Talltim Posted January 19, 2015 Author Share Posted January 19, 2015 Is this the European layout you mention? http://www.trainmaster.ch/XCV-15-01.htm Yes, thanks, although it wasn't until I got to the bottom of the page that I recognized it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
number6 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 In this pic, is the bridge in the distance part of the same line? Yes - the line climbs up a valley turns 90 degrees and winds back up the other side. This is near the far east end - the vertical distance is much greater than this higher up. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/avery/@47.3487082,-115.6475166,4945m/data=!3m1!1e3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-59 Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 In N-scale there is a bit of stock available* for the NEC. Bachmann did the Acela Express, HHP-8, E60CP, and Metroliner, and Kato (and Arnold-Rapido) has done the GG-1. Amfleet (Bachman**, Kato) and Veiwliner (Kato) coaches are available, as well as older smoothside and Budd coaches. They aren't all the best, but it gives a starting point. *available = made RTR, not all are easy to find **Bachmann had two tries at Amfleet cars. Avoid the earier ones. If you can get Kato ones, avoid the later ones too. Adrian I also thought it would be interesting to model the engine change at South Amboy in the late GG1 era. GG1s handing commuter trains of second-hand post-war coaches to e-units. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=362286&nseq=11 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=134920&nseq=35 Of course you have to like black engines, but on the other hand there was a heritage unit: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=379827&nseq=3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supaned Posted January 19, 2015 Share Posted January 19, 2015 Present day , motive power swaps take place at Washington Union station and New Haven , in HO scale fairly simple to model with Athearn or Kato P42 Genesis locos and Atlas AEM7 and Bachmann HHP8 (although I believe most of the real things have now been retired as the new Siemens ACS64s come on stream) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigZ Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I offer, for your consideration, this five year old video of Andy Rubbo's PRR layout. I saw it in 2012 and there had been rather a lot of progress. It is simply breathtaking. No, the OHE is not live...yes, the knucklehead commentariat are out in force in the comment section. Since the video was made Andy's gotten his own pantographs running just below the wire; very convincing effect. The amount of scratchbuilding in the OHE towers, wires, etc makes my brain hurt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dullsteamer Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 The OHE on this layout is very impressive, but the rest of the work shown is equally good I reckon. I love the view through and over the buildings at the start of the video - great urban modelling. Cheers, Mark. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Bachmann HHP8 (although I believe most of the real things have now been retired as the new Siemens ACS64s come on stream) There was a photo in the latest Railpace of the last one being dragged away. Edit. Apparently the 6 that MARC has are still in service, although due to be replaced by MP36PHs. Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Found a whole page of them while Searching for Rick Abramson's New Haven layout as currently featured on Rapido marketing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_long Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Thats the website who sell catenary that I put up on page 1. Some good modelling in there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Sorry, Dave, so you did. I'm looking forward to your layout. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_long Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Thanks and for the first time in a while so am I. I'm having to be careful though as I'm having to get almost everything from the US. Although customs were kind to me on the first order and thoughtfully let me off VAT. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVSNE Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 When you say "electric" railroads I think of mainline electrified lines - primarily those on the eastern seaboard between DC and formerly New Haven (nowadays the Amtrak runs under wire all the way up the corridor to Boston). But then I grew up watching trains on the New Haven's West End - so much so that when we visited friends in New Hampshire and saw a locomotive I was suprised it was able to move without wires above it! Building a mainline railroad with complete overhead - even non-operating - requires a great deal of effort - up there with installing a working signal system. I've seen some very nice layouts with OH - primarily Andy's and Rick's - and there are some others out there that haven't been as publicized. "Trolley" and "traction" are different. I've simply never had any interest in them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 When I posted the OP, was thinking mainline, but I am equally interested in traction, especially lines that had freight as well as passenger stuff. Going by gut feeling, I reckon there are proportionally about as many electric layouts in the US as there there are in the UK, taking percentage of prototype electrified into account. I'm pleasantly surprised about that. Now if anyone can find a Hoosac Tunnel electrification layout*... *The locos were once available in brass and are also similar to the NYNH&HRR EF-1 which are available in a few brass versions, all expensive (not the same as the Milwaukee EF-1) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_long Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 That's what I like about the South shore & south bend. There's plenty of commuter trains and freight trains. There's also plenty of street running through Michigan! That's where the fine line between electric railroad and trolley line is a bit confused as if you look at the catenary in the street running sections without a train there you'd be mistaken for thinking it could be a trolley system see here albeit with a train but you get the idea http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=194327&nseq=184 Then there is what we would call compound catenary in the UK http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=193402&nseq=186 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Another issue which I'm doing my darndest to fix personally, is the lack of fully featured, 1st Class, shorter wheelbase and underfloor mechs for interubans and streetcars. Most modellers end up having to adapt an existing RTR mechanism, of gives them very few decent choices, and a high percentage of wasted outlay. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I think North America comes with a gorgeous great grey area here, whereas it didn't so much over here (part of the attraction?)Things like this: https://flic.kr/p/bwpa9k(and the South Shore is another example) where the look is more heavy railroading than traction line are really cool IMHO. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 My personal bias towards rapid transit means I'm happy with the PE ratio of Passenger to Freight. Most interurban passenger services were in the 1-3 length of MU cars and it's only the longer length of freight trains and yards to match that requires so much layout space. There are no advantageous space savings compared with regular freight railroad modelling once you go the heavy electrics route. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
