The Rip Track

Sometimes, inclement weather can work to your advantage when you're out railfanning. For one thing, you won't need your "other railfan filter" as much since there'll be fewer railfans out in the weather with you. Also, you'll be able to get those really dramatic shots that just don't happen on what I call "Kodak clouds" days. This photo of Wisconsin & Southern 4025 was taken during a rainstorm in 2005.

It's not just Southern Railway that ran their locomotives long hood forward. Just because the control stand on the majority of locomotives is positioned for short hood forward operation doesn't mean that a locomotive can't be operated long hood forward. This Wisconsin and Southern train is taking loads westward from Madison through Middleton toward Prairie du Chien.

When you're laying track, try to keep the mainline through the straight sections of your turnouts. Trains are less likely to derail on the straight sections, so the more frequent direction of travel through a turnout should be through the straight section. On this set of NTrak modules, the passing siding is between the two outer mainline tracks, while another siding veers off the blue mainline toward the backdrop.

When you're planning your layout, think about more than the layout itself. Think about where you're going to store all the tools and equipment in your "basement hobby shop." Think about getting one of those rolling tool carts like they've got at the auto shop. If you put your tools back into the cart when you set them down, you'll be able to find your tools right away when you need them, and your layout won't turn into the convenient flat surface like this one has.

Long time readers of this site will know that I had hoped to put up one review per month. Obviously, I'm far short of reaching that goal. So, I think it's time for an update on the items that I'm looking at for review material. Rather than an in-depth on each item, I'll give you a quick first impression on each item. (Read more to see my initial thoughts)

Unless you're modeling equipment straight out of the paint shop, it's OK if your decal is chipped. It happens on the prototype too, like this UP locomotive passing through Rochelle in 2005. A lot of railroads use large scale "decals" of their own to apply uniform lettering and numbers on their equipment, and their decals chip just like ours do on our models.

Avoid positioning your backdrop images too high. If the horizon is above eye level, it won't look right to a person standing in front of the layout, and it especially won't look right when you put your camera down at track level.

When you're building up your fleet of rolling stock, don't forget to include some semi trailers. This former CSX trailer (note the CSXZ reporting mark on the front and side) behind one of the buildings at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay shows its Seaboard System heritage with a very faded logo.

Using threaded rods for helix supports can be a quick and simple way to get your helix up. However, doing so requires precise placement of each helix lap so the rod can pass through the benchwork uniformly over the entire rise of the helix and over time the nuts may work themselves loose if they aren't soldered (think plumbing solder here...) in place.

The load is not considered part of the car for NMRA model contest judging. This flat car and load was entered in the model contest at the 2006 Midwest Region convention. Although it's a nice model with a unique load (which did match the prototype photos that were also shown there), the flat car is a stock Athearn car and did not earn the modeler enough points for a Merit Award. Adding brake details on the underframe would have helped to earn points.