The McWetlog

Sam Posey’s Playing with Trains will not reveal anything new to anyone already involved in the hobby of model railroading, but for the general reader it’s a reasonably good, and evocatively written, introduction to the state of the hobby.

Posey, a former race car driver and a sports commentator, spends the first half of the book on his own model railroading history, from his childhood, with his mother helping him build his first layout, to his adulthood, when he hired someone to build his expansive Colorado Midland layout with his family. (My father read the book while he was visiting, and sniffed, as many in the hobby would, at the notion that he paid someone else to build his layout.)

The second half of the book is a new-journalism-style look at the state of the hobby, with Posey visiting a number of luminaries of the field — none of whom will be unfamiliar to anyone who’s been reading Model Railroader for the last couple of decades — and talking about their approaches. This part is a little light, a little superficial, but its great strength is crystallizing a schism in the hobby that I was only dimly aware of myself: the schism between the operators who focus on simulating, in miniature and in precise detail, the work — and paperwork — undertaken by real railroads (think Tony Koester) at the expense of scenery, and those focused on jaw-dropping scenery at the expense of realistic operations (think Malcolm Furlow, or even George Selios).

Most of us, naturally, are somewhere in the middle: we’d like to do more than run trains around in a loop, but we’d like to do more than run them on bare plywood. The Koester mode is in the ascendancy at the moment, to the extent that his book on layout design elements isn’t about the elements’ function in the abstract, it’s about replicating real things: for example, not about understanding how an interchange works in theory, but in copying a real interchange. This is a considerable change from the Armstrong mode, where understanding how real railroads work is the necessary first step, not simply slavishly replicating what really existed (without, I suspect, necessarily understanding why it existed).

Van Hobbies, the Vancouver-based hobby shop and importer that was responsible for most of the brass models of Canadian prototype trains over the past few decades, is reportedly closing; the owner apparently wants to retire. When I heard this, I thought that it did not bode well for the future production of brass models of Canadian steam locomotives, especially Canadian Pacific engines (Overland has done a few CN brass steam engines, but nothing along those lines for the CPR, for which it has only done diesel models).

But I just found out that Division Point is setting up a subsidiary focusing on Canadian prototypes: in the works for this year are a J7-class CN 4-6-2 Pacific, a G3-class CPR Pacific, and a P2-class CPR 2-8-2 Mikado. There’s also a T4-class 2-10-4 for Central Vermont (a CN subsidiary) in the queue. More are planned, according to the page, including something that will no doubt be popular: a D10-class CPR Ten-wheeler.

(Van Hobbies put out a P2-class Mikado in the 1970s, but it doesn’t seem to have a particularly good reputation; my father has one and it’s given him all sorts of trouble. Personally, I’d rather see a P1, since they were all over southern B.C. in the late 1940s/early 1950s, and I never see one for sale; on the other hand, there are Van Hobbies P2s all over the place. But, realistically, it’s not like I could ever afford one.)

If you’re wondering what some of these things look like, Canadian Model Trains has pages for used Van Hobbies brass models of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific prototypes.

The television stayed off tonight; we’re contemplating getting rid of cable (television only; no way we’d give up high-speed Internet) so it’s good to see if we can manage it. And, wonder of wonders, I stayed off the computer for much of the evening.

Instead, I worked on a few model railroad freight cars: adding grab irons to the flat car, which is quite the detailed model; and slapping together a few Athearn four-bay coal hoppers. The latter only required three screws; the rest snapped on and there was no glue required. I painted the weights, which I thought might be too visible — they’re on the outside ends of the hoppers — but from above you can barely see them at all.

Two hours hunched over little models, working with fine tools, is not good for my back, though. I’ll have to do this more frequently for shorter periods of time.

For decades, the ne plus ultra of model railroad scenery and scratchbuilding was John Allen’s Gorre and Daphetid Railroad. But, since his death — and the subsequent loss of his layout in a fire — was in 1973, few photos of this masterpiece have made it online. (There’s a fan page and a mailing list.)

