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See other model railways is a very important tool to work out your own railway. You know what it is like, you see another railway have jusde the railway on your tastes, how you would do it, etc. You are not telling the owner that this is wrong or he should have done..... It is his railway ! We had a long weekend here in Melbourne. I went to the Corio Model Railway Exhibition which was held near Geelong over the weekend. Like all exhibitions that cater for the general public, there were plenty of different gauges/scales and prototypes to see. And there were trade stands galore. I bought about 43 lengths of "N" gauge track - which will be point making supplies of code 80 rail ( it is easier to buy this track rather than rail down here) I enjoyed the exhibition and did saw some full size trains to further motivate me. On the Monday I visited a DVR member who has a model railway at home. His layout was quite good and trains ran well. I learnt a lot from his railway. There were a few other friends and members over as well. One member didn't like the single track and told the owner he should lay the extra track. This comment could have insulted the owner - it is HIS railway. On the other hand he could have loved the idea and started redevelopment. We made a few other comments during the day, one of which we found while operating a branch. The owner saw a need to change somehting electrically to make it better. as long as you are not expecting the owner to do what you suggest, commenting can be very constructive. But what interested me was the process of viewing someone else's work and appling it to your railway. I found a few issues like his 2ft aisles, they really were too narrow for passing. This may be because he has his mainline cabs plugs in several locations and when you plug into them they take up space in the aisle. He is planning local cabs as well that will fix some if this use. He does have one area with a viewing area, wide enough for visitors to stay out the way. So aisle width is important where people pass and work. I have started yet another plan with less use if 2ft aisles - they are still there but at cloke points. As I have progressed, my plans have increaded space as much as I can. Like our host, I remind myself that the layout will primarily be operated by one person for most of the time. But if you hope to have visitors come and enjoy your layout, you do have to think of these people issues. I also noticed the trouble with the walksaround throttles and their leads. We did get tangled several times. Then there was the problem as to which cab an operator was using and pluggin into the right one. For my railway that should be easier as the DCC sockets can be used by all. But I will have to think of their positioning in the layout. Sockets for use by station operators should be seperate for those running on the mainline. Visiting his layout allowed me to run some of my trains. I have got a repair bug recently and have been trying to return damaged locos and rollingstock back into operating status. It is a problem alot of people have when they own rolling stock that they transport to a club to run. No matter how careful you can be, couplers get damages, couplers can droop, get ripped off, bogies fail. Somethimes the item can be damaged and have to be retired. And all this can just be the result of the trip to the layout! That night I went up to the EMRC clubrooms for a timetabled running night. Always enjoyable, we stared off with just enough operators to run. But another member turned up solving that problem. then a few visitirs arrived and duly got out their locos to run. What I got out of this was they all had the same class of loco ( is this case a heap of AUSTRAINS NR class locos ). And we already had two on the layout, resulting in 5 overall. I saw the effects of a railway system with the same motivepower dominating. In real life the NR's have been very common on interstae working, and this was reproduced on the layout. Most of our operating sessions see a variaty of locos, so eeing the layout run like it did was itneresting. Layout owners who have a strong roster is similar units from the same compant may know where I'm heading. A railway with an identity can make the layout more real and beliveable. A railway operating with a prototype range of locos, or those inthe same colours can often make your laoyut more like a system than haveing one of every loco you like on the roster. I must say my loco roster is more of the latter. |
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