Really appreciate the fact you use real world customers. I model the Western PA and Pittsburgh steel mill scene and with an abundance of scrappers. Your presentation is the real deal. Thank for sharing!
I have a scrap bale load idea a friend showed me years ago. All one needs is aluminum foil, an old ink pen and one socket. The end where the square section is will be used to make the square bale loads. Tear off one small piece of aluminum foil and push it through the big part of the socket into the square part with the old ink pen. Once it comes out of the square, shape it on a table into a square. (After that I like using pliers to shape it into a square.) Once the desired shape is finished, add a car door from an old car on one or two of the bales. Have a bumper sticking out of one bale. Weather them before or after they are put in the gondola. The trick for the Athearn blue box kits is to cut out one piece of cardboard that will fit inside the gondola. Glue it in (or not for removal). Add 3 bales across and 17 down for the gondola for a total of 51 bales. There are numerous possibilities with this load. One can use a smaller socket for small bales or a large socket can be used for large bales. Airbrush or use pastel chalks for weathering. After applying the pastel chalks spray with Dulcoat or hair spray. Yes, hair spray. The bales add just enough weight to make the gondolas roll better. One's hand will cramp up after making so many. Another trick is to use old Tyco track. Cut the rails off the track. (Use the ties on the side of the track as where the rail was ripped up but the ties were left there. Use rust brown for weathering the tie plates.) Bend the rails some and paint the rails burnt amber with some brown. Or whatever the model railroader prefers. Paint the front and back inside of the rail black. It will appear where a torch was used to cut it. Make many lengths. Happy Railroading everybody!
I forgot one other thing. Take the metal frog from an old broken switch, weather it and put it to the side of a switch. It will give the appearance that the old frog was replaced. Plus, use a deck of cards for situations. For example, one card would represent the third boxcar has a stuck brake wheel. Another card would represent that car five derailed. Another card would represent the empties aren't ready for pick up. Do you leave the loads on a siding and come back another day? One card would represent nothing wrong. I used the deck of cards thing when I was switching. I wouldn't draw the card. I would ask someone to draw it for me. There are numerous possibilities for card switching. Heads or tails, I need a shoving platform (caboose) today. (Because of the weather?) Rain, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc... Draw a card that reads a car ran in front of train, but no one got hurt. Now you are delayed for 3-4 hours talking to the police.
Well done Lance! Prototypical speed is the way to do it. If anyone wants to run faster, then they can do it on their own railroad. That's the whole idea, run YOUR railroad the way YOU want.
When you only have 8' of shelf, all these little additions add a lot of enjoyment. I have seen the key-switches that break power to a turnout but I do like these little physical locks too. thanks for this series
This is a great series and perfect timing as I've been digesting your books while building my own variation of the "Palmetto Spur". It would be cool to see some of your other layouts in action as well.
For me there's nothing that breaks immersion quicker and more thoroughly than model trains running too quickly. Perhaps some people need to have a think about why they are being so impatient 🤷 Keep it up, Lance - I find these videos informative, useful and fun to watch 👍
More typical radio call..." Bring 'er back 2771, ...20 cars...,15 cars...,10 cars...5 caaa..*%#, STOP THE TRAIN!" BANG>>> Not all the knuckles are broken out on the high rails. Excellent video.
That area includes many places where scenes in Miami Vice were filmed. Perhaps the most famous is the lift bridge around the corner from FP&T. The scene in the pilot episode where Crockett jumps off the bridge into the boat Tubbs is piloting was filmed there.
cool vid... and on the topic of the gons on the storage track... it looks like doing that is the decision of the foreman on the job... bringing the extra gons down means they are already there close by and because they are already near the customers place, it's less switching for when your making up your train the next day... also at the end of the vid, the crew would wait to do the brake test until after they've runaround their train
These are great! Can you continue continue to elaborate on what the brakeman and engineer are doing during these moves. Sometimes I'm not sure exactly when the handbrakes are set etc. Is it every time that a car isn't connected to other cars or an engine etc?
For the low side gons they're shavings from a machine shop. For the high side gons I used commercial scrap loads for the base and then sprinkled on etched parts and junk from my scrap box.
I made them myself. The FP&T loads were made by drilling aluminum bar and collecting the shavings. Miami Iron used a commercial load as a base and I then added scrap parts on top of that.
