I don't know about anyone else, but I'm just about all out of patience with red type on a medium blue field. Actually, it's red type on any shade of blue field. :x

It's not READABLE! ... SEE ! That's a well-known fact, learned in freshman year "Intro to Graphics 101."

It's all about Contrast Ladies and Gentlemen, and Value. Under a "chroma light," a light source which reduces all colors to shades of black, white and gray, red and blue have very similar values. The two grays are almost indistinguishable, one from the other. Look at the color choices for the type in use on this Forum ... white (now there's some good contrast!,) yellow (almost as good,) green (decent contrast but used only for Moderator names in bold ... where IS that green as a color choice in the color palette?) and then there are the reds. Links to URL's, for some reason, always seem to show up in red. It drives me nuts! What appears to be ten point type in red on a blue field is nearly impossible to read ... blood shoots from my eyes due to the strain of trying to read that abomination! Where is OSHA when you really need them!

The only place I've seen where the reds really shine and come into their own is for links used in a "quote" ... red on white has decent contrast and when used with the blue on white of a quote indicates something different from the rest of the quote, it calls attention to itself. Red on blue is type trying to hide - it's like it's wearing camouflage.

I really do wish the green was part of the available palette for us to use with type here as we build our next post, but it's not, so ...

Let's all do each other's eyes a big favor, especially the eyes of some of us "senior" guys ...



LAY OFF THE RED TYPE!

I had Wednesday afternoon unexpectedly free so I headed down to Deshler with a friend. We saw K635, Q389, Q200, Q135, Q340, Q157, Q109, Q375, Q162, Q156, Q272, and Q507. Here are the afternoon highlights:

Is it "that time of the year" already ??
Ayuh, it most certainly is.
My annual "disappear off the face of the Earth week", will be the first week of ( 1-7 ) June.
As usual, I have no idea where I'll get to, or be at. That's the beauty of this concept, no plan, no schedule, no set destination.
just "disappear" for a week. Two bit motels, "greasy spoons", and no interstate highways...........and, with the exception of my "early Jurassic era cell phone", no technology.

I have notice the popularity growth of ISLs(Industrial Switching Layouts) over the last 4-5 years and thought it may be interesting to discuss these layouts.

Now then..I was discussing this with another local modeler at Col/San while railfanning 2-3 weeks ago and we thought this growth may be cause by the ever increasing prices since one can get by with less equipment and the less is more layout philosophy that seems to be gaining ground..

That could be.

However..

How about this instead?

How about modelers that doesn't have the room for a large layout because they must share that spare room with the families computers or activities or just don't have the room for a large layout?

Then how about those that is into minute scenery details? A ISL is the perfect layout for those modelers because they can spend hours adding the security fences,trash,weeds,detailed roads,mini industrial scenes,junk piles,dimpsy dumpsters etc..They could super detail their vehicles,interiors of their buildings in short have a museum quality layout.

Designing the ISL..Of course one should avoid any switching puzzle type design and to a degree some Inglenook designs..I firmly believe a well design ISL will be based on prototypical track arrangements-if space allows.

Yor thoughts?

Is it just happening on my layout, or are others having occasional derailments when their engines or cars cross over a Peco turnout? On my layout, several of the engines will derail when entering a Peco turnout, and I haven't been able to figure out why. I'm matching up Atlas Code 80 to the Peco Code 80 track. Almost all the cars but a few traverse the turnout with no problems, while others, I guess with smaller flanges, derail unless they're going at a slow and steady speed. Same with the engines...some will hit the turnout and visibly jump up a bit while others don't have a problem. I'm guessing the ones who have the problem have a lower clearance over the turnout mechanism causing the bump.

I haven't tried going at them with a metal file to reduce the sharp edges, and I don't believe that's the issue here. More like the engines and cars are hitting the plastic housing that contains the actual switching mechanism. (I guess I could try to file that down just a bit and see how the rolling stock and engines run.) I also made sure none of the metal coupling pins were hitting any of the turnout components. A few of them were and would stop a train dead in its tracks.

Anyone else have this problem...or even better...a fix or idea to solve this?

I was searching for information when i came across this site. Seems to have some usefull info here.
<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.model-railroad-hobbyist.com">www.model-railroad-hobbyist.com</a><!-- w -->

For US members, it seems PBS is going to be airing an episode of "American Experience" on hobos next monday.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rails/">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rails/</a><!-- m -->

I think the program has aired previously. The promo I saw indicated that there is lots of cool old train footage. For those modeling in the Hobo era, there could be useful information for layout detailing.

Hi --

This might be a good spot for trainspotting if you visit Oslo, Norway in 2011. The new glass enclosed pedestrian walkway crossing over the 17 tracks of Oslo Central station is progressing on schedule, and will open next year:



You can see the current status of the bridge on the "right now" picture from the area:


Umm - sorry, wrong pictures - those ones up above show the new road bridge with a sidewalk/bike path on the side. The enclosed walkway is further to the left and will look like this when done:



Smile,
Stein

Philly in HO scale
This layout is DCC Live catenary and overhead trolley wire
occuping a 15 x18 room

overall







Stations







Mainline stuff






street stuff









yards



under construction

Deshler's Crossroads Park hosted the largest foam-fest it's seen in many years on Saturday. This extra-large photo post will attempt to convey some of the day's festivities:





















Plenty more of the day's photos are on flickr