Another Miami Layout

[ocalicreek]

OR...perhaps building a nice logging & mining layout in HOe or HOn30. TINY little curves and little bitty trains scurrying around a massive mountainside like ants...could be very interesting, and that old AHM narrow gauge stuff is still around. Many opportunities for kitbashing and creative, out-of-the-box thinking down that path.

Even if you didn't go narrow gauge, some shorty, old-timer HO standard gauge equipment can operate well on curves down to 12" radius, I'm told. For a while 15" radius was an accepted tool in the sectional track planner's arsenal. I've even been known to doodle with it occasionally.

I wonder what the minimum radius is for those nice Bachmann climaxes? I know the 3 truck shay is 18" minimum and that's final. I've got one of those and I like it, but I've never tested it down on a really tight radius before. Even so, it does fine on 18" radius.

OR go On30 - many of the little mining engines can handle tiny radius curves and look right at home doing so.

Just a thought or two...

Galen

[Justinmiller171]

So I went out to my trainroom today to take a few update pictures when leaving the room I found a very large and Scary black-widow(Not the Southern Pacifc Paint Scheme) Crawling along the wall, I immediately screamed like a little girl :oops: and ran out the the room, I later returned with a can of adhesive spray to kill it with. Here is a picture I took of it before it died( it is blurry because my hands were shaking):.

Oh and here is a picture of the road I am making:

I still need to go over a couple of more spots with paint, and put some cardboard underneath for some elevation, but I think it looks pretty good for a first try, what do you think?

[ocalicreek]

That critter is one of the FEW reasons I was glad to move out of California. That and the heat, the droughts and blackouts yet to come, the civil unrest when the oil crunch really begins to hit, and a few other reasons like traffic & pollution. But mostly I was sad to leave behind family and friends and a great modular railroad club. :cry:

The road...it's hard to tell from the picture. Perhaps try another shot from a little more distance?

Galen

[Justinmiller171]

Well lucky where I live the only critters that are dangerous are Black-Widows and Rattlesnakes, and fires. Anyways I will try to get a better picture of the road when I get the time, I took that picture in a hurry because The road was right next the the door with the spider on it and I didn't want to be in there for too long.

In other News I made a track-plan for the N-scale Layout I will build during the winter, It is set on the New Haven Railroad during the 50's, I may change the date forward on occasion so I can run some Penn Central Stuff.

[ocalicreek]

How high will the layout benchwork be? Looks like you've got a backdrop running down the middle of the blob/loop end. I'd change it to a mountain/hillside and let the road run along its flank to cross the tracks/divide the scene in front and not worry about the scenic divide in the back as much.

Say a little about the op scheme.

Galen

[Justinmiller171]

the Benchwork is very low so seeing over a divider sis no problem, I plan to do most operating from a chair so It will can be at Eye-level.

For the operating scheme, all I know so far is that a local will come out of staging, switch industries and then return to staging, I will also have passenger service and some freight trains passing trough.

I have been thinking about replacing the switching area in front of staging with a small freight yard, I would then have 2-3 operators, one for the freight yard, one local switcher, and somebody doing passenger service.

[Ralph]

I really like that trackplan! The black widow on the other hand....EEEEEEEK

Ralph

[Russ Bellinis]

Black widows aren't bad. They are pretty reclusive, and fairly easy to step on. I don't like wolf spiders. They are really poisonous, but they can jump and are very large aggressive with a painful bite. They are also extremely fast! They don't use webs but run and jump to catch their prey!

[Justinmiller171]

We have lots of wolf spiders, and Violin Spiders...and Brown Recluse Spiders, but that's about it, no big snakes or alligators here in California. I didn't know wolf spiders were so dangerous, I see one of those things almost everyday, looks like I should be more careful

[P5se Camelback]

Black widows aren't bad. They are pretty reclusive, and fairly easy to step on. I don't like wolf spiders. They are really poisonous, but they can jump and are very large aggressive with a painful bite. They are also extremely fast! They don't use webs but run and jump to catch their prey!

Russ is correct! Black Widows are small and quite easy to exterminate ... or catch and keep in a big industrial Mayonnaise jar in the Drafting Department and name "Charlotte."

Wolf spiders on the other hand ... I used to find them on the wall of my previous house, up by the ceiling (my daughter's cat could almost jump high enough to get them up there, but not quite.) They would have a leg-span of a good four or five inches and they could jump!!! I couldn't go to bed until I had terminated them ... they are scary! Big scary!! hock:

And yes, Brown Recluse ... got bitten by one of them my first day down here. My arm swelled up and the skin at the bite site, well, lets just say I have a strange-looking 1/8"D brown scar there.

We have gators, too, and wild hogs that tear up my lawn! I hate those big fat pigs!!! Pebble in rump from the sling shot usually sends them packing on their way without exciting the neighbbors with gun fire!

Then there are the scorpions ... found one in the flatware drawer in the kitchen ... caught him, put him in a jar, screwed the lid on tight ... took him several days to die1

[Justinmiller171]

Are wolf spiders more venomous than black widows, or are they just easier to killl ? I always thought black widows were one of the most poisonous spiders in the world but I may be wrong.

Anyways I will be getting enough flex-track to finish the track-work in a few days, I have been putting up a few mock-ups for the buildings so after I lay all of the track, I will then add sand and grass and then my layout will be looking pretty good :mrgreen:

[ocalicreek]

I know this is drifting away from the layout topic, but you're the one who posted a picture of a spider on here after all...

The wolf spiders I knew in Ocala (Florida) were anywhere up to 4 or 5" in diameter leg-span and yes, they were fast and could indeed jump. But where they liked to hide was in your shoes. I learned to carefully knock out a shoe I hadn't worn in a while in order to scare them out, but only occasionally could I knock one out of the shoe then squish it. Most of the time they were too fast.

Once I got in the shower - not a tub length, just a small cubby shower - and didn't notice until I was half-way through that a big one was sitting directly above me on the ceiling. Needless to say I hurried to finish then got the heck out of there! But that one, if memory serves me right, actually stayed there while I went to fetch a broom in order to kill it. Perhaps the steam from the shower lulled it into a false sense of security? We always hesitated to kill them, though, since they went after the roaches. Big roaches. Palmetto bugs, actually. The kind that stink when you step on them, and the crunch can be heard down the hall and around the corner.

Galen

[Russ Bellinis]

To my knowledge wolf spiders are not poisonous, their bite is just painful, and as Galen said they are FAST.

[Justinmiller171]

Thanks Russ, That's very nice to know, now I can go to sleep tonight .

[P5se Camelback]

Wolf Spiders, Black Widow, Brown Recluse and Yellow Sack Spiders ... we have them all here in Florida!

And we also have gators ... never go into a land-locked body of water unless you know from local people it is not the temporary home of an alligator. Just sayin'! So poor boy down in Far-South Naples/ Everglades City went swimming in a body of water often frequented locals to go swimming ... a gator bit his hand off!! hock:

Hey! Be careful out there ... and think before you do things!