Trains Magazine writes: The railroad three-step protection rule is a safety procedure that a locomotive engineer uses to protect employees working near, between, or under cars that the locomotive is attached to. The three steps are: Fully apply the train's automatic and independent brakes Set the reverser to neutral Open the general field switch
10:05 "I think that's about 10mph" Actually, it's quite a bit less. It takes 200 frames of 30fps video for the last gon in the train to pass a fixed point. That's 6.7 seconds for a 53ft car, which is pretty much 8 feet per second, which is 5.5mph. The fixed point I used was the visible edge of the road on the crossing; it's possible that you were already slowing the train for the stop, then.
Switching over Richard Shipping Services - doesn't that create some friction between those companies? Who does own the rail? The railroad or the companies?
I believe the industry owns the track. Sometimes you'll see a tie painted red showing where the boundary is. Yes, it's an odd track layout but I'm not aware of any friction. They've been doing it for years and still do it in the present day.
One point on the issue of "scale speeds": I don't think it's completely well-defined what a scale speed is. 10 MPH on a model should be 10 scale miles per scale hour -- but what's a scale hour? For a lot of model railroading, we use fast clocks, where a scale hour is a lot less than a real hour. Similarly, we might want to use "scale minutes", where a 15-minute switching job on the prototype takes less than 15 minutes on a model, and achieve that by running the models a bit faster than 10 scale miles per 1:1 hour. On the other hand, running with speeds that are 10 scale miles per 1:1 hour means that what we see "looks right" in a way that faster speeds don't. I suppose it's already obvious that you can run your railroad however you want. What I'm saying is that no speed is "more accurate" than another in some absolute sense. What you're saying is that you do your switching on a "time scale" where each minute of real time is one minute on the model. And someone else might be saying that they prefer to do their switching on a time scale that's a bit faster. Nobody is "right" or "wrong"; it's a choice of scales in the same way that an N scale model is smaller than an HO scale model.
Respectfully, some people are right and some are wrong. The whole point of this style of layout is not about larger hyper compressed layouts and fast clocks. Last mile ops or, scale "footprint" modeling like this means you can operate prototypically in real time. Why use a fast clock? Therefore, this is the right way to operate on a layout like this. Cheers. 😁
@@boomerdiorama : That's a fair point; I'll accept that. I think I was thinking about this in the context of the recent switching that I was doing on a branch line on a larger club layout. The little world that I was working in was very much like this style of layout, but when I got done on the branch and went out on the main to get to the yard, I was interacting with other trains that were running on a much faster timescale. I was thinking about your comment last weekend when I was running the branchline job again, and noticed that while I might cheat the speed a bit to account for the fact that the runaround track at one of our towns is painfully (and uselessly) long, on most of the job it was indeed much more enjoyable to operate at something close to "real time" speeds, and think about things like being gentle with the loads and where my brakeman is getting on and off to throw the switches and uncouple the cars. Classification yards are a place where the timelines get more interesting, but perhaps running those at real-time speeds on a fast-clock layout ends up balanced out by having shorter trains to break down and assemble and thus fewer cars to move around.
So when it comes to csx at least we really dont ever bother with waybills. Yes every car has one but really nowadays only the yardmaster or customer worry about waybills. Most conductors on locals know exactly what cars are going to what customer. Also your work order has several pages that will give you your customer, their cars to place (your spots) and their pulls (your pulls) and even then most conductors dont really look at it because especially now we have tablets that have all that information on them as well.
I might be wrong, but in the "real world", there is a lot of repetition from week to week. When they start a work day, it's not their first rodeo. They've done the same thing over and over in the past.
Lance’s modeling is so world class. Been following him since his Monon days hauling limestone.
Really appreciate the fact you use real world customers. I model the Western PA and Pittsburgh steel mill scene and with an abundance of scrappers. Your presentation is the real deal. Thank for sharing!
