Blog-dules

Blog-dules (Blogs and Modules, what can I say, I thought it was creative as hell at the time, of course I'm trying to kill time at the office as well... !)

So,, worklife is settling into something managable and the
modeling itch is at fevered pitch.

A week ago we ramped up the second go-round at trying to get an O Scale Modular group off the ground here in the Chicagoland area. Looks promising at the moment, should have at least 12 feet of straight running by Memorial Day, and in the meantime, I'm investigating having tables built to accomodate two return loops. Potentially we could have something operable by July 4th !
Basic module design is the same as last year, slightly taller legs (48"), and everything else from there will be EPTC standards. One good thing about waiting a year, Micro Engineering now makes Code 125 track, only Code 148 was commonly available this time last year.

Legs fit into these pockets in the ends. Very simple, yet very sturdy design.

Along with all this, I made the executive decision the other night to buy the plane tickets and arrange for a trip to this year's East Penn Trolley Meet. One day hit and run affair, fly out to Philly early AM, rent a car, and return early evening. Back in time for the Fox Valley Division's monthly meeting the following day. Hope to get lots of photos and ideas, and who knows what new model(s) I may find it impossible to live without.

Also noted this week that Charlie Pitts has started a similar blog effort. All the more the merrier I say. I can only hope that my modeling can be as good as his quite honestly. Made me think to share some of the other blog sites I check from time to time :

First Charlie's, which is primarily O Scale related. http://oscaletrolleytopics.blogspot.com/

Next up is Dan D. Sparks, modeling the San Diego Electric Rwy in HO Scale.
http://dan-d-sparks.blogspot.com/

Next is Ken Howard's Tramway Modeling, O Scale Australian Models
http://bristram.blogspot.com/

Finally, mostly virtual modeling, but quite interesting and with an Indiana RR theme mostly:
Interurban Railways http://interurban.blogspot.com/

One other one of regular note, at least to me is the Hicks Car Works blog, by Randy and Frank Hicks. The Hicks family is something of the "Keepers" of the CA&E wood cars at the Illinois Rwy Museum, and they report on a regular basis on the upkeep and maintenance of those cars and a whole host of other IRM activities. Really good stuff, highly recommended.

http://www.hickscarworks.blogspot.com/

Projects, Projects

Projects, projects.

Trying to really focus on getting back to serious, full-time modeling. Typical of yours truly, spring is in the air, and most people are thinking about getting outside in the fresh air, and I'm focusing on being inside breathing MEK all day long.

First up, the aborted O Scale Modular Traction Club idea is coming back to life. While the original concept burst on the scene with a lot of excitement and best intentions a year ago, sadly it withered on the vine. Interestingly enough, over the last 12 months, there has literally not been a single week that someone hasn't asked me about it. It's a legitimate statement to say that there's more interest at hand currently than there was a year ago, if anything I suppose it's due to the concept being out there and floated about publicly.

Anyways, we're giving it another whirl. We're going to try a different approach this time. We'll start with a core group of 3 - 4 people (or more if possible) that will commit to building a basic starter layout by a given date. Full details within the couple of weeks. Working on the "If you build it, they will come" philosophy.

To that end, I took the original two modules built for the first club attempt, and had a guy at work knock out some legs for me. Basic 48 inch lumber, the legs fit into pockets in the ends of the modules, and with the raised subroadbed, you have a finished table top that's roughly 52 inches, floor to top of the rail. Puts the trains at roughly mid-chest height. Creates quite a spectacular effect having them that up close and personal, even with just staging roadbed, track and trains on the tabletops.

We'll get some definition on standards over the next couple weeks, build some more modules and be off and running for good this time.

Haven't negelected the large scale side of things. Our peerless LST list owner Jan Giradot sent in a request from Colorado to ask if I would be interested in building him a 1:24 scale model of his favorite car, Indiana Railroad high-speed #65. Mocked up the basic body fairly quickly (see below), I need to make a trip or two out to IRM in the next couple weeks to get some more exacting measurements and take a bunch of pictures to finish this up.

Also just finished the last of the winter/spring season for train shows with the Interurbans of the Fox Valley display a couple weeks ago with the High Wheeler train show. I am the grateful and humbled recipient of this year's Best Display award. Unfortunately that success was tempered a couple weeks later when I had to cancel on the All American Railroad Show at the last minute. Hopefully we can make it next year and make up for the last minute cancellation !

Interurbans of the Fox Valley - High Wheeler 2011 Display

Last of the projects, (at least in this posting),, made some decisions on the new Sunset North Shore cars. First, I was very lucky to have been able to swap out one of the Silverliner cars with a fellow Chicago area modeler so we could each have different car numbers. Thanks Barry !

I'm going to keep the 3-car train of Silverliners pretty much intact. Do a few minor detail mods, like taking care of the clear glass windows in the lavatories, correcting the underbody details on the dining car, adding control details to the ends of the cars and train crews, removing one of the headlights from one of the coaches, adding radial couplers, correcting the Silverliner plates to be silver instead of brass, etc.

