This was on one of the other boards I belong to, though I'd pass it on.... you always think about how heavy a train is until it goes up against the forces of nature.

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The May 2009 issue of Model Railroader has a creative article by Bruce Dombey about easily making steel coils by rolling colored paper around a dowel stick. His turned out very well, especially after weathering. These can be made to any scale simply by adjusting the paper strip's width and the amount of paper rolled around the dowel. I've been meaning to give it a try and finally did this weekend. He found some realistic dark gun metal colored paper and also some brownish red (to represent coils with a light patina of rust). I found a lighter gray that looked OK for a first try. The strapping that keeps the coils together was made of 1/8 chart tape cut in half lengthwise. I lightly weathered my coils with brown artist chalk. Here is how they turned out next to a trio of commercially available coils...



They fit nicely in my coil cars and are a light load.



I'm going to keep practicing with different papers and try to roll the coils tighter. At $1.03 for two sheets of craft paper I think I can afford to make some more!
Ralph

Link to a video showing close-up the force with which a train going full speed literally desintegrates a car. Guess this is why no one should ever try to beat the train at a crossing.....

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Not that any of US would...I've sat for a couple of minutes waiting for a train to cross just so's I can watch it....

We have listed all the entries in the scale contest. Please pick as many as you want to vote for. Choose one, choose them all, just be sure to choose before this poll closes. Remember, entries can have as many as five pictures, so consider them all before making your selections.

Here are links to the entry posts:

eightyeightfan1http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...329#p20495
shaygetz http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...329#p20501
cn nutbarhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...329#p20771
Ralphhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...329#p21213
Steamtrainshttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...329#p21324
ngaugerhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...329#p21442
Selectorhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...329#p22073

We have listed all the entries in the full-scale contest. Please pick as many as you want to vote for. Choose one, choose them all, just be sure to choose before this poll closes. Remember, entries can have as many as five pictures, so consider them all before making your selections.

Here are links to the entry posts:

TCWORLDhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p20421
Ralphhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p20440
MasonJarhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p20622
ezdayshttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p20638
selectorhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p20652
Trains Winnipeghttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p20653
cn nutbarhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p21158
ngaugerhttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p21443
jbaakkohttp://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic...328#p21452

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!

Have a great day celebrating the anniversary of American Independence! I'm about to go to a parade but I've been watching a great series about the American Revolution on the History Channel this morning.

Ralph

Howdy Gang!

This will be the construction thread for the small layout I'll build in the interim between moving in and being settled (at which point I'll build the layout as planned here - <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1290">viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1290</a><!-- l --> )

I got tired of calling the smaller layout the Four-by-Six all the time so I made a passing comment to Loren (Nomad) that it needed a name. His creative brain churned out the name Ivy. You Roman numeral fans may be able to figure out where it came from. I added the 'West' since ridge or hill or creek, etc. just didn't sound quite right to my ears.

Basically it's a 4'x6', HO scale, standard gauge 'display layout' (read: continuous loop). There are no real operations to speak of, only a passing track that serves a more scenic function by offering a place to display equipment or keep a second train handy so I don't spend so much time taking equipment on and off the layout. There's also one siding located off the passing track which again, I suppose could be switched but really is there as a scenic feature, just for the diorama attached to the siding.

Last weekend I managed to build a set of rolling legs to fit under the layout base and this week I've been taking stock of what materials I've already got. I had, at one time, imagined I might use Bachmann EZ track (steel rail) but testing revealed the need to clean the black crud off the rails often, whether dry or 'wet' (light oil on rail, a la Wahl Clipper oil). Since that time I have stripped the code 100 NS rail off some old TruScale roadbed and plan to use it. I have a few wooden ties as well as a few #6 turnouts (also TruScale).

Along with the lumber for framing the legs I purchased a 4x8 sheet of pressed fiber board (celotex) for roadbed. Homasote is tough to come by up here and this was available readily. Construction adhesive will hold this to the foam base, and yellow carpenter's glue will hold the ties to the pressboard. Rail will be spiked by hand. Turnouts may be relaid from the TruScale solid base onto turnout ties on the layout - at least the hard work of building the turnout rail is done.

More to come - Photos will follow soon!

Galen

For any who are not aware of it, the July issue of Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine is now available for download. The issue includes an article by JBakko from the Gauge on using Sergents couplers. One point mentioned in the article concerns the fact that while the Sergents will couple to Kaddees, the limited coupler swing available can cause cars to derail going through curves. Have any of the modelers here who use Sergents couplers done any experiments to see what sort of minimum curve radius is needed for the Sergents to work with Kaddees. I'm thinking in terms of relatively short freight cars (60 feet or less) not passenger cars or long freight cars. On the home layout I'm planning, I expect to use 100% Sergents couplers, but on the modular club layout our standard couplers are Kaddee #5's. If I were to run the Sergents on the club layout at a show during an operating session (as opposed to "Christmas tree" running) I would probably have the need to couple 2 cars together where one car had the Kaddees and the other had the Sergents. Our module standards call for a 36" minimum radius.