298 Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Too right it's a big grey area (or should that be gray...?), fortunately there is a suitable prototype for everyone... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Line Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 My local dealer here on the West Coast of the US is finding some interest in the Kato trams that run on N-gauge track. Portland OR, and Tacoma and Seatlle in Washington have streetcar/light rail systems that use similar cars. As far as he can tell, it's mostly "plug and play" modeling and there isn't much in the way of OH or really detailed modeling involved. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Those seem to catching on with the UK tram group as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_long Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Another issue which I'm doing my darndest to fix personally, is the lack of fully featured, 1st Class, shorter wheelbase and underfloor mechs for interubans and streetcars. Most modellers end up having to adapt an existing RTR mechanism, of gives them very few decent choices, and a high percentage of wasted outlay. Andy How are getting on with this. As I'm about to start ordering IMW NICTD single level kits, which require a proto 1k RDC chassis to power it. Although you can use a Stanton with a bit of work, but I've not heard great things about the stanton. But when the kit is $60 for 1 car and another £40-60 for a RDC it can get out of hand. Obviously I can run 2 to 3 cars with one motor set but it's still a lot of work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I think North America comes with a gorgeous great grey area here, whereas it didn't so much over here (part of the attraction?) Things like this: https://flic.kr/p/bwpa9k(and the South Shore is another example) where the look is more heavy railroading than traction line are really cool IMHO. http://www.brasstrains.com/BrassGuide/PDG/Detail/15504/HO-Electric-ITS-CLASS-C-LOCOMOTIVE I just realized that picture is an IT class D. I actually have a brass model of the class C (pictures on the link above) which I think is the pre-modernization version of the same loco (no end cowling added.). I maybe wrong, but I though the extreme articulation with 4 trucks was to enable it operate on trolley lines in the streets. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Andy How are getting on with this. As I'm about to start ordering IMW NICTD single level kits, which require a proto 1k RDC chassis to power it. Although you can use a Stanton with a bit of work, but I've not heard great things about the stanton. But when the kit is $60 for 1 car and another £40-60 for a RDC it can get out of hand. Obviously I can run 2 to 3 cars with one motor set but it's still a lot of work. I made the prototype sized for the inside bearing trailer trucks for Amfleet cars, which (if I change the floor height) will then be accurate for BART and DC Metro cars. I am currently trying to find time to build those in enough qty to test out the optional body springing on a full length train. (equalization is incorporated as standard) . At the same time I'm part-way through the CAD for the separate floating gear boxes that can be added to the trailer truck design to make the trucks easily into motorized versions. The final step is to create alternate higher bolster mountings over the centered gear-box drive shaft UJ's so the motorized versions can be also use the same body springing system. With those as common components, I intend to expand the range of truck bodies and wheels sizes to then very easily cover the many different truck type needed out there. I've posted the quickie picture of the trailer truck with a commercial gear box fitted elsewhere, "Progress on my new Amfleet/BART/DC Metro Truck design" - in US and Canadian Railroads so repeating it might be a bit wasteful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVSNE Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 http://www.brasstrains.com/BrassGuide/PDG/Detail/15504/HO-Electric-ITS-CLASS-C-LOCOMOTIVE I just realized that picture is an IT class D. I actually have a brass model of the class C (pictures on the link above) which I think is the pre-modernization version of the same loco (no end cowling added.). I maybe wrong, but I though the extreme articulation with 4 trucks was to enable it operate on trolley lines in the streets. Illinois Terminal was a pretty neat operation. Model in photos in above link looks like a "longer frame" version of the smaller IT electric Frank Hodina is planning to release in resin. Iknow I took a rather lousy photo of Frank's pilot model and put it in the Naperville posts on one of my blogs - either: http://centralvermontrailway.blogspot.com/2014/10/wordless-wednesday-65-lisle-naperville.html http://steamerafreightcars.blogspot.com/2014/10/naperville-lisle-2014-rpm-report.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Reichert Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Illinois Terminal was a pretty neat operation. Model in photos in above link looks like a "longer frame" version of the smaller IT electric Frank Hodina is planning to release in resin. Iknow I took a rather lousy photo of Frank's pilot model and put it in the Naperville posts on one of my blogs - either: http://centralvermontrailway.blogspot.com/2014/10/wordless-wednesday-65-lisle-naperville.html http://steamerafreightcars.blogspot.com/2014/10/naperville-lisle-2014-rpm-report.html Yup. That's the class B. I'm not sure if the C's were some modified B's to get more TE, or new locos in their own right. My book collection doesn't stretch to too many non-PE tomes. I don't have much bookshelf space as it is. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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