07-02-2012, 10:20 AM
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of paying a visit to fellow forumite Ralph and his wife Susan here in the Twin Cities, and I got to see in person some of the great modeling that has gone into his Kings Port layout.
I have to tell you guys that as great as this layout looks in the photos Ralph has posted (http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...=54&t=5197), it looks (and sounds) even better in person.
Ralph and I spent about 2 1/2 hours looking at the ingenious and good looking ways how he had created some of the things on his layout, ran three trains together, and finally - after my wife and kids returned to pick me up again to go to a family gathering with relatives in the afternoon - showed my wife and kids a long freight train snaking through the magnificent scenery.
Some of the things that look even better in person than in the pictures : the sheer size of the Kingsport works, the Gern plant and Empire Grain - these places really look like they need railroad service. The way the transition between scenes and min scenes are made - there are no jarring scenery breaks. All the signs and billboards around the layout. The way masonite roads looks totally like real concrete roads. The smashed up prision bus by the wrecked train in the scene from The Fugitive.
The way wood and cardboard has been used in so many creative ways to create great looking structures and scenery - e.g. how two empty boxes from Athearn Blue Box cars has turned into a great second story on the engine house, with caps of juice boxes for vents. Shampoo bottles having been turned into blast furnaces (?), knee joints from bits and pieces of plumbing looking extremely believeable as industrial large pipes, sprues as smaller pipelines, meat skewers as steel beams in elevator legs, large bottle caps sawed in two making very believable water outlets/culverts under a plant, crushed cars at the recycling place made from tin foil molded over a hot wheels car and then painted/flattened, car float and two fuel barges made from wood, the way the switch controls were made from the small metal hatch locks and fishing wire - they worked perfectly, and lots of other things. It was just such a wonderful demonstration of how ingenuity and imagination are the chief components of a great layout.
And the round control stand in the corner totally blew me away - with MRC controller being mechanically linked to the 1:1 size speed throttle and reverser, and the great sound effects through a hidden speaker when you run a train. Here is a little video showing Ralph at the controls stand, moving a train consisting of an E8 and two passenger cars in the background: http://youtu.be/UpFdrBwMjJQ
We also had great fun running three trains together, with me at the throttle and Ralph as the conductor, throwing switches and controlling the power districts as we ran around the layout. We first got a GP30 from the locomotive terminal in Kings Port, pulled a couple of cars from one industry and shoved them back onto the rest of the train, which had already been assembled in the yard.
We then had to wait in the yard for a longer passing freight pulled by three engines to clear the track - here is a couple of videos showing out train holding in the King's Port Yard while we wait for the passing train - the first one shows the passing train at the top of the hill behind Kingsport, and the second shows it arriving in the yard after having come down the hill and around the curve past the steel mill:
Local holding in Kingsport yard, freight train passing in background: http://youtu.be/2Z2U4odw-xY
Local holding in Kingsport yard, freight train passing in foreground: http://youtu.be/5otweVk2HG0
After the other train had passed, we recived clearance to head out of Kings Port and up the hill. Our train got underway, slowly clawing its way up the long hill out of Kings Port, and then continued until we got to the aggregates plant, where we spotted an empty hopper.
From there we continued to the oil barge terminal, where we pulled a tank car. Then, leaving the rest of the train in the yard, we took an inbound car over to the huge GERN plant at the outskirts of West Mill. We had to displace a gondola from the scrap yard to get out car into the GERN track. Then we spotted the car for GERN,and put the gon back. So far, so good - the engine was working flawlessly, no delays waiting for customers and paperwork - everything was going so smoothly that we were starting to get slightly spooked.
After we went back for the rest of the train in the yard by the oil terminal, we headed for our last customer of the run before handing the train over to the next crew in West Mill. We pulled up next to the massive Empire Grain in West Mill, cut off the two covered hoppers bound for Empire, and shoved them back into the covered unloading track. After spotting the cars as directed by the guy at the plant, we pulled out, moved back to our train, pumped up air and pulled out heading for the point where we would hand over the train to the next crew.