The Greenliner cars are getting all the same detail mods as listed above, and then some. The cars will be stripped, and repainted. Not sure just yet if they'll be backdated to the orange/brown scheme, or forward dated to the later simple green/red. I'll spend some time gathering data and photos before we jump to far into this one. Either way, these three cars will be matched with my three Clouser North Shore cars (two coaches and a combine), to make a six car train (all the more reason to need a club layout !). Part of the what era to model will be asking the question about how much effort would be needed to do an open end obs, but again, that's a bit distant to worry about at the moment.

Chicagoland O Scale Modular Club

First semi-official meeting of the newly formed Chicago area O Scale Traction modular club was Saturday, March 13th. We met up at the Clever Models booth/display at 1PM, and adjourned out to a side hallway for some quiet and privacy.

Had a half-dozen folks show up and the interest is very high.

We were also lucky to have Ed Skuchas from Berkshire Car Shops and an active EPTC guy sit in and give his impressions and advice.

Kevin spent part of last week building a prototype table, based on his ideas and modifications to the East Penn standard, which after some discussion we've adopted as our "standard" table.

Basic differences are we've elminated the lip on the ends of the modules which serve as leg pockets for the East Penn group, our tables will be 18 inches wide compared to EPTC' 16 inch width (adding two more inches to the rear) and we'll go with a 3-1/2" track center.

In the unlikely event that a Chicago group/EPTC get-together occur, a couple of transition modules could in theory be cobbled together.

This is the basic design, showing Kevin's concept for raised risers as opposed to a flat tabletop design. This is a really well thought-out design and nicely built. Cabinet grade materials, yet it's still very light weight and easy to handle

(Admittedly without track, overhead or scenery as yet !)

As seen below with the sub-roadbed, the design allows the front of the risers to be cut away to represent landscaping and ground contouring, or with a wider sub-roadbed, could also have the table-top style (if needed for a city/town scene, industries with a lot of switching, etc)

We decided to adopt Kevin's prototype as our new "standard" table design, with dimensions of 4 feet long x 18 inches deep. We decided on getting something up and running as quick as practical, so we'll work on getting a number of straight modules together, and then build a return loop at each end, as opposed to a circular layout.

We'll have a double track mainline, starting with Code 148 track, preferably the Micro-Engineering over the Atlas track (although either will work), as the ME has a better look to it.
The consensus was that a tall layout was more appropriate to our needs and our intent which is to have a highly sceniced layout, something that you'd want closer to eye level to enjoy and catch all the details of. Leg height was determined to be 48 inches and a number of design ideas were discussed, Kevin will test these ideas over the next week and come up with a prototype design.

We're also waiting for samples on roadbed, once we have roadbed samples and a leg design, we can come to a consensus and start building tables. I see no impediments to having several tables built and ready to operate (perhaps no overhead just yet), by tax day. Once we have a few tables to work off of, we can design and build the return loops, and we're ready to go public.

As noted interest is very high amongst the handful of guys who showed up, I'm guesstimating we're looking at a minimum of 5-6 tables to be built to start, up to 8-10, somewhere between 20-40 odd feet of running to begin with.

A pretty auspicious start, certainly more than I had dared to hope for.

Sometime in the near future, the scene below (Kevin's prototype with some of his IT fleet on display), will be set up and operating at a show near you !

Thanks to everyone who showed up and expressed any level of interest.

Special thanks to Kevin for all the hard-work and to Ed Skuchas for his

advice and encouragement.

Chicagoland O Scale Modular Club

Trying to get a Chicago-area O scale Traction Modular group started.

Seems strange that with so many O scale traction modelers in and around the Chicago area that there isn't one, and really no permanent club that has an extensive traction presence. Certainly there is traction interest, and the HO scale guys seem to have a good thing going.

I'm reliably informed that this idea was floated a number of years ago by the late, great Rich Bosak. From what I understand the group started with some questionable quality on the modules themselves and everything sort of fell apart from there.

I'm thinking using the East Penn Traction Club's standards as a base point, and go from there. So many things to consider, 2 rail versus 3 rail, track power and/or live overhead, single track, dual track, module size and height, analog versus DCC, the list is seeminly endless.

My initial thoughts are 2 rail, a combination of track power and live overhead, a mix of both single and dual mainline running. Modules, 4 feet long at a minimum, 6 at a max. I've seen any number of modules in varying scales at different shows, people always seem to start with the idea of something for kids to see, yet parents seem to have figured out that you bring a little step stool for Junior to step up and see. I prefer a higher layout, chest high to your typical adult, easier to work on, less stress getting under, etc. All open for discussion of course.

Ideally I see this again as the East Penn guys do it, a way to show off traction modeling, on many skill levels, share the hobby with a bunch of people, draw some inspiration and/or friendly competition from each other, etc. I can see doing two shows a year, HighWheeler in the spring and Trainfest in the fall, maybe make our presence known at IRM during the July 4th Trolley Pageant (piggybacking onto the large scale trolley modelers mini-meet). Just depends on the number of people, level of interest and commitment.

If you're reading this and interested, drop me a line at FoxValley2001@yahoo.com

Hoping to get enough interested parties together that we could have an initial face-to-face sit-down and start to decide the who/how/why/what of it all, sometime within Feb 2010.