But this is not the case with what is generally seen as the G&D’s spiritual successor, the Franklin and South Manchester Railroad. Its creator is model-builder George Sellios — making craftsman kits is his day job — and scores of his incredible model structures are the highlight of this layout. (Occasionally, wags note, you may see a train on it.)

There are literally hundreds of photos available online on various fan sites. (Figuring out which, if any, of these sites is quasi-official I leave as an exercise for the reader — I gave up.)

• The Franklin and South Manchester Railroad Photo Tour
• The F&SM Gallery
• F&SM Kits - George Sellios’s Layout
• Franklin & South Manchester Railroad - Fine Scale Miniatures

Model railroad author and layout designer John Armstrong, whose classic Track Planning for Realistic Operation left me in awe when I read it earlier this year, died last week, the Model Railroader web site reports. Armstrong, who was in his eighties, has been an icon for decades; the waiting list for his layout designs — which were always great fun to read about — was, from what I’ve heard, quite substantial.

RailModeller, now at version 2.1, is another bit of model railroad track planning software for the Mac that I hadn’t heard about before — i.e., they don’t advertise in MR. Will investigate. (via MacNN)

The Sociology of Model Railroading: I’ve been meaning to blog this lengthy essay on the social dynamics of this hobby — everything from local clubs and shows to the NMRA to Model Railroader and the other magazines (lots about that) — for some time. It’s taken a while to process, and I’m afraid I have nothing profound to say about it except that (1) it’s interesting and opinionated and (2) I think a lot of its observations are applicable across most hobbyist organizations.

Micro layouts for model railroaders: a collection of model railroad designs for extremely small spaces. In the short term, I have no space; in the medium term, I’ll be lucky to get a spare bedroom or den. So small layout designs are of considerable interest to me. Iain Rice’s Mid-sized and Manageable Track Plans has been interesting; I plan on picking up his Small, Smart and Practical Track Plans soon. I need to figure out how small switching layouts work.

Details are where the fun is. One of the things Jen and I have been discussing about a putative model railroad is little animated detailed bits — crossings, traffic lights and so forth. Chances are, we’ll have to go shopping at Berkshire Junction at some point: they do crossbucks (in Z scale!) and other bits of lighting trickery, as well as some elastic telephone lines which is supposedly better than stringing thread from pole to pole.

Finally, a few Sn3 links from today’s mucking around. Two local projects: Bill Scobie’s Rio Grande Southern and Chris Butler’s Goose Lake short line. And another supplier — British this time — that sells Sn3 kits. (See previous entry on Sn3.)

Model railroading clubs in eastern Ontario that I’ve been able to locate so far. Today was surprisingly productive in terms of finding them; I hadn’t been able to do so before, somehow.

• Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders
• Ottawa Valley Garden Railway Society
• Ottawa Valley N-Track Club
• St. Lawrence Division of the NMRA

Update 2/16:

• Ottawa Valley HOTrack

I spent a good chunk of last night — at least the part after Survivor — noodling around Euro Rail Hobbies’s web site. They’re an importer of European model trains, and their site is one big magnificent catalogue.

I enjoyed clicking through the site and recognizing various locomotives. I spent quite a bit of time on trains in Europe: more individual trips, though, since the North American trips have been longer (and slower), I’ve accumulated more hours here. It got me thinking: if model railroaders in North America model the stuff they’re nostalgic about, why shouldn’t I do the same with what I remember fondly about trains — the European rail network?

Jen noticed that I was lighting up more over this stuff than I had over the usual late-steam-era stuff that is most popular in the hobby, or even the narrow-gauge geared steam (Shays, Heislers, Climaxes) that has been the focus of my attention. No, it seems that what I want is funky-looking electric trains from the SNCF, SBB and DB. Especially the Swiss ones. With model catenaries — the site is full of model catenaries. Neato.

But the European trains are different. Märklin’s got some digital AC locomotives that appear to run on a proprietary powered third rail, and I’m not sure whether the DC locos are adaptable to the NMRA’s DCC standards, to say nothing of being able to run on North American track. HO is a scale (1:87), not necessarily a set of operating standards. As I’m prone to say, Must Investigate Further.

