A family holiday on Exmoor in 1972 led my father and I to the abandoned ex-LSWR, ex-SR station at Ilfracombe. An interesting two platform station at the end of the double tracked branch from Barnstaple, the station had heavy traffic and large locomotives in the holiday season. I’ve never seen a model of Ilfracombe, but someone must have built it, as it is such a good prototype.
A great idea from Eric Bergh and the Model Railroad Hobbyist blog. The blogger saved the pictures, resized them in Paint and printed them out in Word (for HO in his case).
The signs below ought to be printable for use on your layout to little (or large) fingers from interfering with the trains.
Not a lot to report from last night’s meeting. Trains ran, but nothing special – just like the real thing, I suppose.
We spent a lot of time talking about the exhibition, now just over a month away. Having to do our own catering is a new venture, but we’ll keep it simple, to satisfy food hygiene regs, and just keep the tea and coffee flowing. The hall plan seems to be OK, and this weekend’s job is to write the joining instructions for the exhibitors.
I spent a lot of the evening working out a task list for the members. There’s more to do at the school site, with the catering and car parking to organise. No doubt we’ll muddle through!
Today’s blog is a health and safety moment. Or rather, a few moments of extolling the health benefits of model railways.
My colleague at work phoned in sick today, and said he was having to visit the hospital to see a specialist about a nasty gash on his finger. Now I know he is into model aircraft, so asked, “Is this a propeller induced injury?” Sure enough it was…..
So health and safety tip today is don’t put your finger near a model aircraft propeller whilst it is rotating.
Having made myself feel suitably self-righteous, I remembered the self-induced stab wound from a screwdriver I got from do-it-yourself over the weekend. And I am choosing to ignore the power tools, mini-circular saw, electrical work and almost as many dangerous chemicals as stored in Syria and Iraq combined, up there in the loft with the railway.
Or maybe I should just model one of these….
I’m amazed!
This blog has now had 1,000 views. I’m amazed that there are so many sad people out there, with too much time to spare to read my random railway reflections.
So thanks everyone! I’ll try to continue with the same mix of N-gauge modelling, the ESNG club, my modelling exploits (or lack of them) and my holiday snaps.
Normal service will resume in a day or two (promise).
Despite the fact that the Sacramento Northern boasted 183 miles of track around San Francisco it was really just a long, glorified branch line. Even in 1940, long after most other interurbans had degenerated into poorly-maintained shadows of their pre-WWI prime, the Sacramento Northern was operating trains of freshly painted heavy wooden arch-window cars.
It had some interesting features – some cars carried trolley poles, pantographs and third-rail shoes to operate on various parts of the system. It also had a train ferry with overhead power. These was an interesting variety of passenger and freight equipment, steep grades that required helper locomotives, a tunnel and many bridges, all set in spectacular scenery still to be spoilt by suburbia. Like many other electric lines, the SN operated local services in the larger cities that it served; this was provided by Birney cars in Sacramento, Marysville-Yuba City and Chico.
This photograph sums things up very well.
Photo: copyright 1953-2012 by John L. Mathis under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License
All this seems ideal for the modeller – apart for the dearth of SN models in N gauge.
For a good overview of the whole line, try this site, Sacramento Northern. Trevor Marshall, on his Achievable Layouts site, has explored options for a number of stations. Walnut Creek is particularly interesting as a prototype. It’s just like any other single track passing station, but as it is designed for interurbans, the passing loop is very short – just like a model railroad.
Two other locations are of interest. Yuba City was a major yard serving the town of that name. The track diagram below shows modelling potential. Note the street car line that leaves at bottom left and curves back across the main line. If you visit Google Earth and the site of the yard, you can still see evidence of track in the tarmac at this crossing.
Byron Henderson has compressed this well for N gauge, albeit in post-electric days.
Perhaps even better, was the junction at Shafter, Oakland CA, where the SN met the Key System. Look at this track layout! The local residents in Shafter Avenue continually complained about the SN, as any switching in the little freight yard to the right required use of the track up the middle of the road. At least it wasn’t steam….
