Bergensbanen - Breathtaking 7-hour cab-view HD video of the NSB from Bergen to Oslo

Anyone interested in an amazing Norwegian prototype for modeling, or just enjoyment? Click here.

Do note that this is a huge download, with some technical restrictions. A BitTorrent client is required.

Quick Review: AnyRail free layout design software

Great free software for designing your layout.

Pros: very easy to use, fast learning curve; built-in template libraries for just about every track manufacturer and scale; free!

Cons: built-in templates for structures and scenery are very limited; drawing/graphics limited to polygons or compound curves filled with solid colors

Blindingly Obvious Car Routing

I've been doing this for years, and now it has a name. No interest in car cards and waybills, but want to operate? Read all about BOCR over at Carl Arendt's fabulous micro layout site.

Better sound for model railroads

I like sound a lot. Sound is a big part of the railfanning experience, and it can also be an important part of model railroading, but there are problems.

Not that I’m opinionated or anything, but the sound on DCC decoders is just awful. David K. Smith wrote an eloquent piece on this a couple of years back, and I’m going to second and third his motion. There are basically two problems with onboard loco sound: the earbud-sized speakers on the boards aren’t capable of reproducing sound with any kind of fidelity, and even if they could (or even if you piped the sound output of a decoder through a separate amp and speakers), the 8-bit sound digitization on the board is akin to the sound in a plastic child’s toy.

I think it’s easy to get hung up on the idea that a loco’s sound must originate from exactly the same place as the loco, and I’d like to refute this notion. As modelers, we don’t duplicate reality exactly, but rather we design and build heightened and augmented versions of it, with certain things emphasized and other things de-emphasized. Next time you watch a movie, note how the synced sound consists mainly of dialogue and Foley (footsteps, explosions, etc), with much of the sonic environment being “wild” or unsynchronized.

So, what to do if you’re interested in a realistic, high quality, immersive sonic atmosphere for your pike? You can make (if you’re handy with digital audio software and have access to a sound library) or buy a basic environmental sound mix containing country, city, and industrial noises, have these on audio CDs or other playback hardware, and reproduce them through a decent amp, with decent speakers behind or below your layout.

But what about the loco sounds? Time to think outside the box:

1. If your layout (or one part of a large layout) is a yard or industrial switching area, augment your environmental sound mix with occasional and random slow-speed loco movements, brake, coupler, bell, and horn sounds, so that the loco you’re controlling becomes just part of a larger sphere of activity. This can be amazingly effective, even though there is no loco “sync sound.”
2. If you must have specific sync sound for the loco you’re operating, you could compile a collection of around a dozen key loco sound sequences (station halt, comin’ ‘round the bend, distant and close horn blows, etc) as audio files on a computer. Then use software to trigger these sounds; do this concurrently while you operate the loco. Combine the computer’s sound output with the basic environmental mix, and route this to two good speakers in a stereo pair under the layout, or above it. Again, the overall psychological effect of good, balanced, immersive sound far outweighs being able to have the sound come from a precise location of the layout.
3. Don’t use loco sounds, make do with the natural clickety-clack on your model rails.

Remember that, like everything visual on your layout, sound also needs to be to scale. This means using very low volume levels: imagine that as you peer down at your layout, how loud would the sounds be if this was the real world and you were floating in the sky looking down?

Finally, note that our ears are much less sensitive to bass and treble at lower volume levels. Your amp (or CD player) may have a “loudness” function, which compensates for this by boosting bass and treble. This keeps the sound fuller without making it louder. Use it if you have it.

How about a layout on an ironing board?

A discussion group to which I belong recently started talking about building a small layout on an ironing board. I think this is brilliant. A typical ironing board is a bit over four feet long, about a foot wide at the fat end, tapering at the narrow end. In N scale, that's enough space for the narrow end to be a switching headshunt, with enough width at the fat end to include both an Inglenook/small yard, and a small industrial switching district.

Other thoughts:

• Most boards are covered in fabric with felt underneath, so no need for raised roadbed, which you don't usually see anyway in small yards and switching districts.
• Built-in folding legs, easy out-of-the-way storage when not in use.
• Build the headshunt track to extend just fractionally beyond the tapered end, then later build a second ironing board layout, connect them, and you've got a two-piece modular layout over eight feet long! The second layout could contain a town, passenger station, and freight house, and maybe one more large-ish industry.
  

The ever-versatile continuous loop

When designing small or micro layouts, you can cut down quite a bit of space by getting rid of continuous running and doing, for example, a simple terminus or very small yard. However, consider how versatile the loop is, and how much is sacrificed by its removal.

For starters, it's probably our mainline. Trains will usually take a few laps around the loop going from "here" to "there".

Secondly, the loop can easily also be our runaround, when we have stubs pointing in different directions and no passing sidings. This isn't prototypical, of course, but then neither is the loop itself!

Finally, the loop is for continuous running, when we want to showcase our layout or just watch the trains run.

When you remove the loop, you're removing quite a lot.

Train operations: puzzle or spectacle?

I'm currently designing a new layout, and it's got me thinking about how we approach operations. Most of us fall on a continuum somewhere between the "puzzle" operator and the "spectacle" operator.

