DFW Portable Layouts -- Mainline and Traction

[bob turner]

With a "J" on the point, please.

[Nortonville Phil]

So the OKC shows was the first all-scales, general public show for the traction layout. It traveled well and set up quickly, which was great:



I will have to ask Phil to identify these models if he gets a chance. The PCC is one of our more reliable models, running for well over an hour at one point with no de-wire events:



Everybody seems to love trolleys, and as expected this layout attracted a lot of attention. The organizer for the much bigger December OKC came by on Sunday afternoon and asked us if we might be willing to bring this layout to the show later this year. We might. I hear it's a pretty good show for an all-scales show. Most of the guys in our club have attended at least once and many often, but I have never gone.

Powhatan Arrow next.

Jim

The PCC car in the photos is a kitbashed R&T kit as far as I know. The rear door has been moved from the middle of the car to the rear. It is supposed to represent a Brussels Belgium car. It is owned by Andy S. one of our DFW O members and builder of the overhead on this layout. The little Brill single truck semi convertible is an MTH body on a Pittman/Bowser mechanism. We did have a great show this past weekend.

[imgDSCN4083 by [/img]


[img[DSCN4096 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/73303708@N08/][/img]

[E7]

Most impressive! Thanks Jim.

Rich

[rogruth]

I agree with Rich.
Two questions. I'm sure there is a system but it must take some time to erect all of the line poles needed. How long and how many to do it?

[R.K. Maroon]

Roger -- I imagine there are standards (NMRA or East Penn or CERA or other) for how to space line poles. In the case of our layout, we started with a 16-foot section that already had line poles installed. This section had been built for a traction layout many years ago and later converted for use with our club's portable standard-mainline layout. The wire was removed but fortunately the (now deceased) owner did not remove the poles. We replaced these modules with new double-track modules last year, so they became available for reuse, and we decided to use them as the heart of a traction layout, which the club has not had in many years. We built new modules for the end loops. I am not in a position to count line poles right now as the layout is packed away, but I would guess there are easily several dozen, maybe fifty or more(?).

Most of the line poles are long enough to go through the layout deck and have enough thread length to be secured with a nut and washer top and bottom. Others with short threads are simply screwed into a T-nut that is bonded to the deck.

Now, on to the Powhatan Arrow:



I believe the head-end cars are Weaver, but I would have to check with the owner to be sure. The varnish is Golden Gate. The J is Overland:



It ran beautifully. I am not sure when OMI offered this model but it seems to be a very good one.

CB&Q big steam next

Jim

[R.K. Maroon]

Next up to run was a CB&Q Northern by Sunset, owned by one of the OKC O-scalers:



The owner insisted on slow running. I am not sure if he was worried about the four-foot drop to the floor or just the weight of the doorstop cars behind it, but either way watching it tool its way around the layout warmed my O-scale heart considerably. Running slow is just as realistic as running at speed, and it serves as one way to differentiate O scale from the toy guys.

At this point we had a nice line up of steam on the layout:





The Atlas SW in the first image is operating on yard trackage that is currently being used as part of our inner main. The yard was originally built for a single main, and it will take some time to get a second main correctly installed and running. In the meantime we are detouring through the yard.

More Traction Next

Jim

[bob turner]

Neat photos. The "J" is one of my favvories - mine is Williams, and I am not sophisticated enough to see its flaws. And Tuscan passenger cars tickle me!

Keep the photos coming!

[R.K. Maroon]

The traction layout was often a busy place, with lots of models waiting for a spin around the layout or cooling off from a recent run:



One the nicest and best running models of the day was a bit of an enigma:



This is a Chicago. North Shore, and Milwaukee prototype. We all assumed the Great Northern markings were complete fantasy, but later digging turned up this:



It turns out the GN bought a pair of interurbans out of Spokane for the value of their freight service. It's a neat story, as one line was 600 VDC and the other 6600 VAC. Check out this RPO-Express with the snow plow:



Wouldn't a scratch-built version of that in O-scale be the bomb? More photos and information here:

https://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr333.htm

http://www.museumni.org/books_inland-empire.html

No North Shore equipment in sight, but it gives some cover for this otherwise well-finished model. Some purists will never be happy, but if it were me I would leave it as it is. Except I might put a small SC&P road mark on it, just like as found on the RPO-Express.

Still more traction to come

Jim

[Nortonville Phil]

Neat photos. The "J" is one of my favvories - mine is Williams, and I am not sophisticated enough to see its flaws. And Tuscan passenger cars tickle me!

Keep the photos coming!

The owner of the J (Frank) also has a Williams J. In fact the Williams version was his first O scale locomotive and what made him get interested in O scale modeling. He displays it in a prominent place in his train room. Here is another blurry photo.

DSCN4064.JPG (3.21 MiB) Viewed 9277 times

[E7]

Neat photos. The "J" is one of my favvories - mine is Williams, and I am not sophisticated enough to see its flaws.

Bob, You bring to mind an interesting thought. That is, one person's visual perception of objects compared to another's. Having only what I see through my own eyes as a point of comparison, I sometimes wonder: What the H*LL are these people looking at? Is my visual perception better than theirs? The answer is (from what I read), maybe so. Then there is the "give a sh*t factor....some don't as much as others.

One of our fellow forum members "Big Jim" noted on a previous thread that his father built the skyline casings for the J's. Big Jim pointed out that NONE of the existing models got the locomotive exactly right. First problem: the skyline casing starts immediately after the bullet nose. Second: the contours of the skyline casing are incorrect. Jim supplied photos his father building one. He is, in my opinion correct on both points.

Get a bunch of photos of the real thing and compare them and errors will start to jump out at you.....at least they do for me.

Rich

[rogruth]

You are forgetting about people like me that have poor vision. I have Macular Degeneration. It is hard to explain how some things look to me.
Most vertical lines have curves and horizontal lines are sometimes like squiggles. I seldom can tell the difference between black and blue things.
It takes some time to recover from sunlight when going inside. I understand it is NOT the same for every person.
What I am saying is that some things that look bad to some look great to me.

[E7]

Roger, No disrespect, but I think you are overlooking the obvious.......or maybe emphasizing the fact that I really have no idea what other folks are seeing.

[rogruth]

Roger, No disrespect, but I think you are overlooking the obvious.......or maybe emphasizing the fact that I really have no idea what other folks are seeing.

The second part for all of us.

[De Bruin]

An interesting observation I have noticed as well; rarely, and especially, do two model railroaders see the same detail with regard to angles, tapers, arcs in the shrouding, especially on locomotives, diesels and electrics. And then of course the mother of all arguments, the "right" colour.
I believe the former is a worthy topic for debate, however the later, save for the most egregious examples, is a fool's errand.

I do like the look of that Walthers CNS&M PS steel car standing in for a GN interurban, even if not in the same zip code for the era and prototype (which of course optimistically less than 5% of train fans/model rails would even pick up on so who cares right), it's a nice looking model. And agree the GN's long gone eastern Washington State interurban acquisitions are an obscure albeit fascinating topic. Regardless traction layouts are like cat nip for model rails, rail fans and their families at these shows. The DFW O Scale crowd has a doubled their public foot print for these shows with these two great layouts, well done.

[rogruth]

Do you mean that attendance at your shows is doubling?
If so I got one comment-WOW!