Other rail links that have been accumulating:

• Very big model trains: the White Creek Railroad — 1:8 scale, 7½-inch gauge layout that has 6½ miles of track on 120 acres in Michigan. Magnificent. Huge. (See previous entry.)
• Very small trains: Ztrack Magazine, for Z (1:220) scale, the smallest commercial scale. A few European manufacturers mentioned above (especially Märklin) produce Z scale stuff.
• More Mac model railroading software (see previous entry), from Softrack Systems: a Filemaker Pro based inventory program (Mac and Windows), and a fast clock program (OS 9 only).
• Strangest club I’ve ever stumbled across: Model Railroad Nudists.

Most model railroad track planning software is Windows-only. Empire Express 1.5 runs on Macs — including OS X — and is relatively simply to use, but limited. For one thing, it doesn’t appear to handle grades and separations. This is important if you’re hoping that the track on top will clear the track beneath it, or if you’re trying to keep your grades under control. (I’m doodling with ideas of geared locomotives and logging railroads, which means grades can go nuts, but still.)

S scale (1:64) has always struck me as kind of neat — though, since I’ve never even so much as seen an S-scale model, only as a concept. From what I’m told, it’s a modeller’s scale, for people who like building things from scratch. No surprise that narrow-gauge (Sn3) is popular in this niche; what’s surprising, though, is a company offering models of the White Pass and Yukon RR in Sn3 scale — based in New Zealand. Go figure.

I’ve wasted spent a good chunk of the afternoon learning about large-scale model and miniature railroads — the sort that you run outside. They range from 45-mm gauge (G scale, which varies from around 1:20 to 1:32) model trains to full-on miniature trains as big as three-foot gauge, which is equal to some real narrow-gauge lines in operation. These aren’t model trains, they’re miniatures.

In between, though, are big trains that, rather than drawing current from the rail like a model train, are self-powered, either by internal batteries, gas engines or even real steam. And you straddle the little cars and ride them, with seats mounted crazily atop box cars or gondolas. The smallest of these is 1-inch scale (1:12 scale stock on 4¾-inch gauge track) which, one of its proponents argues, is big enough to ride, but small enough that you can still lift the locomotives and rolling stock if they derail.

That proponent — Rod Johnston, the husband, I believe, of For Better or For Worse cartoonist Lynn Johnston — also owns a company that sells 1-inch-scale kits and runs a layout on his four-acre property in northern Ontario. This company specializes in trucks and couplers. And here’s another 1-inch-scale layout being built in southern Nevada.

Finally, some links to miniature railroads.

Invoking the lazyweb. Are there any topical blogs out there that deal with model railroading or railfanning? I haven’t been able to locate any so far through a cursory Google search.

In Renfrew Saturday to do a little shopping, and we finally had a look inside Rick’s Hobbies and Aquaria, which we’d been eyeing every time we went over to do our banking (unfortunately, the nearest Scotiabank for Jen and Bank of Montreal for me are in Renfrew).

It turned out to be better than we had hoped: a store that was dedicated purely to the proprietor’s hobbies — just the sort of store one dreams of doing. And, like someone I know very well, there are a lot of hobbies on display: aquaria, birds, reptiles (lizards only, alas, because of freakouts in-store), model cars and rockets, strategy games and — of course — model railroading.

Now I grew up with a model train layout in the basement — my father’s in the midst of building his fourth (I think) layout at the moment — so I’m by no means unfamiliar. And damned if I don’t have enough hobbies on the go or on semi-hiatus at the moment — not that I lack the time right now — but, so help me, I actually started thinking about it.

Oh, shit. I know where that’s going to lead.

Fortunately for all concerned, I have no room — and a model train layout would be well down the list of priorities, after the piano, a space for Jen’s artwork, etc., etc. Still. Can’t help but think that a layout based on Japan, or South America, for a change, would make for an interesting research project …