Allegheny1600

In line with the opening post and it’s title, we’re talking H0 scale European stock here. Sure, such locos usually have traction tyres but another enhancement that is often used is that both locomotive and tender have driven wheels. Cheers, John

Very helpful suggestions again, thanks guys! Peach, valuable experience there, don’t worry though, the climate here is fine to leave cars outdoors and the crime rate is very low indeed plus my cars are never attractive to thieves! I’m not sufficiently disposed to working on them either. Joseph, the idea of moving so that I don’t see the “wrong” scene is simply perfect. Nearholmer, yes, quite! I recall when I was in California, I thought how similar the countryside was to Southern Spain and I know from videos that parts of Canada have a very European look to them. My main eras will be primarily present day for Germany but fate forces my hand with US stuff as my two favourite roads were subsumed into the UP in 1995 and 1996 so at the very least, they have to be a decade earlier really. My British stuff is anything I can get hold of really but with a preference for early to mid eighties, blue and large logo.

Thanks David, That is indeed very interesting. He has done a superb job there, I will follow his progress. In reference to your previous comment (from a friend of yours) about not building more than you can maintain, I think that is very sound advice indeed. To that end, I have various types of track cleaning devices that I hope will reduce the effort required regularly. However a friend of mine with an 18’ x 9’ dogbone type layout, has just discovered how much work it takes just to clean the wheels on his fleet, he says it will keep him going for months. Just as well I’m no longer available to him else that would be a job for me. Cheers, John.

Hi there, Again, Wow! This is a great project and you’ve done really well in about six months. I do like the way you’ve gone about everything from the refurbishment of the basement to the lighting, it’s all well done. I am just starting to plan a large layout myself, may I ask how you came up with your plan, please? Cheers, John

Just some sketching to show how I might fill either a rectangular or a square area; An initial sketch based on ‘B’ as above; EDIT: I only just noticed that I cut the letter identifiers from the picture, A is top down to E (PQ - Possibilities). As per my premise in the OP, nothing set in stone, just trying out ideas.

Interesting observations, thanks guys. Some of my “givens” which I have taken to mean “needs” are; Capable of being multi national. Two circuits/alternative routes available. Large loco depot. Large passenger station (Dammtor) (I already have a kit for this) Secondary station. Large freight yard. Various industries. My “druthers” or “desires” are; Some spectacular scenery. At least one viaduct. Large river (combined with above?). Port facility for my model ship. A branch line. Possible 4 track section. Big junction/flyover. I do think this is all too much to ask so am willing to make some sacrifices to the above.

Thanks for your reply, Dennis! I have Anyrail but I wouldn’t know how to create a picture like the first one in your previous post, you must be much better at it than me! Ah, okay, I believe a 2.5 percent grade is the same as 1 in 40 - this is what my friend now has and his grades are fine now, we can run ten coach trains uphill behind steam locomotives so your diesels will be fine. Cheers, John

Hi Dennis, I agree with Keith above, that is a very interesting plan there, you look to have numerous routes available. You must have some great planning software too, the top picture is impressive. I also feel that is a rather tight radius helix though, not wanting to dampen your ideas but I suspect such a tight radius implies a steep gradient in order to gain clearance - which adds a further strain on your locomotives, any traction tyres may shred easily and extra stresses on the couplings increases the risk of derailment. A friend of mine had a previous layout with 1 in 30 grades and it caused much increased traction tyre wear, particularly with Roco locomotives. Best regards, John

Brilliant, I love it. I believe Dr G-F is, like me, a Southern Pacific fan and I think it’s known that I love the C&NW too. Therefore please forgive us if we poke fun at “Uncle Pete” for taking over our beloved roads (not to mention making an almighty mess of it into the bargain!). Don’t get me wrong though, I do love Cenntenials, Turbines, Articulateds and especially UP9000’s as they were really special, phwoar! Cheers, John

Fleischmann and I believe Rivarrossi, make or made an ICE-T in H0 that tilts very realistically. Fleischmann also made a working model of the 611 Pendolino DMU. Piko make a model of the 612 Regio Swinger (no sniggering at the back!) DMU but I don’t know if it actually swings. Lima have made two or more Italian Pendolinos. Rapido have made an LRC (Canada) Bachmann have made the Acela (USA). That should keep you going! Cheers, John.