Whaddayouknow - Mr Murphy made a visit. A car derailed on the switch just as we pulled past Empire. We dumped the air and got down on the ground. Not too bad - no track damage, and all cars were upright. With a little assistance from the guys at the elevator and the guys from the car float yard right next to us, we actually got the car rerailed pretty quickly and could in short order hand over our train to the next crew.
Later in the day, after having gotten a ride back to Kings Port yard, we took the local passenger train for part of it's run. We pulled a classy, lovely looking old lady for this run - a Penn Central E8 pulling two coach cars. Here is a little video shoving us pulling out of the tunnel and stopping at the passenger platform in West Mill: http://youtu.be/LWKyp7ZsrNE
For our final train of the day, we got a transfer run of Kings Port and Western (KP&W) covered hoppers from the steel mill yard in Kings Port to the float yard in West Mill. This time we got a GP9 for our locomotive. With a short train (6 hoppers and a caboose) we made good time, and soon pulled into the float yard at West Mill. I stopped, Ralph pulled the pin and set the brake for the caboose, and then signalled me to pull the rest of the train past the swich. When I stopped past the switch, Ralph got down, lined the switch and signalled me to back up.
Suddenly he started signalling "stop!". I quickly got the train - which barely had started moving - stopped again.
Turned out that some nitwit from another crew had failed to line the turnout the correct way after dropping off some cars at the other float yard track, so we had been heading into the wrong track, where there already were some cars. I pulled forward again. Ralph lined the second switch for the right track and then signaled for me to back up again. This time we went into the right track, with the engine slowly shoving the cars down the track until Ralph signalled all clear.
Ralph set the hand brakes and made the cut, and got back on the engine. We pulled forward on the main, relined the switch, and went back for our caboose. We then left the caboose and engine on an available track in West Mill, so the next crew would have power available for the morning job.
Before we went home, we stopped alongside some kids (who looked a lot like my sons) looking at a longer freight train coming through West Mill on the main:
http://youtu.be/5ozTi4sYgMs
I had a blast - it is so great that people from many parts of the US and many parts of the world can come together through this forum, and even get to meet each other in real life.
And the wives also had a great time - comparing notes on crazy model railroader husbands, and realizing that they were not alone in having to deal with us. They both agreed that it had been a very nice "play date for big boys", which ought to be repeated some day :-)
Smile,
Stein
I have to tell you guys that as great as this layout looks in the photos Ralph has posted (http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...=54&t=5197), it looks (and sounds) even better in person.
Ralph and I spent about 2 1/2 hours looking at the ingenious and good looking ways how he had created some of the things on his layout, ran three trains together, and finally - after my wife and kids returned to pick me up again to go to a family gathering with relatives in the afternoon - showed my wife and kids a long freight train snaking through the magnificent scenery.
Some of the things that look even better in person than in the pictures : the sheer size of the Kingsport works, the Gern plant and Empire Grain - these places really look like they need railroad service. The way the transition between scenes and min scenes are made - there are no jarring scenery breaks. All the signs and billboards around the layout. The way masonite roads looks totally like real concrete roads. The smashed up prision bus by the wrecked train in the scene from The Fugitive.
The way wood and cardboard has been used in so many creative ways to create great looking structures and scenery - e.g. how two empty boxes from Athearn Blue Box cars has turned into a great second story on the engine house, with caps of juice boxes for vents. Shampoo bottles having been turned into blast furnaces (?), knee joints from bits and pieces of plumbing looking extremely believeable as industrial large pipes, sprues as smaller pipelines, meat skewers as steel beams in elevator legs, large bottle caps sawed in two making very believable water outlets/culverts under a plant, crushed cars at the recycling place made from tin foil molded over a hot wheels car and then painted/flattened, car float and two fuel barges made from wood, the way the switch controls were made from the small metal hatch locks and fishing wire - they worked perfectly, and lots of other things. It was just such a wonderful demonstration of how ingenuity and imagination are the chief components of a great layout.
And the round control stand in the corner totally blew me away - with MRC controller being mechanically linked to the 1:1 size speed throttle and reverser, and the great sound effects through a hidden speaker when you run a train. Here is a little video showing Ralph at the controls stand, moving a train consisting of an E8 and two passenger cars in the background: http://youtu.be/UpFdrBwMjJQ
We also had great fun running three trains together, with me at the throttle and Ralph as the conductor, throwing switches and controlling the power districts as we ran around the layout. We first got a GP30 from the locomotive terminal in Kings Port, pulled a couple of cars from one industry and shoved them back onto the rest of the train, which had already been assembled in the yard.
