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A Narrower View – Private Lines

Written by Cliff Green
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Syd Schofield

Editors note: Welcome to the fourth article of a series on narrow gauge by Syd Schofield. The previous article is available by clicking here, or by filtering with the category “Narrow Gauge”. Syd welcomes discussions and feedback, which can be made by clicking on the comment link at the bottom of the post.

When a business enterprise has to only deal with the immediate needs of the business, moving the business materials, construction, maintenance, and (sadly) deconstruction, the operating plans will most likely differ from the common carrier. Dedicated consists that remain coupled or run back and forth without turning around, along with equipment sized for the cargo, grades, clearances, fuel, water and crew availability all result in the probable lack of need for dining cars or sleepers with clean linens. Special configurations and equipment such as cableways, funiculars and cog railroads as well as unit trains provide some interesting possibilities in modeling.

The lumber and mining companies were typically short-term operations lasting only as long as the forest lease or mine claims were productive. The three phases of business – getting into the business, operating the business, and getting out of the business as painlessly and gracefully as possible – were the goals. We tend to take a particular snap shot in the life of a railroad to model. Aside from the financial aspects of the railroads, which is a whole ‘nother subject, we like to work with the operations and maybe even the construction of that future spur or branchline. I don’t recall seeing a model of the decommissioning phase of a railroad. Not much interest there. It’s bad enough to show the results of accidents and fires.

So we have the railroad proper and the immediate business enterprise facilities to add flavor to the model. The mines, mills, maintenance, staff housing as well as appropriate scenery can add a lot to the model over and above the nice rolling stock and track work we tend to focus on. This is all within the snap shot of what was technically possible in the chosen period, if not directly attributable to a prototype. The history of technology and practices employed in hardscrabble railroading typical of the narrow gauge lines can be interestingly and creatively reproduced in narrow gauge modeling.

Articles, Narrow Gauge

A Narrower View – Roadway

Written by Cliff Green
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Syd Schofield

Editors note: Welcome to the third article of a series on narrow gauge by Syd Schofield. The previous article is available by clicking here, or by filtering with the category “Narrow Gauge”. Syd welcomes discussions and feedback, which can be made by clicking on the comment link at the bottom of the post.

Of the many narrow gauge railroads that were in the US and Canada, a key factor was the roadbed requirement. The sizes of two feet, 30 inch, 36 inch and 42 inch for common carriers were established out of need and equipment availability. Private lines were influenced by most of the same conditions, all based on economics. While the standard and larger gauges were capable of heavier loads, the disadvantages were greater construction and equipment costs and less flexibility in traversing rough terrain.

Preparation of the route was less demanding such as smaller tunnel dimensions, roadbed width on ground and built-up structures, tighter curves and rolling stock accommodations. This lends itself to the small area we have available for our modeling. Slower speeds, shorter cars and trains and tighter curves gives us longer operating sessions and a larger sense of scale for a given amount of space. With the grand sweeping radius curves needed for a large articulated locomotive and many very long cars of the Golden Age standard gauge lines, most of us don’t have the space available for a suitable representation. Technically, a common surveying technique is to project a curve from the connecting straight (tangent) sections in degrees of turn per 100 feet which can be translated to a radius in our particular scale. Prototype railroad specifications can then be used as modeler guides.

As in civil engineering projects built on solid ground (as opposed to semi-liquid high water content soil and small, rounded stones) the structural base was prepared by excavation (cut) to the desired dimensions. Once the material is removed the remaining base is ready for roadbed. That same removed material, if cleverly planned, can be used for fill in the nearby shallow dips. Otherwise expensive “borrow” material and bridging structures must be used. The fill, like the roadbed, must consist of an aggregate of solid angular geometric shapes of differing sizes to minimize shifting under load. Supplements such as cribbing and retaining walls can be used. Care must also be taken for drainage and compacting, hopefully before use of the rolling stock. As these same rules apply to larger railroads, the smaller size and tighter curves of the narrow gauge railroad yields less effort and expense in the roadway preparation.