I have a scrap bale load idea a friend showed me years ago. All one needs is aluminum foil, an old ink pen and one socket. The end where the square section is will be used to make the square bale loads. Tear off one small piece of aluminum foil and push it through the big part of the socket into the square part with the old ink pen. Once it comes out of the square, shape it on a table into a square. (After that I like using pliers to shape it into a square.) Once the desired shape is finished, add a car door from an old car on one or two of the bales. Have a bumper sticking out of one bale. Weather them before or after they are put in the gondola. The trick for the Athearn blue box kits is to cut out one piece of cardboard that will fit inside the gondola. Glue it in (or not for removal). Add 3 bales across and 17 down for the gondola for a total of 51 bales. There are numerous possibilities with this load. One can use a smaller socket for small bales or a large socket can be used for large bales. Airbrush or use pastel chalks for weathering. After applying the pastel chalks spray with Dulcoat or hair spray. Yes, hair spray. The bales add just enough weight to make the gondolas roll better. One's hand will cramp up after making so many. Another trick is to use old Tyco track. Cut the rails off the track. (Use the ties on the side of the track as where the rail was ripped up but the ties were left there. Use rust brown for weathering the tie plates.) Bend the rails some and paint the rails burnt amber with some brown. Or whatever the model railroader prefers. Paint the front and back inside of the rail black. It will appear where a torch was used to cut it. Make many lengths. Happy Railroading everybody!
I forgot one other thing. Take the metal frog from an old broken switch, weather it and put it to the side of a switch. It will give the appearance that the old frog was replaced. Plus, use a deck of cards for situations. For example, one card would represent the third boxcar has a stuck brake wheel. Another card would represent that car five derailed. Another card would represent the empties aren't ready for pick up. Do you leave the loads on a siding and come back another day? One card would represent nothing wrong. I used the deck of cards thing when I was switching. I wouldn't draw the card. I would ask someone to draw it for me. There are numerous possibilities for card switching. Heads or tails, I need a shoving platform (caboose) today. (Because of the weather?) Rain, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc... Draw a card that reads a car ran in front of train, but no one got hurt. Now you are delayed for 3-4 hours talking to the police.
Well done Lance! Prototypical speed is the way to do it. If anyone wants to run faster, then they can do it on their own railroad. That's the whole idea, run YOUR railroad the way YOU want.
When you only have 8' of shelf, all these little additions add a lot of enjoyment.
I have seen the key-switches that break power to a turnout but I do like these little physical locks too.
thanks for this series
This is a great series and perfect timing as I've been digesting your books while building my own variation of the "Palmetto Spur". It would be cool to see some of your other layouts in action as well.
Thanks for another informative but above all enjoyable video Lance - the leisurely pace doesn’t spoil the session at all, quite the opposite!
Very well explained video, Lance! Thanks for the shoutout - glad to help in my catches out on the field! You've nailed every detail of these moves.
For me there's nothing that breaks immersion quicker and more thoroughly than model trains running too quickly. Perhaps some people need to have a think about why they are being so impatient 🤷
Keep it up, Lance - I find these videos informative, useful and fun to watch 👍
More typical radio call..." Bring 'er back 2771, ...20 cars...,15 cars...,10 cars...5 caaa..*%#, STOP THE TRAIN!" BANG>>> Not all the knuckles are broken out on the high rails. Excellent video.
Another informative Ops video. Enjoying the content 😀👍
I'm loving the layout Great detail great job Please Keep putting out videos❤
Excellent ,thank you for sharing your methods. I enjoy your process and your books! Please keep these coming.
Thanks again for another really useful video. I am really enjoying these
That area includes many places where scenes in Miami Vice were filmed. Perhaps the most famous is the lift bridge around the corner from FP&T. The scene in the pilot episode where Crockett jumps off the bridge into the boat Tubbs is piloting was filmed there.
Yeah, I've watched that episode a few times. There was also a scene from Goldfinger shot nearby.
cool vid... and on the topic of the gons on the storage track... it looks like doing that is the decision of the foreman on the job... bringing the extra gons down means they are already there close by and because they are already near the customers place, it's less switching for when your making up your train the next day... also at the end of the vid, the crew would wait to do the brake test until after they've runaround their train
Even with the runaround three miles down the line?
@@beeble2003
yep... you want to get everything lined up in the direction that you're going BEFORE you do the brake test
Great ideas for modeling a scrap yard.
Very nice series, thanks for sharing them!
Cool👍😎keep vids coming👍
It’s amazing how much we want to overcomplicate this stuff. Just enough to make the railroad function is all it takes.
Fantastic !!!
These are great! Can you continue continue to elaborate on what the brakeman and engineer are doing during these moves. Sometimes I'm not sure exactly when the handbrakes are set etc. Is it every time that a car isn't connected to other cars or an engine etc?
I'm a little unclear also. I "think" the brakes are only set after final placement and spotting at an industry. I could be wrong though.
very cool
Phenomenal prototypical carloads. What do you use for your scrap loads?