Without compression, this would fit a board about 5 x 3 feet in N-scale. It would probably fit onto the usual 4 x 2 foot board with a little adjustment.
Best book is this one. Expensive, but delightful. All in all, the Sacramento Northern has a lot going for it…..
And so to Vienna. It was really too hot to wander around hunting trams, but I did get a few shots….
Another batch of photographs. In 2011 I went on a study tour of Prague and Vienna (I did pay for the privilege!), looking at flood defences and hydropower schemes. I was delighted to have a hotel room in Prague overlooking one of the many tram lines. I didn’t have chance to ride the routes, but a walk around the city allowed me to pick up a few more shots.
And just to show that flooding is nothing new, Prague gets very wet from time to time!
Last night was a ‘blast from the past’ evening. Ex-member Andy Smith and his young lady paid us a visit. And a very old friend of Derek the At * turned up.
Duncan and John were ‘knitting’ – fitting overhead masts and dummy rubber overhead wires to an Alpenbahn module, in readiness for the exhibition. The overhead masts look very realistic, but it really is fiddly work getting it all together. I might have to do something similar when I start a traction layout and it almost makes crochet seem attractive.
Nothing too exciting on the circuit. Paul had his usual long Japanese goods trains. There was a nice Bullied Pacific and Pullman coaches. Neil was running an HST and also a long unit coal train headed by a blue Class 37. He then swapped this for a blue diesel and a blue and white inspection saloon. These looked very good travelling around the circuit a slow but measured pace.
Neil had an interesting question. Why is it that real bridges, fields and the like are so big, but when you model them to scale (if you have room) it doesn’t really look ‘right’? He had some videos of Eurostars crossing the Medway bridges and other high speed trains crossing French farmland. I’m not sure of the answer. It must be to do with viewpoint, perspective, and just how much the eye can take in at one go.
* For external consumption, we have two members called Derek. Both have surnames beginning with A and a beard. One is club treasurer and one is ex-club treasurer. If you’re not confused by now, you should be.
Let’s take a slight diversion away from layout design to consider what one might run on this N gauge traction layout. At moments like these I sometimes wish I had chosen HO to model in. There is a good range of traction models and kits in HO, and I would have an excuse to run my HO Con-Cor ‘Electroliner (when are you guys going to do a run of this superb model in ‘N’?) And of course if I were rich enough, O gauge beckons.
But back to N gauge. Firstly ready to run USA models. These are limited to the rather basic Bachmann Brill and PCC car….
And the very nice Peter Witt….
The Brill looks a lot better with the cut out passengers and original mechanism removed, and replaced by a Tomytec chassis. You can see the mechanism, but at least you can see through the coach from one side to another.
One must also mention the ‘shorty’ Bachmann coaches. These have a lot of potential to convert them into interurban cars….
If you are ‘freelancing’ to some extent, there are some very nice models coming out of Japan. These include cheap models by Tomytec and Bandi, and some very nice models by Modemo….
And expensive kits or models by small manufacturers such as World Craft and Masterpiece….
Some of these models have a real US look, especially if the pantographs were replaced by trolley poles. Unfortunately, like many US or UK companies, models are often on limited runs and you need to spot them and buy them as available.
A third source of models is 3D printing, usually on Shapeways. A number of manufacturers make 3D models, of some interesting prototypes. (See http://www.shapeways.com/shops/boxcarmodels, http://www.shapeways.com/shops/ihphobby and http://www.shapeways.com/shops/ghbinternational amongst others). 3D printed models need careful finishing, but the quality of models improves by the week….
Lastly, track. N gauge tram track is made by Kato and Tomix, and the really adventurous might try the Proto87 Street Track (http://www.proto87.com/easy-street-track-system.html) , that should be adaptable from HO to N.
So in summary, a certain amount of conversion and scratch building may be necessary to model an N gauge traction line. But that in itself is an attraction. This may also affect one’s choice of prototype – but that’s for another post.
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