Articles, Narrow Gauge

A Narrower View – Track

Written by Cliff Green
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Syd Schofield

Editors note: This is the second article of a new series on narrow gauge by Syd Schofield. The previous article is available by clicking here, or by filtering with the category “Narrow Gauge”. Syd welcomes discussions and feedback, which can be made by clicking on the comment link at the bottom of the post.

Narrow gauge railroad track isn’t much different than the “standard” four feet eight and one half inch gauge track on a lesser, “junior varsity” short line or a somewhat neglected spur. The main consideration is the weight of the heaviest wheel set to be supported. This results in a balance of rail strength and tie (or sleeper if you’re not from around here) spacing. So a K-37 would require heavier rail and closer ties, maybe even with tie plates to further spreads the weight over a larger foot print (bearing area) on the tie than needed by an 0-4-0.

In the early days (the Civil War and on) the materials involved were wrought iron with high strength alloy steel used later on. The rail deteriorates in elastic fatigue as a beam loaded between the ties as well as surface region fatigue due to the dual flexing (also elastic) of the contact area of the wheels, wheel on rail, with the rail top. Large rail grinding machines are used today to make an “insurance cut” of the affected rail top region. As rail was replaced due to fatigue and insufficient capacity, rails were often upgraded in size and material and the locally available, minimally prepared ties were upgraded with ties milled for tie plates and spike pilot holes off-site. Notably, spikes are made with a chisel point across the grain of the tie so as to break the fibers but remain supportive in the lengthwise direction as opposed to splitting the fibers opening an unsupported gap in the lengthwise direction.

What all this leads to is a hand driven single spike on each side of the rail in every tie for the earlier years / low budget / low capacity remote business or the store-bought closely spaced ties with tie plates and four spikes per plate for more modern or high capacity / well-financed business. With a little preparation of the Peco / Micro-Engineering / Shinohara nickel silver flex track and turnouts, to name a few, with an X-Acto knife and Dremel tool plus coloring and ballasting practices, the tie can look a little neglected and more representative of the frugal / back woods / mine supply / agricultural on a short life plan railroad. The actual time spent between the two methods is reportedly similar when appropriate skills and experience levels are achieved.

In addition to the Washington common carrier narrow gauge railroads previously mentioned we include the Alaska portion of the Pacific Northwest Region Forth Division: Golovin Bay Railroad, Seward Peninsula Railroad, Tanana Valley Railroad, and the still active and very popular White Pass and Yukon Railroad. And, as in Washington, there were numerous privately owned company railroads for support of logging, mining and other enterprises.

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Picture Captions

Written by Dale Kraus
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Often a well-worded descriptive caption can turn a simple “record shot” photograph into a dynamic, interesting picture. In a still picture movement, effort, and sense of direction can be implied, creating an impression of time and purpose.

As an example, the attached picture is a rather bland shot of an electric locomotive emerging from a tunnel. With the caption, however, it becomes a much more captivating record of a train struggling to overcome a mountain grade.

SDEV in southeastern Schwabia

With the cooling blowers for its twin 26-pole motors screaming and the ammeters in the red, SDEV electric E68 046 is using all of the available 1250Kw to drag a freight up the 2.7% grade on the western approach to Triberg in southeastern Schwabia. There it will pause to cool the hot traction motors before making the final winding assault on “Das Teufelberg.” (The Devil’s Hill.) Click on photo for full picture.

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A Narrower View – HOn3, Sn3, On3, On30, Fn3 (and more)

Written by Cliff Green
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Syd Schofield

Editors note: Please welcome Syd Schofield, who will be writing posts in the Grab Iron blog on narrow gauge topics. He welcomes discussions and feedback, which can be made by clicking on the comment link at the bottom of each post.

Model trains, usually smaller than the real life things, generally fit our interests, space, time and budgets. The generally accepted, for various physical, business and political reasons, “standard” gauge (acceptance occurring from the Reconstruction period to well into the 20th century) for most US and Canadian common carriers was four feet 8 and ½ inches between wrought iron and steel rails. Smaller gauges of three feet and two feet also survived among the many other industrial, light transit and amusement purposes as did larger distances for specialized industrial purposes, however common sizes provided for economies of scale in production, operations and exchanges between railroads.