The "puzzle" operator is interested in realism. He/she likes waybills and timetables, and prefers trains to operate close to prototype, paying rigorous attention to the questions of trains' purposes on the layout. This type of operator will be attracted to big yards and/or lots of industries.

On the other hand, the "spectacle" operator simply likes to watch the trains run. He/she is probably content to spend a lot of time just running their consists around the mainline, with occasional stops to drill an industry. Good scenery and good mainline runs are the order of the day for this type of operator, who can probably get away with smaller yards and fewer industry spurs (and also, possibly, an overall smaller layout size).

If you're in the process of designing a layout, it behooves you to ask yourself what kind of operator you are, and what you enjoy most about running trains.

REVIEW: Trainplayer/Tracklayer 3.0 for Windows and Mac

Trainplayer is a program that's been around for a while, and I'm admittedly late to the party, but the good thing about coming late is that things tend to be in full swing by the time you arrive.

Unlike 3D "virtual model railroading" software such as Microsoft Train Simulator or Auran's Trainz Railroad Simulator, Trainplayer is a decidedly 2D proposition. Specifically, the program starts with a bitmap image, which can be a scan of a drawn or printed trackplan, or output from a CAD or graphics program. Overlayed invisibly on the image is vector graphics information that defines the track plan for the software. This allows you to then drive one or more trains on top of the track plan, throw the switches, couple and uncouple cars, etc. Frankly, the software is an "armchair" model railroader's wet dream.

You might think this approach to computer railroading is less sophisticated than the aforementioned 3D programs. I suppose it is. It's also a hell of a lot of fun, and lately my 3D simulator programs have been gathering dust in favor of this one.

Some neat features have been incorporated into the recent version 3.0, including the ability to run trains automatically, either by recording your moves, or by creating text scripts using a rudimentary programming language. The latter, in my opinion, expands the utility of this software greatly, allowing one to grow from the role of engineer to that of dispatcher.

By itself, Trainplayer allows you to do everything except import your own graphics and create your own track plans. For this, you'll need the more expensive Tracklayer, which incorporates Trainplayer.

The basic package (Trainplayer or Tracklayer) includes ten layouts taken from the classic book "101 Track Plans for Model Railroaders" by Linn Westcott. For more money, you can expand the number of layouts incrementally, going up to all 101 plans. There are also a wide variety of user plans that can be freely downloaded and installed from the Trainplayer Web site.

In sum, if you're particularly interested in operations, or if you're in the planning stage for a real model layout, or if you just like playing with trains, I can't recommend this program highly enough. You'll be hooked.

Save space by rethinking operations

When I design and build layouts, I'm disposed toward the small end of the spectrum, and I think a lot about track plans. Operations dictate a big part of what should be included in a plan.

Imagine a simple oval layout; perhaps there are one or two passing sidings, and one or two industry sidings. We also have two sidings representing towns, each with a station/depot and/or a freight house/goods shed. These are the line's two terminii.

A train departs a terminus with the loco at the head end, pointing forward. It travels the loop a few times, then is ready to pull in to the second terminus. In real life, both terminii would include at least a runaround track so the loco could be moved to the other end when going back, and ideally also a turntable or wye so the loco could be facing forward on the return trip.

Runarounds, turntables, and wyes all take up space. They're nice, and they're prototypical, but what if you're building a small layout where space is at a premium, and you don't want to use them? I have three thoughts:

1.) The first is kind of obvious, which is to simply orient the points for both terminii as trailing-point (you can do the same for any industry sidings). This means trains will always travel in the same direction, and will always back into sidings. Simple, but highly unprototypical, and probably a bit boring after a while.

2.) The two terminii points face in different directions, as do the industry sidings. In this case, think about placing your two terminii at or very close to the front of the layout, and think of each as not only a terminus but as visible staging. If you have a kneejerk negative reaction to this, just consider the possiblities. Your train leaves one terminus, switches the trailing-point industries en route, and arrives at a facing-point second terminus. At this point, you can do the runaround and turnaround with your hands, or put a completely new loco on the end, or replace most of the train. It heads back, switching the other industries which are now trailing-point, and arrives home. Repeat ad infinitum.

3.) Include two passing sidings in the oval, and make these your terminii. You can use the passing sidings themselves as runarounds.

Magnetic uncoupling made cheap and invisible

Years ago someone showed me a neat and inexpensive way to plant invisible but highly effective uncoupling magnets under track. I have used this many times in N scale, but HO should work similarly.

The ends of Atlas sectional track have a little recess under each rail; when you connect two sections, these form a little rectangle, which in N scale happens to be the perfect size to accept a 1/8" diameter rare earth magnet on each side. These are sold at Radio Shack in packs of 2; bulk quantities and other sizes can be ordered here. (Again, I haven't tried this in HO or other scales but I'm guessing the 1/4" diameter magnet will work for HO, not sure about the proper thickness though).

Once they're in place, you can move your couplers directly over this track section, and voila, the knuckes are pulled apart. And, no unslightly bar magnet in the middle of your track.

Bear in mind that in order for this to work properly, the couplers must be very close to where the magnets are, and both couplers must be straight. This means that if either or both sides will be a locomotive (or a car with body-mounted couplers), then the section of track on that side of the magnets needs to be a straight section. Cars with truck-mounted couplers are more tolerant if the section is a gradual curve.

Try it, you'll like it!