For the low side gons they're shavings from a machine shop. For the high side gons I used commercial scrap loads for the base and then sprinkled on etched parts and junk from my scrap box.
Have you ever seen 2 conductors/brakemen working on those operations? I see UP doing it on locals. Seems safer and more efficient. Thanks again
Rarely. In Tolga's video of Miami Iron the extra crewman is in training. On other lines, yes, I've seen three person crews.
Your scrap loads looks fantastic ! Where did you purchase them from?
I made them myself. The FP&T loads were made by drilling aluminum bar and collecting the shavings. Miami Iron used a commercial load as a base and I then added scrap parts on top of that.
So when you say “calls for a 3 step”, what is that? Never heard that before
Trains Magazine writes: The railroad three-step protection rule is a safety procedure that a locomotive engineer uses to protect employees working near, between, or under cars that the locomotive is attached to. The three steps are:
Fully apply the train's automatic and independent brakes
Set the reverser to neutral
Open the general field switch
10:05 "I think that's about 10mph"
Actually, it's quite a bit less. It takes 200 frames of 30fps video for the last gon in the train to pass a fixed point. That's 6.7 seconds for a 53ft car, which is pretty much 8 feet per second, which is 5.5mph. The fixed point I used was the visible edge of the road on the crossing; it's possible that you were already slowing the train for the stop, then.
Switching over Richard Shipping Services - doesn't that create some friction between those companies? Who does own the rail? The railroad or the companies?
I believe the industry owns the track. Sometimes you'll see a tie painted red showing where the boundary is. Yes, it's an odd track layout but I'm not aware of any friction. They've been doing it for years and still do it in the present day.
One point on the issue of "scale speeds": I don't think it's completely well-defined what a scale speed is. 10 MPH on a model should be 10 scale miles per scale hour -- but what's a scale hour? For a lot of model railroading, we use fast clocks, where a scale hour is a lot less than a real hour. Similarly, we might want to use "scale minutes", where a 15-minute switching job on the prototype takes less than 15 minutes on a model, and achieve that by running the models a bit faster than 10 scale miles per 1:1 hour. On the other hand, running with speeds that are 10 scale miles per 1:1 hour means that what we see "looks right" in a way that faster speeds don't.
I suppose it's already obvious that you can run your railroad however you want. What I'm saying is that no speed is "more accurate" than another in some absolute sense. What you're saying is that you do your switching on a "time scale" where each minute of real time is one minute on the model. And someone else might be saying that they prefer to do their switching on a time scale that's a bit faster. Nobody is "right" or "wrong"; it's a choice of scales in the same way that an N scale model is smaller than an HO scale model.
Respectfully, some people are right and some are wrong. The whole point of this style of layout is not about larger hyper compressed layouts and fast clocks.
Last mile ops or, scale "footprint" modeling like this means you can operate prototypically in real time. Why use a fast clock? Therefore, this is the right way to operate on a layout like this. Cheers. 😁
@@boomerdiorama : That's a fair point; I'll accept that. I think I was thinking about this in the context of the recent switching that I was doing on a branch line on a larger club layout. The little world that I was working in was very much like this style of layout, but when I got done on the branch and went out on the main to get to the yard, I was interacting with other trains that were running on a much faster timescale.
I was thinking about your comment last weekend when I was running the branchline job again, and noticed that while I might cheat the speed a bit to account for the fact that the runaround track at one of our towns is painfully (and uselessly) long, on most of the job it was indeed much more enjoyable to operate at something close to "real time" speeds, and think about things like being gentle with the loads and where my brakeman is getting on and off to throw the switches and uncouple the cars.
Classification yards are a place where the timelines get more interesting, but perhaps running those at real-time speeds on a fast-clock layout ends up balanced out by having shorter trains to break down and assemble and thus fewer cars to move around.
So when it comes to csx at least we really dont ever bother with waybills. Yes every car has one but really nowadays only the yardmaster or customer worry about waybills. Most conductors on locals know exactly what cars are going to what customer. Also your work order has several pages that will give you your customer, their cars to place (your spots) and their pulls (your pulls) and even then most conductors dont really look at it because especially now we have tablets that have all that information on them as well.
I might be wrong, but in the "real world", there is a lot of repetition from week to week. When they start a work day, it's not their first rodeo. They've done the same thing over and over in the past.