Roaring Camp Dixiana Shay

We had a fun trip to ROARING CAMP this year. The kids had a lot of fun. 

More videos and images here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157666727049650

 

From http://www.roaringcamp.com/history


Dixiana Shay
The Dixiana, Roaring Camp Engine #1, is one of three engines designated a National Mechanical Engineering Historical Landmark.
The Dixiana has an historic and varied past. The "Dixie," as she is affectionately called, was built by Lima Locomotive Works, Shop No. 2593, on October 12, 1912. She served on six different short line railroads before coming west to California. Although she saw service on the famous Smokey Mountain Railroad in Tennessee, it was a little narrow-gauge mining railroad (now abandoned) in Dixiana, Virginia, that gave her the name "Dixiana."
A two-truck engine, the Dixie weighs 42 tons with a tractive effort of 17,330 lbs. and has 29 ½" drivers. Three 10 x 12 inch cylinders can maintain 180 pounds working pressure.
The beloved Dixie was dubbed Roaring Camp Engine #1 because it was the first locomotive acquired by founder, F. Norman Clark, who inaugurated steam train service from Roaring Camp on April 6,1963.

Triplex on the move

Well, I finally get the Triplex 2-8-8-8-2 rolling! A friend from work had an MTH power supply and controller tucked under his layout and passed it over to me when he found out I was dragging my feet on getting this baby rolling. He said that I'd really love seeing this big guy rolling and he was right - it's a really fantastic machine.

Funny - I wasn't familiar with the system, so I spent a while banging my head against the wall trying to get this guy to just...move. hehehe  I wasn't aware of the "NEUTRAL"  mode and having to switch out of it to get it going. But, once we got it down a bit, it was a lot of fun.

The big thing right now is just getting the track and curves. The radius curve for this is HUGE and I'm not 100% sure where I'll be able to set up for running. For now, I have 18 feet of track I can play with this one and I have to say...it's still a load of fun.

My 5 year old had a fantastic time running it as well. Once I get more track and I can let her loose a bit more (I won't have to worry about the thing flying headlong into the wall!) I'll feel a bit better about letting her go on the controls. :)

What I need to find is some estate sale where they are trying to unload a bunch of Lionel track! hehe

2-8-8-8-2 Triplex in O scale from Malcolm Johnson on Vimeo.


I found this info on http://www.trainz.com/t-fastrack_guide.aspx

O72--16 sections to a circle (#12041).  One section makes a 22.5 degree turn.  Each half section (#12055) make a 11.25 degree turn.

Note that O36, O60, O72 and O84 track sections are made where multiples of 8 make a full circle, which makes it easy to make these circles symmetrical and work together on a layout.  This is because the curved sections are all made to where they are either 1/8 of a circle (45 degrees), 1/16 of a circle (22.5 degrees), or 1/32 of a circle (11.25 degrees).  However, O48 is made where it takes 12 sections to make a circle (30 degrees). This makes it a bit of a challenge to make O48 work in a layout using multiple curve diameters, because the angle of the curves does not match the other curve sections when making partial turns.

August 27th ramblings

Progress has slowed in Shizuka and Soyokaze of late. Work and family commitments have taken over a bit of the hobby time.Well...a sizable amount, really. :::grin::: However, I slink along here and there - adding bits and bobs to scenes.

As I play around with this, it's becoming very clear that people will really start making this layout pop more. The areas that feature people and interactions are far more interesting and alive. I'm working out a plan of action when it comes to the people side that will most likely involve using TOMYTEC and KATO (among other brands) for "hero" people featured and going with a self painted group for the mid and background people. This worked really well for my buildings when I used the self painted people for the inside and more name brand people for the folks up front and center in my scenes.

This truck needs a driver! LOL Just noticed.

You can see the difference in a scene that looks like it should have people, but that doesn't have them placed as of yet. Same with sidewalks - I really need to look into sidewalk options and get some of them in now that I have the City headed in the right direction.

