The Rip Track

Connecting the yard tracks to the mainline tracks on a model railroad can be a confusing problem for some modelers. For this problem, like others in the hobby, it's often best to follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). This example, which was used on an HO scale modular layout, uses four standard turnouts, three small-angle crossings and one double-slip switch. With this configuration, it's fairly easy to tell which route a train will follow through the junction, and by using only standard switches and crossings on the three mainline tracks, it is much less likely to derail a train already on the mainline. One other thing to note with this configuration is that the number of S curves a train needs to negotiate to travel between the yard and the mainline are minimized, further reducing the chance of derailments through the junction.

One thing that I always find fascinating about graffiti on railroad property is how the railroads deal with it. I've heard stories of graffitists getting arrested or chased off and then the equipment moved to the paint shop for a patch job, but I've also heard stories of other graffitists who were simply advised not to cover the numbers. Inevitably, many freight cars these days will have their reporting marks covered by a graffitist's piece. Here's one of the more interesting solutions that I've seen recently; the number was repainted with spray paint in a way that makes me think it could have been done by the graffitist himself. On our model railroads, this gives us another way to renumber equipment without getting out the paint strippers. However, for cars used in operating sessions, remember to get the reporting marks on all four sides so your operators can spot the cars correctly on your layout.

By now we've all seen brakeman's lanterns with railroad names stamped into the metal or etched onto the globes. Why did they do this? Technically the lanterns were the railroads' property, so if one went missing and was found by someone else, they would know where it was supposed to go for return. North American railroads put their names on everything that could be easily carried for this reason. But did you know that some railroads are even going as far as stamping their initials onto the ties they use in their track? This BNSF tie found in Glen Haven, Wisconsin, this past weekend is evidence of this. Have you found a railroad name where you weren't expecting it yet?

This has nothing really to do with trains and only close friends and family will be able to decipher all of the references, so please bear with me.

Bonnie left us this morning. In the cat blog world, they say she crossed the rainbow bridge. She always liked to be in whatever room I was in, usually just relaxing nearby.

When you're working on your Master Builder - Structures certificate, don't forget that you have one bridge to build. The requirements don't say anything about the kind or the size of bridge that you have to build, only that it should be prototypical. A short bridge like this one, which is on the N scale layout of a friend of mine, would work wonderfully for this requirement.

At every model railroad show that I attend where I show NTrak modules, there is always someone who asks how fast the trains can run. I always try to operate at prototypical speeds, but there are a few times when we put out our TGV and Shinkansen models and turn the throttles to 11. At Trainfest every year in Milwaukee, there's a Lionel operators club that sets up this train race layout and invites kids to run the trans fast...

It may not be prototypical, but I don't think any of the kids were complaining about prototype accuracy here.

I just read a note that says noted Colorado railroad photographer Richard Kindig passed away on April 7. Earlier this year, the governor of Colorado in a ceremony at the Colorado Railroad Museum, declared March 1, 2008, to be Richard H. Kindig Day in recognition of his work photographing the railroads of the state. There are a few mentions around the web on railfan and modeling sites...

• Master steam-era photographer Richard H. Kindig dies (Trains NewsWire - requires login)
• Richard Kindig (Railway Preservation News)
• Richard Kindig passes away (DRGW.net)
• Dick Kindig Passes Away (RailroadForums.net)
• Richard Kindig's Passing (TrainOrders.com)

He was 92 and will be missed. May the eternal dispatcher always give him the clear signal.

The Olympic Torch is on a Eurostar train today traveling from London to Paris.^[1] In scanning around the web for news of other train rides, it appears that the Torch Relay will ride the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (now the highest railway in the world) in June,^[2] and will also ride the Indian Pacific across Australia (a route that traverses the longest stretch of straight and level track in the world as it crosses the Nullarboor Plain) in July.^[3] What I don't see is any mention of rail travel over North America. I've seen photos of the 2002 relay car that Union Pacific built, and I got to see Canadian Pacific carry the torch through Wisconsin, but so far it doesn't look like any American railfans will get to see it on a train this year.

Graffiti, whether it's called art or vandalism, is a fact of modern railroading. But it didn't always look like what we see on the trains passing us today. Railroad graffiti has evolved over the past century and a half from simple chalk marks left by railroad workers to notify other workers of issues to marks left by hobos to vanity tags made in permanent ink to the elaborate and often enormous painted "pieces" (as they're termed by those who create them) of today. Let's take a look at how these markings were developed and, for those interested, how to model them.

When equipment is sold to another railroad, the buyer will often paint over the car with the new owner's official colors. Sometimes, the original owner's logo and paint shows through, giving us a clue as to the equipment's heritage. The same effects can be seen when a railroad upgrades its official paint scheme as can be seen here on this former Chicago and North Western Railway hopper. The old and larger CNW logo outline is clearly visible under the new and smaller logo, which thankfully has not been itself painted over yet. This car and another of CNW heritage were spotted behind the MG&E power plant in Madison, Wisconsin today.