May/June 2010 - O Scale Trains Magazine Online

The Right StuffMy grandniece likes the ”doggies” on the magazinemasthead. I like the mix of prototype, craftsman, andreflections on the future of the hobby articles. You aregoing in the right direction. Money is tight these days but Iam ”voting” with my subscription renewal.Richard Swart, WASmall Is BeautifulJoe, read your piece on the redesigned layout. Realitydoes set in after awhile, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is usuallyafter we have spent a small fortune pursuing illusionsof grandeur. I have done some layout redesign of my own.Small is beautiful, especially if you don’t want to spendevery free hour working on the layout or running trains.When I was single I could do that. Not now. Not onlydoes a small layout take less time, money and space tobuild and maintain, but it also can have variety by differentperiods and by changing industries, thereby justifyinga wider selection of cars, with one limitation: 50 footersjust don’t work, nor do locos with long wheelbases. So theearly ’60s is as far as I can go with this layout. Which isokay. I go back to the 1950s and remember steam enginesin my youth. This is as much about nostalgia as it is aboutrealism.So that raises for me one question about the layoutyou settled on. Will it afford you enough switching interest?Since it isn’t a loop you can’t be into just runningtrains, so what’s the justification for moving freight fromone place to the other? It looks a little thin in that regard. Iwill be looking forward to what comes next.Sarah Flynn, VT(Joe replies: That’s a great question and I will answerit in detail in the series when I discuss the track plans atAbingdon, Damascus and White Top. I spent a lot of timelooking at maps of the areas and I have thisgreat booklet put out by the N&W calledAlong the Right Of Way that lists every stop onevery division where the population was greaterthan 100. The descriptions tell you whatwas going in and out at that depot. That’swhat drives the freight out and back.A Riveting SuggestionI was reading your review of the MulletRiver kit [in OST#49]. This simple tool [www.mike.calvert.btinternet.co.uk/RiveringTool.htm] is good for etched kit rivets. For foldingetched parts, sometimes it helps to openup or deepen the fold lines. To deepen, use ascrawker [a.k.a. a scriber-Ed.]. Olfa makes onefor scribing plastic sheet, but it works fine onbrass. Pull along the half etched line until yousee a faint ridge on the other side, then it willfold easily. If it does not fold to a 90° bend,use a file to open out the slot.Lee Marsh, UKRivets Part IIOne other answer to the rivet issue with the MulletRiver boxcar frame is the rivet decals by Archer. They workwell, are easy to use, and I highly recommend them forareas where wear is not a problem. Got this idea from JimZwernemann, young man full of ideas. FYI,Jesse Patton via e-mailGoing P48 or 3-Rail?I, and others at the O Scale Club, am concerned aboutthe direction OST seems to be going: P48. It’s a free countryto choose this but as one of the more articulate memberssaid: ”O Scale is such a small market, why fracture itmore, and all for what, about 1/16th of an inch?” Most ofus build models, run trains, and a few of us do prototypestyle operation (me included).So, I’m going to ”wait and see” (before renewing) whichis too bad because you have the best photos and somereally good modeling.Frank Hillman, OR(Joe responds: My goodness! Where do folks get theseideas? First, people accuse us of going 3-rail. Now theyaccuse us of going P48! Neither is true.While it is true that Capt. Mix’s article is about buildinga P48 center cab diesel, it’s focus is the scratchbuilding,not the P48 part. Mike models in P48 and writes aboutprototype modeling, which anyone can learn from regardlessof the track gauge. If you have read my Starting Overseries, you know I’m building the new layout using Atlas Otrack and switches. The last I checked, they’re not P48.What we are doing is attempting to provide a balancefor all O Scalers. Our Servo Decoders Can• Switch Turnouts• Animate Semaphores• Lower Crossing Gates• Anything that MovesDCC/DC/ACAll ScalesSee the Reviewin this Issue!www.tamvalleydepot.comGreat Electronics for Great Model RailroadsMay/June ’10 - O Scale Trains • 41