4-4-0 "Reno" I thought their articles applied to me more directly. In any event, their modeling and articles made quite an impression since I remember it clearly more than 30 (yikes!) years later. 

I don’t think either is active in the hobby anymore. (I believe one may have passed away a number of years ago.) (NOTE - See the comment section below)

The first of these two was Lester Jordan. He modeled a little-known Pennsylvania narrow gauge shortline called the BB&K that interchanged with the Shawmut (RMC, February 1978). His article, Trees of Autumn (RMC, October 1979) showed me that modeling realistic autumn scenery was possible, and the key was to have the overall tone of the coloration reflect the way trees actually changed color. His article on “Painting Russia Iron” appeared in the March 1978 RMC –and remains the best treatment of that subject I’ve ever seen. I remember referencing it when I was answering a question for MR’s Paint Shop some 20 years later.

The last big influence I remember from my formative years was Russell Griffin. Perhaps it was because he modeled New England (like Elwell), which was home to me, at a time when it seemed like no one modeled standard gauge New England railroads, that I found his articles so appealing. I still recall them after all these years –

November 1978 – “The Stone Fence” – a how-to showing how to build a true New England signature item.

July 1980 – “A New England Enginehouse” – At a time when it seemed every kit on the market was either over weathered to the point of stretching plausibility or was some fanciful version of reality this was a well-worn structure with the simple, basic lines that are a hallmark of New England vernacular architecture.

June 1979 RMC – “An American from a Mogul” – this was my first attempt at kitbashing – and my model came out pretty well. A neat project converting a Roundhouse (now Model Die Casting) “Old Timer” 2-6-0 into a “beefy” 4-4-0. Lots of neat detailing tips (as a bonus he also built and detailed one 2-6-0 “stock.”

December 1977 – “Personalize Your People” – Russ started out as a military wargamer who learned how to convert figures. He applied those lessons to create model citizens who looked right in his 19^th century world. I still use the tips in this article.

There were others of course, but these four gentlemen really inspired me “way back when” to try different materials and techniques. For that I’m thankful since they really opened up a lifetime of challenge and fun.  
So, who were/are your well-known, and perhaps not-so-well-known modeling inspirations?