Are there any good tutorials/books on scratchbuilding, specifically freight cars? I'd really like to give it a shot but have no idea where to start.

Spent some time on the Norfolk Southern Chicago Line near Delta, Ohio this morning:

Hi Folks:

I found this site from links on other model railroading forums I participate in, and I see there are many familiar "faces" here. This seems like a great place to hang out and share info about the hobby.

My 2nd layout (HO scale) is under construction, but currently on hiatus due to all of my kids' end-of-school-year/dance/sports season events. I hope to get back at it in the next week or so.

I'll be kicking off a thread in the Layout section with more info soon.

Talk to you later!

After Seeing CNW1961's Wonderful Miami Switching layout I decided I would try my hand at building an East-Rail switching layout of my own.

My Layout room is only 8x11 feet and I have doors on both sides so the most I could get away with was a straight shelf with some extensions, I am currently working on benchwork and I should be done with that in a few days.

Here is my layout design thread on Trainboard, I even got Lance Mindheim to give his input
http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/show...p?t=121705

Here is the Track-plan, its not very visually appealing but it works

Minimum Radius is 24" and turnouts are Walthers code 83 #5's and a couple of #8's

Came across this odd little pop-up at a newspaper site. It's for a contest of some sort, with transportation provided by VIA Rail, Canada's equivalent of Amtrak.

Odd in that the Turbo does not exist any more, yet they use it in the promo materials. Here's a screen grab for your amusement.

Andrew

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Hello all, first post here and thought I'd submit my layout plan for review. I'm modeling the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha (Omaha Road-I know, creative user name right?) in Eau Claire, WI in 1951. Eau Claire was a major junction for the Omaha with one of the lines north to Spooner/Superior/Ashland originating there. There was a major classification yard just to the east of town and a small yard in town with a dedicated switch job to handle local industries and passenger switching. This was the route of the famous CNW 'Twin Cities 400' but besides the flashy streamliners up to 10 passenger trains a day stopped here in 1951-most needed at least some switching of their express/mail consist. My plan focuses on the small yard/depot area and the two major industries in town-a US Rubber tire plant and a paper mill.



The track in the upper left that appears to go off plan is a helix located half in a closer. The helix will go down to a lower level staging area. I won't be tackling the helix right away-there is plenty of other railroad to build first. The helix will likely be the last feature added, once I've gotten the hang of things.

Just looking at the plan as I type this I already have one or two ideas-one being flipping the yard so the ladder is at the bottum and moving/adding a crossover or two to make industry switching easer. I'll wait to do that until I get a bit of feedback though

As always suggestions are welcome and encouraged. I'm sure I've made more than a few bone headed design errors here and am certainly thick skinned-fire away .

I need white decals and I'm led to believe that "the APLS printer" is the only computer printer that prints in white. I've started looking for an ALPS printer and the appropriate Ink Cartridges and associated printer supplies cables, drivers, etc.
... Then I realized I have no clue what I am looking for ... hock: :?

... Which model ALPS printer should I be looking for? :?:

... What might an appropriate price be (and how much would be ridiculous and a rip-off?) :?:

... What is the concensus on how long can we expect the white ink cartridges to be available?

... What computer operating systems are supported by an APLS printer?

Yeah, I'm just a bundle of questions! 8-)

And the biggest question I have is ... What questions should I be asking ... and looking for answers to? :? :?:

........at least on paper. I have grown to admit that my current layout, while fairly large has it's issues and I am determined to rectify these and have a go at the tear down/reconstruction. My current layout has 2 main flaws. Too much hidden trackage: hard to clean and maintain. Too long a reach in some areas making it very difficult to scenic well. I have drawn and redrawn a bunch of layout configurations before settling on really the only way I can make this work in such a strange space.

The area comprises 16 feet x 31 feet. It must deal with an "L" shaped area and a support column. I'm settling on 3 extra long passing sidings to give the illusion of double track.

I sketched out the layout's configuration and drew in major tracks. The railroad will consist of 3 sections each with its own "blob" shaped ends to allow turn back curves on each. This should give a decent mainline run and allow for continuous running.

The way I am envisioning this is such: A train can leave the freight yard heading west through a gritty urban city scene and progress to the middle section after passing through farmlands. The middle section will have a double sided back drop down the middle and pass a small town, through a mountain tunnel and another small town on the other side before heading on to the 3rd (left hand section). This will be a coastal area before turning into a hilly rural area. This section also has to deal with the support column which may have to be hidden with another double sided backdrop.

I didn't draw in any other sidings or spurs at this point. I want to avoid big industry and concentrate on smaller lineside industries that can be switched along the way. I drew in a possible configuration for an engine terminal and a very basic freight yard. The yard measures about 10 feet long and will need to have an ice house and icing track as well. I would like to incorporate an interchange but don't have any ideas for such at this point.

Please feel free to jump in with criticisms, ideas and suggestions!



Matt

Not sure in which part of this forum to place this, but I think this is the best one.

I came accross this website today, which shows off some beautiful modeling including how-to's etc.

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Enjoy!

Koos