There are going to be a TON of people walking this bridge in the future.

The scenes are coming together with a deepth that is really working in many places.

I still get blown away looking at everything together. I need to listen to the MODEL RAIL RADIO episode I first appeared on the hear about everything I wanted to start doing - I hit many of the marks I set for myself back in 2011! I'm pretty proud of that. It's good to keep in mind when I start getting down about not having hobby time! HAHA

PAGE LINK:

Model Rail Radio #44: Layout Planning and Figures and Bears! Oh My! [September 10, 2011]

Direct MP3 link

http://www.archive.org/download/ModelRailRadio/mrr_080611.mp3

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In other news...

I made a stop at BERKELEY ACE HARDWARE today and saw these cool little kits. 1/144 tanks and rail equipment items. Now, I'm not really into German or Nazi war machines :::grin::: but, I do like sci fi and heavy equipment items like this. I was thinking that if the German markings were left off and a more WARHAMMER-like paint scheme were done, these might be fun little photo op items to slap on the tracks and take photos of. DRAGON does a really nice job with details. Maybe on day.

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I was also thinking about Christmas time and the train tradition. N scale around the tree just isn't grand when you have a 4 year old and 1.5 year old in the house. However, something in a larger gauge might work out nicely. Add a little snow, a Christmas tree or three and a house with people singing out front and you have yourself a nice little roundy-round the tree item. ((Especially if you add another $60 of track into the mix.))   :)    Now, to get a few hundred acquired before December.....

Oh...and I'm TOTALLY serious about that. :)    I think it would be a fun little item to break out and run around during the holidays. We could even have a "Haunted Railway" during Halloween with a little planning and bashing.

Something along these lines.....

We'll see what the future holds. It might be a CHRISTMAS 2015 item. Most likely a better fit seeing the kids will be closer to 5 and 3 by then.

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I might be putting together a little shelf scene for my sister-in-law similar to my Soyokaze River shelf I put together. I need to talk to her about details and what she'd like to see. It would be a blast to be able to build shelves for folks, get paid for the materials, take photos when they were done and just pass them along. I would get the fun of building, I wouldn't have to pay and I wouldn't run out of shelf or wall space! :)


All in all, there's one thing for sure. I love model railroading. :)

Various shots and news

Soyokaze River Village

Greetings from Soyokaze!    :)

I've been going round and round on having this switching area (pictured below) on the layout. It's actually all dead rail and would just be there for show - running off the edge of the layout edge. I just thought it would be fun and interesting. However, it takes up a little more space than I thought, so it might not be a good idea at this point.

But...I like it. :)  Especially if it was integrated and scenic elements were added into the area. I think it would be fun. We'll see.

This hillside area will be another fun little detail section. It sits towards the back of the layout in the "Shopping Area" and will be housing, a hospital, parking and various scenic elements. Again, a nice scene section I'll be able to work on in the house, then port outside.

There is a bit of exciting news as well. We are going to have some visitors come to the States from Australia and my layout may be on the tour. I'm using that as a push to get some work done on the layout. Nothing works better than a deadline when you're trying to get things done. So, it's a win win even if my layout doesn't make the cut for the tour due to location or timing. I'll still have some of the items on my list done, so it's all good! :)

Bay Area Layout Tour: Seth Neumann

MODEL RAIL RADIO (modelrailradio.com/) host Tom Barbalet recently scheduled a layout tour of several fantastic layouts here in the Bay Area. There was a special guest visiting from Australia and Tom took the opportunity to arrange the tour so he could see several spots on his trip.

This video features the layout of Seth Neumann and his lovely, California layout.

See photos from Seth's here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157631645955626/

Model Rail Radio Layout Tour: Seth Neumann from Malcolm Johnson on Vimeo.

