Dynamic details
HOW TMREOADLEISLOM FOR
When designing, building, or working on an O or S gauge layout, many hobbyists will aim to make it as realistic as possible. We go to various lengths to improve track appearance, make working signals, and update motive power. When it comes to actual modeling, though, how many of us still pursue this goal?
The word “model” as defined in the dictionary means, “an object serving as an example to be imitated or compared.” This fits our hobby perfectly.
The point I’m trying to make is, do we follow some kind of guidelines, standards, or best practices when it comes to our right-of-way, the industries we use for our way freights, or the details applied around our yards or engine facilities? Just placing a building means nothing unless you have some kind of history or purpose behind it, follow a particular prototype, or rely on memories from long ago.
With this in mind, just adding the details to a scene can elevate your layout to a whole new level of realism.
Gathering ideas for scenes can be limited by security around railroad facilities. However, there are still resources like the Strasburg RR in Pennsylvania, where you can walk around, snap photographs, and even tour the enginehouse and maintenance facilities.
Modeling scenes
Let’s take a few ideas and see how you can expand on them. With all the scenery items out there today, making track and its surroundings more realistic isn’t difficult to do with imagination and time.
On my O gauge Delaware & Raritan Valley layout,
I wanted a special look even when working in the hobby during my teen years more than 50 years ago. Back then, I had O-27 track, but managed to cut ties, stain them, and place them under the track.
When I built my current railroad, I wanted Lionel O gauge to be the standard with sweeping O-72 curves for big engines and long freights. I purchased 4,800 stained ties and placed them under the track, completely ballasted.
If you want to go even further, you can add drainage ditches beside the track or stacks of extra ties along the right-of-way as if the track crew was coming out to do maintenance tomorrow.
Weathering the sides of the rail improves its appearance. Adding some rust along the ballast can simulate liquid dripping off well-used cars. Bits of lichen, cinders, or grass tufts can denote infrequently used trackage.
In the yards, don’t be afraid to add debris and non-revenue items. The trackage here is for hard use; so for effect, place the yard tracks close to each other yet still far enough apart that there is clearance between cars for a busy, hightraffic effect.
Off to the side of any yard is a good place for an engine maintenance facility. Years ago, I added such a scene along one wall of my basement, followed by a four-track yard. To make it more realistic, I had a diesel house kit constructed by my good friend and custom builder, Phil Ginkus.
Before I gave the pieces of it to Phil, I carefully measured the enginehouse so once everything was completed a single or team track could run alongside it for easy entrance to the yard.
The inside and outside of the enginehouse were just begging for the details that bring a place like this to life.
Looking up my photos of the enginehouse from the
Providence & Worcester RR made it easy to model ramps, platforms, and other inside details that add depth to a building like this. Outside, a sand tower, an interlocking tower for train movements, hand throws on the switches, a yard boss on an all-terrain vehicle, and other items fit into this space perfectly.
In addition, I have a small yard with facilities for crew services and engine fueling, sanding, and light repairs.
I also keep a set of pusher locomotives for the trip east around the line. Appropriately named “Helper,” this area is right off the main line and was inspired by a point at Hyndman, Pa., where the Baltimore & Ohio RR once stationed steam engines for the long 20-mile push up to Sand Cut and beyond.
Modeling operations
Instead of just running trains around in a circle, try working out a plan to service your industries with a regular peddler or way freight. For realism, this kind of railroading is hard to beat.
Since your premium locomotives are working the time freights and elite passenger trains, you can start here with a small engine, such as a 2-8-0 Consolidation or an Alco RS-3 diesel. You don’t need to have a fancy card system – that can come later – but switching cars around the yard to make a consist to serve the businesses on the line is fun to do.
For example, the Lionel no. 456 coal ramp in conjunction with the Walthers (now Atlas) oil facility on my railroad prepares a couple of hoppers full of coal that go with a tank car of heating oil to Bill’s Oil & Coal each and every week.
Farther down the line, an intermodal terminal, complete with a Mi-Jack translift crane, makes moving trailers and containers on and off intermodal trains a pleasure. A siding to the feed and grain co-op allows for a handsome consist of trailers and grain cars to move in and out of this area on a regular basis.
Another operational scenario is switching cars into the industries via a scheduled train. With a passenger consist, you can add or subtract baggage or diner cars at stations as traffic picks up or down during the normal run.
If you use a fast clock, merchandise trains can drop off freight cars by ducking into a siding, doing their work, and getting back on the main to highball to the next city.
Freight houses are great revenue generators, and building one from scratch as
I did can add to the scene in terms of operation. I got the idea for this one from an old building that was falling apart along a branch line in Neshanic, N.J. Additionally, a great structure for this would be the Lionel no. 256 freight station, which even the more scale-oriented modelers like along the tracks with a touch of weathering.
When it comes to motive power moving around your layout, take a lesson from the real thing. Viewing a busy main line will net you dozens of ideas of how to run your steam or diesel engines in single formation on the head end, double-headed, in the middle as distributed power, or at the end of a train as helpers. With today’s digital controls, it’s not difficult to get all the engines going in the same direction.
A tip here: If you plan to place an engine at the rear of the train, an unpowered unit works fine for this for effect. If you want a powered unit (especially with sound as it goes by), it’s advantageous to stick with the same manufacturer from front to back. The gearing will be the same, and there’s less risk the helper will work too hard and push cars off the track on the curves.
When it comes to helpers, I was out in California in the 1990s when the famous “Tank Trains” were running over the Tehachapi Loop with their Southern Pacific SD40T-2 tunnel motors screaming in notch 8. Duly inspired, I’ve amassed 10 of Lionel’s tankers to form a neat unit train.
Nothing looks better than a complete train of tank cars, full coal hoppers, or refrigerator cars moving down the line. While 10 or more looks good, if you can swing it, 15 or 20 is even better.
If you’re working toward realism, it may be a good idea to stay away from toylike accessories. I have some near the front of my layout strictly out of nostalgia. As they wear out or I can’t get parts, I move them to a shelf for “historical” value and viewing.
For more scale fidelity, I love the Lionel postwar no. 156 station platforms, as they look good, have detailed railings between the platforms, and light up at night.
The no. 256 freight station is another option, as are some of the older nos. 450 signal bridges, 314 plate girder bridge, and 132 suburban stations. Given a little weathering, they fit right in.
The Plasticville signal bridge, which is still being made, is close to scale. I remember how John Page, the former editor of Model Railroader, thought so much of it that he modified one to a cantilever model for his home O gauge layout, as I did.
Inspiration is everywhere
Always carry a camera with you on trips or casual rides in the country. These days it’s easy to do, simply because most cell phones are equipped with a camera that’s easily up to the task.
Many of my real-life models have been recorded on my digital cameras rather than trusting my memory. For example, on a trip to the Midwest for fall colors, I came across an old covered hopper perched on steel I-beams. The railroad used it to dispense sand to its locomotive fleet.
I figured what I saw was nice, but I wondered how to work it into my layout. After driving another two miles, I turned around and got the permission of the yard superintendent to photograph the scene. It evolved into a nice project for the pages of CTT’s November 2010 issue.
Looking at the total picture, it doesn’t take much to improve the looks or operation of your layout to bring it up to what we see on the rails running around the country. A little imagination, some creative scenic photography, and trips to hobby shops and train shows will help you put the “model” back into your model railroading.
In the end, we’re all model railroaders; let’s be sure we’re also model builders.