Hello all, Just to set the scene, as some of you may know, late last year my beloved and I realised our long term dream of selling up in the UK and moving to Greece. This was a rather traumatic experience to be honest, the stress of selling one’s home in the middle of a pandemic was bad enough but to then move across Europe during it and under pressure to become residents here before the end of the withdrawal agreement, not to be recommended. Anyway, we’re here now, fully legal and pretty much all paperwork sorted. In Greece where bureaucracy is notoriously legendary, that’s some achievement! Since getting sorted bureaucratically, we’ve been having a good rest to recuperate. We still have to complete a land purchase and have erected a ‘flat pack’ house on it so I don’t have any exact measurements from which to make an actual layout plan but I can say that my basement will be at least 100+ square meters and set only partly into the ground due to being in a hilly area, the basement itself will be a very strong and solid reinforced concrete structure, typical for the region. Due to being at the very start of this process, I can choose virtually any shape of layout I wish, from something 10 metres long by 10 wide, well down to say, 5 metres by 20. Now to my topic title, how do you go about designing a large layout? Evidently, if you are following a particular prototype like @Tony Wright for example, your layout plan is at least, partly chosen for you. What about a freelance design? I am well aware of the American “givens and druthers”, where you make a list of things you have to include and another list of things you’d like to have but could sacrifice if necessary. I have an added difficulty in that I model (should that be “follow”?) American, European and British, all in H0 scale. I do wish to be able to run say, a British train in a British setting and so on. How do I reconcile the fact that my British train will presently run through say, French or German scenery and then onwards through an American landscape? I must add that my British H0 collection is not that extensive simply due to the fact that there isn’t that much available so a small British scene will be sufficient but my American and European collections are rather more substantial. I am talking about a singular layout here rather than individual and separate layouts. This is to be my lifetime layout, the kind of layout that I have spent a fair bit of time dreaming about if only I had the space. It certainly doesn’t have to be portable, the only time it will need to be removed is when I am no longer here. There was a time when I modelled the Chesapeake and Ohio, that I could have lifted say, Tony Koester’s plan or any other plan from “Model Railroader” really and adapted it to my needs but that is no longer suitable for me. I am very lucky to have a wife who is supportive of my hobby and who’s capable of offering ideas and suggestions but I thought I’d see what the clever folks on here could suggest too, please. I can’t even decide what shape of layout to go for, let alone a track plan. Cheers, John

Thanks Guys! Sorry to veer off topic, Jamie - on my one and only trip across the pond, I stayed in and around Culver city, California for the most part (except a two day stopover in Chicago and a trip up the coast to S.F. and back) and one day my friends and I were looking at an exotic car showroom downtown and just around the back of the premises, were parked all the exotics! They were only protected by a simple mesh fence and even then (1995), I thought how easily someone could throw stones over and cause many thousands of dollars worth of damage. Back on topic, sort of, I used to dream of creating a life in the USA, it never happened for me, it very nearly did for a good friend of mine until 9/11 when many foreign nationals were invited to leave. That’s one reason why I love modelling US roads, that dream can live. Cheers, John

Indeed, they are! C&NW 947(?) and a mate. About the auto racks, I understand they were open when introduced, then the sides were enclosed and finally, the roofs were added - all because of vandalism. Why would people want to throw stones or worse, at passing new cars, I don’t know. I only gathered this information from the various models of auto racks over the years so please correct me if this is incorrect.

Hi Jamie, Wow, that was some trip! You sure were lucky to have such an ‘in’ with the local law enforcement. I am slightly surprised though, that Don the lieutenant’s front registration plate is rather misaligned, maybe it’s a sign that the car was used in anger at some point? To my more European eyes, it seems “rough” but I gather the US police use their vehicles quite aggressively. Anyway, a tidbit of information for you: the C&NW loco pictured alongside UP3001, appears to be number 975 which makes it an SD45, one of the last of the North Westerns fairy unique original series that had the typical nose gong but lacked the dynamic brake blister. This gave them an unusual appearance as they still had flared radiators at the rear of the hood. Cheers, John.

Browsing Flicker yesterday, I came across this; Copyright: Roger Marks. I don’t recall seeing this on here, hopefully not, I just couldn’t resist it. For information, this picture is listed in some cracking albums too. Cheers, John

Hi Jamie, I’m enjoying your US pictures too! Your Santa Fe loco is a General Electric U36C, see here; http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2874416 No doubt, a proper chugger - I love em.

Well, I believe it’s because the press are owned by those self same organisations or individuals. And then, they have the temerity to claim that they are the “free” press - ha!