We then had to wait in the yard for a longer passing freight pulled by three engines to clear the track - here is a couple of videos showing out train holding in the King's Port Yard while we wait for the passing train - the first one shows the passing train at the top of the hill behind Kingsport, and the second shows it arriving in the yard after having come down the hill and around the curve past the steel mill:
Local holding in Kingsport yard, freight train passing in background: http://youtu.be/2Z2U4odw-xY
Local holding in Kingsport yard, freight train passing in foreground: http://youtu.be/5otweVk2HG0
After the other train had passed, we recived clearance to head out of Kings Port and up the hill. Our train got underway, slowly clawing its way up the long hill out of Kings Port, and then continued until we got to the aggregates plant, where we spotted an empty hopper.
From there we continued to the oil barge terminal, where we pulled a tank car. Then, leaving the rest of the train in the yard, we took an inbound car over to the huge GERN plant at the outskirts of West Mill. We had to displace a gondola from the scrap yard to get out car into the GERN track. Then we spotted the car for GERN,and put the gon back. So far, so good - the engine was working flawlessly, no delays waiting for customers and paperwork - everything was going so smoothly that we were starting to get slightly spooked.
After we went back for the rest of the train in the yard by the oil terminal, we headed for our last customer of the run before handing the train over to the next crew in West Mill. We pulled up next to the massive Empire Grain in West Mill, cut off the two covered hoppers bound for Empire, and shoved them back into the covered unloading track. After spotting the cars as directed by the guy at the plant, we pulled out, moved back to our train, pumped up air and pulled out heading for the point where we would hand over the train to the next crew.
Whaddayouknow - Mr Murphy made a visit. A car derailed on the switch just as we pulled past Empire. We dumped the air and got down on the ground. Not too bad - no track damage, and all cars were upright. With a little assistance from the guys at the elevator and the guys from the car float yard right next to us, we actually got the car rerailed pretty quickly and could in short order hand over our train to the next crew.
Later in the day, after having gotten a ride back to Kings Port yard, we took the local passenger train for part of it's run. We pulled a classy, lovely looking old lady for this run - a Penn Central E8 pulling two coach cars. Here is a little video shoving us pulling out of the tunnel and stopping at the passenger platform in West Mill: http://youtu.be/LWKyp7ZsrNE
For our final train of the day, we got a transfer run of Kings Port and Western (KP&W) covered hoppers from the steel mill yard in Kings Port to the float yard in West Mill. This time we got a GP9 for our locomotive. With a short train (6 hoppers and a caboose) we made good time, and soon pulled into the float yard at West Mill. I stopped, Ralph pulled the pin and set the brake for the caboose, and then signalled me to pull the rest of the train past the swich. When I stopped past the switch, Ralph got down, lined the switch and signalled me to back up.
Suddenly he started signalling "stop!". I quickly got the train - which barely had started moving - stopped again.
Turned out that some nitwit from another crew had failed to line the turnout the correct way after dropping off some cars at the other float yard track, so we had been heading into the wrong track, where there already were some cars. I pulled forward again. Ralph lined the second switch for the right track and then signaled for me to back up again. This time we went into the right track, with the engine slowly shoving the cars down the track until Ralph signalled all clear.
Ralph set the hand brakes and made the cut, and got back on the engine. We pulled forward on the main, relined the switch, and went back for our caboose. We then left the caboose and engine on an available track in West Mill, so the next crew would have power available for the morning job.
Before we went home, we stopped alongside some kids (who looked a lot like my sons) looking at a longer freight train coming through West Mill on the main:
http://youtu.be/5ozTi4sYgMs
I had a blast - it is so great that people from many parts of the US and many parts of the world can come together through this forum, and even get to meet each other in real life.
And the wives also had a great time - comparing notes on crazy model railroader husbands, and realizing that they were not alone in having to deal with us. They both agreed that it had been a very nice "play date for big boys", which ought to be repeated some day :-)
Smile,
Stein