Thing I’ve never seen in a model train layout…


Gary B said:
Ah, just for the record, Aurora been dead since the seventies. A lot of there model kits have reappeared over the years but the slot car items I've never heard of coming back.
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You are, of course, correct..... I was thinking of "Tomy AFX" - Their sets, along with Lifelike (that I've never used, but are in the Walthers catalog) are still available. [It's the "AFX" moniker that messes me up, as that used to be Aurora.:rolleyes:]

I'm no historian of the genre, but it seems the manufacturers screwed up not allowing (easy) interoperability - The track sections have about 3-4 different arrangements at the joiners :eek:.

If anyone's interested, http://hoslotcarracing.com/ is a pretty extensive site - Maybe I'll read the "history" section one day :)

Thanks for the correction.

Cheers,
Ian
 
Here's something I think would be cool I've never seen, A Cog railway. You know the 45 degree plus track with the passenger car built with stilts on one end to keep it level and the crazy looking steamer pushing it up. It's a railroad type I've never seen modeled. I wonder if Marklin or one of the European companies might have produced one.
 
for anyone lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to live near Hamburg they have a very large - billed as the world largest - model railway.
Last time we went they had started building an airport and were planning on having flying planes!
 
Gary B said:
Here's something I think would be cool I've never seen, A Cog railway. You know the 45 degree plus track with the passenger car built with stilts on one end to keep it level and the crazy looking steamer pushing it up. It's a railroad type I've never seen modeled. I wonder if Marklin or one of the European companies might have produced one.
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I tore apart an 0-4-0 to try and do this. I was using these grey lego pieces for the middle rail, and the gear on the axle to climb it, but it wasnt working. Maybe over summer break ill try again.

Back to the thread, id like the see the following on a layout.
-Whitewater rafters
-Dirtbikers/Fourwheelers/Snowmobiles/Boats
-Kayakers
-Footprints (always see people on the beach of in the sand, yet theres never any indication that they havent always been there)
-Waste, like yard clippings, tree limbs, ect.
-Campers- I want to have a full campground and campers in peoples yards.
-Used stuff for sale, people have cars, boats, and equipment for sale on their property all the time, itd be easy to lightly weather the item and toss a "For Sale" sign on the window.
-Arealogical dig

This is off the top of my head, im sure ill think of more.
 
How about model a section of your layout that is experiencing a flood?

It should be easy to do: just rooftops sticking out of the water, the water brown and opaque (so you don't have to model the details underneath), a few boats rescuing folks sitting on their roofs...

If it was a violent flood, cars and debris up in the trees.

The intrepid rail crew pushing their train through the waters (creating a wake).
 
Outback said:
Nice. I was thinking of making a stone cairn by hand with individual small stones, but I really like your soldier statue.
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Thanks - I've been considering a horse! Sorry for the bad picture, but it does face away from the viewer.

Matt (LF) - Like to see your Cog railway when you get it together.
 
chrisskidmore said:
for anyone lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to live near Hamburg they have a very large - billed as the world largest - model railway.
Last time we went they had started building an airport and were planning on having flying planes!
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The airport and flying planes are done.
 
JazzDad said:
How about model a section of your layout that is experiencing a flood?

It should be easy to do: just rooftops sticking out of the water, the water brown and opaque (so you don't have to model the details underneath), a few boats rescuing folks sitting on their roofs...

If it was a violent flood, cars and debris up in the trees.

The intrepid rail crew pushing their train through the waters (creating a wake).
Click to expand...

Haven't seen that modelled yet, but I have a friend who used to have a layout that depicted hours just after a torrential rain. It had puddles everywhere - on roof tops, roads, ditches, and even mud and wet rock faces with water coming out of culverts.
 
Gary B said:
Thanks - I've been considering a horse! Sorry for the bad picture, but it does face away from the viewer.

Matt (LF) - Like to see your Cog railway when you get it together.
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Gary- Itll be awhile before i even have a layout to call it "together", but i can work with it over summer break.
 
Littlefoot14 said:
-Used stuff for sale, people have cars, boats, and equipment for sale on their property all the time, itd be easy to lightly weather the item and toss a "For Sale" sign on the window.
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Now there's an idea! I see farm equipment for sale all the time along the highway, I think I will do just that. Thanks for the idea.
 
For the slot car/train layout idea, if one has the space (not to mention the $$$), a 1 gauge layout in 1/32 scale would go very nicely with Fly branded slot cars (Fly are the most detailed. Carerra, Scalextrix, Monogram, and Ninco also make nice 1/32 scale slot cars).

Just to give you an idea of the scale accuracy and level of detail you can get with them (some come from the factory with working lights, but are not overly difficult to install in one that doesn't), below is a link to a C5 Corvette Convertible done by Fly.

http://www.flymodelcars.com/shop/e561-96017.html

Sorry about bringing back the slot car subject, but this is something I had thought about doing before I ever got back into trains.

An idea to do for the kids:
Though some small layouts have been done for this, how about an Island of Sodor empire. Done with Henry's Tunnel, Gordon's Hill, Tidmouth Sheds, the shipyard (for Old Salty and a working Cranky), the Quarry, Thomas's Branchline, the Scottish Castle, the narrow gauge railway, Harold's Airfield, the Smelter's Yard, the Scrapyard, and other spots seen in the Thomas the Tank Engine episodes (don't forget Sir Toppam Hatt, AKA the Fat Controller). Not just a few of the most used spots as is done on most Island of Sodor based small layouts, but a representation of the entire Island of Sodor (though there was no full layout ever built for the TV show). Even better, make it in 1/32 scale 1 Gauge, as the original Thomas engines were done.

Come to think about it, I may do an HO or OO Island of Sodor layout once I can get the space for an empire.

Regards,
Shannon
 
SABRR said:
I never see a siding or a branch line either being built or torn away.
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Guess what? Here's an abandoned section of a wye on my shortline. Old dry rust stained ties and weeds starting to take over the right of way.

DSC01665.jpg


This is actually a temporary scenic diversion until the peninsula benchwork is built to extend that section of line into a small town or agricultural industrial area. It could also be connected via removable duckunder (or bridge) from the peninsula to the north wall section of my layout if I so choose. The rest of the ballasting and scenery hasn't even caught up to this area yet. I tend to work in chunks and spurts in no specific order lol.

As can be seen from the photo, the layout is still under construction and this end will send track north and east to expansion sections. The other side of the wye will be constructed in the month or two to supply an 8 foot long staging/storage yard until the real expansion eastward can be undertaken seriously.
 
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flaja said:
But would like to:

A cat walking the ridgeline of a roof on a house.

A squirrel running along a powerline.

A political rally in a layout depicting some time in the past.

Slot cars that match the model train’s scale so both cars and train are moving. (I have seen normal size slot cars used in a Leemax Christmas village; they were out of scale for the Leemax).

Holiday decorations of any kind in the layout’s scale.

A bird in mid-air.
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They have a trainset with that now.
 
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