The HOn3 model size designates the “HO” (roughly the half “O” scale) of 1 to 87 parts, the “n” for narrower distance between rails than the standard gauge and the “3” is the actual full size distance in feet (a “30” or similar means 30 inches, versus feet). The general purposes of the full size railroad in this gauge was for smaller, less expensive equipment as well as the lower cost and more agile route preparation. These features made the three foot gauge attractive to any or all of rough terrain, lower capacity, lower capitol investment and short term business situations.

Washington State had at least three three foot gauge common carriers as well as many privately owned and operated by logging and mining interests. There were many three foot railroads and some even had dual gauge operations throughout the Western US, Alaska and other parts of Canada. Some were absorbed by larger standard gauge railroads while others succumbed to the truck, bus and automobile business successes or became historical amusements.

It is this period, simultaneous to the acceptance of the “standard gauge,” that many modelers choose to reproduce from “real” railroads based on historical situation or the merely technically correct for the chosen period creation of what might have been – in HOn3 (or other modeling narrow gauge scales). We would like to explore the activities of modelers in the PNR 4th Division, or anyone else with constructive intent pertinent to the three foot gauge railroads in brief and regular Grab Iron expositions. That is heavy on the “we” as pertains to anyone who would like to offer appropriate comments.

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Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany

Written by Al Lowe
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Al Lowe

Last year, I was lucky to spend a day at Miniatur Wunderland, one of the world’s great model railroads in Hamburg, Germany. This for-profit operation, which appears to be quite successful, was filled with people at €12 each (about $15). Unfortunate, I learned after I arrived that I could have taken a “backstage” tour. Remember that for when you visit!

I edited my hours of footage down to less than 20 minutes to make this brief video. (Be sure to click the “full screen” button in the lower-right corner to watch in high-definition.)

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Showing Your Model Railroad to Visitors

Written by Dale Kraus
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Dale Kraus

The layout open house season is approaching. I truly hope that those of you who have never had your pike open for visitors will consider doing so, as it is always enjoyable to see what someone else is doing in this most diverse of hobbies. With that in mind, here are a few tips for the first-timer, in no particular order, which the “old veterans” can follow too. They are all taken from my experiences as both a visitor and a host.

  1. Clean the track! Then clean it again. This avoids having to make excuses for the dirt.
  2. Select your best running locos, and use only the best 2 or 3 of those. Make sure the wheels are cleaned and the engine is lubricated.
  3. Run only your best, derailment-free cars. Clean the wheels of these cars. If there are any binds or misaligned couplers, park that car in the yard.
  4. Make up the trains you will run from these selected locos and cars.  Run each train completely around the pike 3 or 4 times. If anything derails, remove it.
  5. If you have any troublesome sidings or spurs avoid using them. If you cannot avoid their use FIX IT.
  6. Clean up the layout. Remove any distractions like pliers, screwdrivers and bright boys.
  7. If you have any bare spots simply cover then with dirt, grass and small bushes. If you have unfinished sections, that’s OK.
  8. Clean up the layout room and hide any construction materials.
  9. Make sure all locos and rolling stock on the layout are completely on the track. (Looks better that way.)

It’s always good to get a second set of eyes. Invite a buddy over and have him or her take a look. It’s amazing what might be found. I once left a water tower smack dab in the middle of a turntable pit. Interesting, but not very prototypical.

If you are going to have a buddy help you run the railroad, get together a day or two beforehand and run the trains you have selected. Agree on where the trains will meet. In this era of DCC it’s really easy to have cornfield meets. These are interesting and prototypical… but embarrassing. Back in the Seattle NMRA national, a friend and I were running trains and yakking with the visitors when one of the guests remarked, “I don’t think you really planned that.”  There on the grade, which neither of us could see well, were two steam locos, nose to nose and grinding away.

Remember: You’re among friends. If a gremlin pops up, we’ll understand.

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