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About MODEL RAIL RADIO
Model Rail Radio consistently provides the best model railroading content. It is a show without advertisers or sponsors where the listeners create the content: a simple formula that has seen the show grow rapidly into the Number One model rail podcast in terms of listeners (69,000+ and rising), hours of content produced per month (9 hours plus) and numbers of guests on the show (typically 15 or more).
It is an open format where anyone can participate. The big names in model railroading call in to talk to regular folks and people who are quickly emerging as new greats in the hobby.

Bay Area Layout Tour: David Parks

MODEL RAIL RADIO (modelrailradio.com/) host Tom Barbalet recently scheduled a layout tour of several fantastic layouts here in the Bay Area. There was a special guest visiting from Australia and Tom took the opportunity to arrange the tour so he could see several spots on his trip.

This video features the layout of David Parks - Cumberland West.

See photos from David's here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157631646076647/

Model Rail Radio Layout Tour: David Parks from Malcolm Johnson on Vimeo.


About MODEL RAIL RADIO
Model Rail Radio consistently provides the best model railroading content. It is a show without advertisers or sponsors where the listeners create the content: a simple formula that has seen the show grow rapidly into the Number One model rail podcast in terms of listeners (69,000+ and rising), hours of content produced per month (9 hours plus) and numbers of guests on the show (typically 15 or more).
It is an open format where anyone can participate. The big names in model railroading call in to talk to regular folks and people who are quickly emerging as new greats in the hobby.

Bay Area Layout Tour: Rick Fortin

MODEL RAIL RADIO (modelrailradio.com/) host Tom Barbalet recently scheduled a layout tour of several fantastic layouts here in the Bay Area. There was a special guest visiting from Australia and Tom took the opportunity to arrange the tour so he could see several spots on his trip.

This video features the layout of Rick Fortin in his grand, serpentine layout area.

See photos from Rick's here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157631646074889/

Model Rail Radio Layout Tour: Rick Fortin from Malcolm Johnson on Vimeo.

About MODEL RAIL RADIO
Model Rail Radio consistently provides the best model railroading content. It is a show without advertisers or sponsors where the listeners create the content: a simple formula that has seen the show grow rapidly into the Number One model rail podcast in terms of listeners (69,000+ and rising), hours of content produced per month (9 hours plus) and numbers of guests on the show (typically 15 or more).
It is an open format where anyone can participate. The big names in model railroading call in to talk to regular folks and people who are quickly emerging as new greats in the hobby.

Bay Area Layout Tour: Ted Stephens

MODEL RAIL RADIO (modelrailradio.com/) host Tom Barbalet recently scheduled a layout tour of several fantastic layouts here in the Bay Area. There was a special guest visiting from Australia and Tom took the opportunity to arrange the tour so he could see several spots on his trip.

This video features the layout of Ted Stephens in the back room of his office space.

See photos from Ted's here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcojojo/sets/72157631645948366/



Model Rail Radio Layout Tour: Ted Stephens from Malcolm Johnson on Vimeo.

About MODEL RAIL RADIO
Model Rail Radio consistently provides the best model railroading content. It is a show without advertisers or sponsors where the listeners create the content: a simple formula that has seen the show grow rapidly into the Number One model rail podcast in terms of listeners (69,000+ and rising), hours of content produced per month (9 hours plus) and numbers of guests on the show (typically 15 or more).
It is an open format where anyone can participate. The big names in model railroading call in to talk to regular folks and people who are quickly emerging as new greats in the hobby.

Steam Train Dream

I had a dream the other night that the family was going to take a vacation together. My in-laws, Mother, wife, kids brother-in-law, sister-in-law....the works.

We were packed and ready to travel with suitcases, food and supplies. And what was our mode of transportation? A steam train! The train had two passenger cars attached and a caboose. It was steamed up and ready to go. I actually moved it up a few feet to gain access to something, then I realized that the plan was for US to drive the thing!

All of a sudden, I realized that we didn't know how to drive a train. We didn't know train rules. We had not made plans to avoid other trains on the track, nor did we understand how to to it. It was classic. Here we were, all standing around this steam train and thinking, "We're supposed to leave for vacation right now on this thing." 

Good stuff. :)