| To respond to this month's Editorial, send comments to: michaelj@modelrailroadnews |
The No name & Pacific
For those that have read this space for the past few years, or those that know me personally, you know that I, like most model railroaders, have personal favorites. For railroad of choice, mine would have to be the Southern Pacific. This is partly due to the area of the country I live in, and partly due to the first train I fell in love with — Espee’s Daylight passenger trains.
I knew that any layout would have more interest if I ran more than just Daylight passenger cars. So along with SP freight trains, I have also broadened my interest to cover a great many roads of the Pacific Northwest such as Northern Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Central Oregon & Pacific, and others.
Due to the space I have available for a layout, I have leaned toward N scale. My 10' x 7' work room has been sketched with various track plans more times than I care to count. I have tried at different times to incorporate: the area of Portland, Oregon; the area of southern Oregon between Merlin and Ashland; to the entire Siskiyou — Cascade loop of the SP from Eugene, to Black Butte, to Klamath Falls, back to Eugene. I quickly found out that I needed much more room if I were to model every point that I wished.
Well, after nearly three years worth of pondering, I have my track plan in its final stages (I think). It is completely freelance, but it is the best solution to the various aspects I want to have in a train layout. Two trains can run continuous and simultaneously, while a third can switch cars around the layout at the same time. Funny thing is, it is one of the first layout plans that I drew almost three years ago!
Of course any layout plan is not perfect, nor do most make it to a working railroad exactly as drawn. One thing that has helped me gain confidence in my pencil sketches is to transfer the plan to my big blue Macintosh via some track planning software. By using standardized turnouts, turn radii, and track width, it is much easier to see how things fit together, and how they do not.
I wanted to share this latest account of my so far unnamed railroad for three reasons. First, model railroading is an intense hobby. The skills that must be understood to successfully construct a complete model railroad layout are numerous. These skills take time to develop. I have no trouble building structures, detailing diesels, or constructing benchwork. I do need practice in layout design and wiring. But, by asking lots of questions and reading lots of books, these skills are developing. It all takes time and patience. The layouts that are shown in the glossy magazines were not created overnight.
Second, don’t lose sleep if you can not incorporate every whistle stop of the prototype on your layout. Very few layouts are so detailed as to capture every point of interest of the prototype along its chosen route. In fact, don’t be ashamed to model a freelance railroad if your interest in model railroading has developed to the point that you want to run your trains in a prototypical fashion but can’t model a given road for one reason or another. A freelance layout can often utilize elements that would not otherwise be available if strictly modeling a given prototype.
Finally, use the tools that are available to you. Whether it be in print, a computer program, or on the internet, the tools that are available today can assist you with any aspect of our hobby like never before. From one model railroader to another, I give you my pledge that Model Railroad News will provide information on those new tools as they become available.
I will also keep you informed of my progress. And who knows, maybe even a photo or two as time goes by.
Michael J. Pratt
Managing Editor
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To respond to this month's Editorial, send comments to: michaelj@modelrailroadnews.com
