Model Railroading

Author: Mike Mathews

There is an interesting story about a man who once used to dream
about operating his own personal and large model railroad set-up
in a cozy corner of his home basement situated in Central
Pennsylvania. He played around with his own innovative ideas
about the designs and also taught his son and niece about the
thrills of model railroading. The niece still remembers those
cherished times she spent tending the railroad models.

Even though the niece no longer keeps in touch with her cousin,
she is still very much in touch with the immense interest in
model railroads that grew along with her age. She still fondly
remembers the time she spent with her uncle in the basement
during those days.

In fact, her uncle incorporated one fact about central
Pennsylvania into his train set. That fact related to the names
of the train stations in central Pennsylvania. The uncle and
train lover managed to find some model train accessories that
broadcast the names of certain train stations.

This was in a time well before widespread use of the personal
computer. It was during the 1960s, when the public began to
enjoy the advances made in audio technology. One model train
manufacturer, possibly the maker of Bachman model trains, put
out a system that allowed the train operator to have
announcements made while a model train stopped at a model train
station.

The uncle and train lover found a system that had announcements
which included mention of a train station in central
Pennsylvania. The imaginary announcer called out to imaginary
train passengers the word, "Paoli," a central Pennsylvania city
where trains to and from Lancaster stopped.

The uncle was well aware that his lovely niece had visited the
Paoli station earlier. Thus, he thought of an idea to surprise
his niece by calling her over one day and making her witness the
model announcement system calling out the name of the Paoli
station. The niece was thrilled beyond expectations to witness
that something she had experienced in real life could be
replicated in such commendable manner in an imaginary world.

That little girl has now become an adult. She has never met
anyone who has devoted their life to repairing model trains or
building model railroads. She has worked with a man who loved
trains. At one time he lived less than 5 miles from a store that
was full of model trains and train accessories.

The uncle now stays in New England. That store which used to
stock breathtaking model train accessories has shifted one block
north and now sells photography equipments. It was an unusual
tryst with destiny when the same niece who had once visited the
old train store, checked into the new photography equipment
outlet.

She remembers how her uncle introduced her to the fun of
railroading. She suspects that her uncle would have also had fun
with a digital camera. Perhaps he would have taken such a camera
down to the corner of his basement where he had his model train
set. Perhaps he would have taken pictures of his family taking
part in the fun of model railroading.

About the author:
About the Author: Mike Mathews writes about model railroads on
his website Model
Train World. He has a great section on the history of Bachmann model
railroads for you to look at.

Author: Greg Chadwick

Modelers have many scales to select from when building their
model railroad layout. Scale refers to the ratio between
prototype and model. For example, on an HO Scale or 1:87 model
railroad layout, rolling stock, scenery and buildings will be
1/87 the size of the prototype, or real life size.

The most popular model railroad scale today is HO Scale, or
1:87. The smaller scales are N scale (1:160) and Z scale (1:220)
and are ideal scales to use where you have a limited amount of
space in which to build your layout. On an N scale layout
everything would be 1/160 the size of full scale, and on a Z
scale layout, things would be 1/220 the size of full scale. The
smaller scales call for better vision and hand eye coordination
when assembling buildings and working on rolling stock.

The larger model railroad scales are S Scale (1:64), O scale
(1:48) and G scale (1:24). Many of the old Lionel trainsets of
the 50's and 60's were O scale, and today O scale is still a
very popular scale in model railroading. G scale is known as
Garden Scale and is extremely popular for outdoor model railroad
layouts where it is easy to keep the natural scenery in
proportion to the rolling stock.

For those who like to model G scale, several Garden Railroad
Clubs can be found across the country. The best part of garden
railroads is that it's a hobby that both husband and wife can
enjoy. One can tend to the railroad while the other tends to the
plants. Some garden centers have even started to carry plants
and shrubs specifically for the garden railroader.

The term scale and gauge do not have the same meaning. Scale
refers to the size of objects in proportion to their prototype.
Gauge refers to the distance between the rails. Most scales
model standard gauge track. Standard gauge railroads are those
whose rails are 4 feet 8 and one half inches apart.

Those modelers that model 3' gauge, or narrow gauge railroads
use a combination of scales and gauges. For instance, you can
model narrow gauge using HO scale. It is called HOn3. The HO
refers to the scale and the "n" refers to narrow gauge and the
"3" refers to 3' between the rails. The only thing that sets
HOn3 apart from HO is that the 10.5mm gauge track it uses is not
as wide.

Narrow gauge can also be modeled in S scale, N scale and O
scale, and these are called Sn3, Nn3 and On3. What
differentiates these scales from their parent scales is the use
of narrow gauge track. Rolling stock, buildings and scenery
remain unchanged. Modelers can even model 30" gauge track and 2
foot gauge track. Some examples of this are On30 and On2.

Park rides and live steam layouts use large scales and gauges
such as 1:12, 1:8 and even 1:4. A popular gauge for live steam
and miniature railroads is 7.5 inch gauge.

About the author:
Visit our comprehensive Model Railroads
Directory and search engine at http://www.modelrailroads.net

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