I’m just going to have a peek into my Chrystal ball, say somewhere between five and ten years. Hornby have managed to resolve their financial problems and are producing one new design steam loco per year along with one new/revamped item of D/E alongside all their existing ranges, train sets, track, buildings - the whole range. They have been successfully developing their “Arnold” range of British N gauge as well. Bachmann are continuing to develop their twin scales of 00 and N more or less as today. Todays “new starters” such as Accurascale, Cavalex, Rapido, Revolution et all (apologies to any missed) are making strides of varying degrees although there has been at least one casualty. The “commissioners” mainly Hattow, Tracks, Kernon etc including “Modelling Rail” have had varying degrees of success. “Modelling Rail” started to lose ground due to falling circulation, it’s chief modeller retiring and revenues drying up to to a bad commission, finally biting the dust last year. Kernon and Tracks quite successful with their own products but not expanding much further than currently. Hattow have started to develop a full range, their success with a range of generic coaching stock being the basis for developing further exciting designs including a range of generic but very British track available for both set track in train sets and as flexible track. They were also convinced to develop a range of specific prototypes in a rotating manner, one year producing an express train for their local LNWR, the next year doing a pickup goods for a neighbouring railway. Their new slogan becomes “the future is the past”! There were rumours of groupings of various retailers and commissioning people in the early days of the twenty twenties but they didn’t amount to anything due to their disparate ideas.

I rather like the BRC! I suspect your visit backstage would be the envy of a lot of native rail fans let alone us. If I recall correctly, an old “Trains” article stated that the Alco C424’s were ballasted to be very heavy for additional traction, just can’t remember how heavy they were though. I wonder if their current fleet is also ballasted.

Hi, I’m certainly not active in this anymore but I used to have quite a set up in the late eighties. It filled a lot of my upstairs front room and friends from both my railway and cycling clubs would come round to race. One friend came barging in with the words “mine’s a Ferrari” - he was after my then new 328! Seeing your setup brings it all back, thanks. I don’t know what I did with mine, probably traded in for more model railway stuff. I’m surprised to see that Scalextric has gone digital although I suppose I shouldn’t be. It sounds great fun. Cheers, John

Hi Richard, The layout is coming along nicely! I used MBR models of Poland for my trees on Leberecht, I think they do have a British importer but what the supply situation is now, I can’t say: https://mbrmodel.eu/en/ If you were to go direct, you risk getting stung for import duty now, sadly. They’re not cheap at all but I believe they are well worth the cost and I’ve never seen better. Cheers, John

I’m not disputing anything you say here but in addition, don’t the French also refer to such as a 1-4-1 as a “one hundred forty one” and so forth? Certainly, my only cheminot friend does but he may be unique! Cheers, John

I think the “Texas” name came about because the first road to order a 2-10-4 was the Texas & Pacific, back in the 1920’s - 1925, Lima locomotive works to be exact. On 4-8-4’s, they were known as FEF’s or Northerns but when this type was introduced to southern roads, that name simply couldn’t be used so, on the C&O at least, they were known as “Greenbrier” after a famous hotel the road served. Similarly with the 2-8-4 arrangement, known as “Berkshire” in the north, on the C&O they were “Kanawha’s” As stationmaster rightly pointed out, my namesake, the mighty Allegheny was named for the range of mountains they were built to take up to 15,000 ton coal trains across, the 2-6-6-6 was simply an extension of the 2-10-4 but a 2-12-6 would have been too long a rigid wheelbase. As has been pointed out, the reason so many of these names originated in the USA was simply because the type either was invented there or became very well used there, to whit: the British only called a 4-4-0 just that, a 4-4-0 whereas the Americans called it, “the American”! If it seems “strange” or “unfair”, then I suggest some studying.

Hi, I am quite sure that to upload sounds onto an ESU decoder, you will need a LokProgrammer! You will also need the correct version to suit your decoder, I only have a very basic early LokProgrammer that can only program the first series of decoders, V1 and I think V2. My friends have a later LokProgrammer that has subsequently been upgraded so it can program V3, V3.5, V4 and I think V5 - note that it needed upgrading to deal with V5. Finally, you would need to learn how it’s all done, something I’ve forgotten and need retraining! It may be easier to just purchase the decoder you require, sorry. John

You have my deepest sympathies, we have the same thing here in Greece. My understanding is that it’s not the government specifically at fault (in the way of being their primary postal operator) but the fact that they have abdicated responsibility by allowing any operator to charge what they feel like. I have reduced risk by refusing to order anything from the UK since the whole thing started but one hears absolute horror stories from other Brits here, about being charged double what the parcel is actually worth. I just hope that these practices are outlawed as soon as possible but the UK is a “third country” now so don’t expect any sympathy or help from the EU, that’s up to the UK government and good luck with that!* John. * I can’t/won’t vote anymore so I don’t expect any help or support in return. We’re on our own now.