Ed's Florida East Coast interest . . .

[asciibaron]

Are you sure TTAMT can stand the strain of a positive story?

we'll take any story at this point...

i have been working on a rant regarding railroad modeling vs. powered dioramas.  the reason i'm having such a hard time building a layout is the fact i want a railroad and not a diorama...  Ed, let me know if you need some material.... i gave up on the blog - who really cares what i have to say...

[sirenwerks]

Today, you would need to include a police escort and Lance's layout would need a few murder scenes and drug busts.

Not to steal the thread, but in the last feature in MR (or one of the Kalmbach pubs)  about Lance's layout, they mentioned a scene featuring a slaughtered chicken ala voodoo. But they never show it. Does it exist? Does anyone have pics? If there's any 'never modeled' scene, that's gotta be it and it's got my curiosity something awful.

Ed, sounds like a One Track layout opportunity to me if there ever was one.  Perfect for the Timonium Cow Palace. Though, folks might gripe about having to walk all the way around the dragstrip to get to the loo or the pork pit.

[Mr. G]

But... but... you're not mad at anything.

Are you sure TTAMT can stand the strain of a positive story?

Don't discourage him.  I love the columns and it's taken far too long to get him to get another entry in there. 

[Caleb Austin]

The chicken scene.
http://www.lancemindheim.com/lore.htm

(edited for wrong quote.)

[AlkemScaleModels]

Today, you would need to include a police escort and Lance's layout would need a few murder scenes and drug busts.

Not to steal the thread, but in the last feature in MR (or one of the Kalmbach pubs)  about Lance's layout, they mentioned a scene featuring a slaughtered chicken ala voodoo. But they never show it. Does it exist? Does anyone have pics? If there's any 'never modeled' scene, that's gotta be it and it's got my curiosity something awful.

Ed, sounds like a One Track layout opportunity to me if there ever was one.  Perfect for the Timonium Cow Palace. Though, folks might gripe about having to walk all the way around the dragstrip to get to the loo or the pork pit.

Check out this group  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fecrs_N/

[Erik W]

Bernie's concept is very similar to what I was thinking.  I think one "fix" for modeling a RR that's basically flat is to have your layout closer to eye level.  The very basic (and even more crudely illustrated) idea I had for a 13' x 15' space like mine is:

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I think an FEC concept would work even in a relatively small/medium sized space.  With a backdrop running up the middle of the peninsula, near eye level layout height, a fairly long mainline run and the ability to have several industries represented that are not in view of each other, I think you could still get the flavor of the prototype’s mainline action while having some specific locals modeled fairly accurately.  Some of the cool water crossings and runs through that unique Florida scenery could be modeled in the open spaces between the few areas with industries. As a planning aid, I noticed that a lot of the area on the FEC has detailed 3D satellite maps on  http://www.maps.live.com/ 

Erik

[Erik W]

The old ACL line from Perry South to Tampa paralleled 98 and 41 from Perry to Cheifland, at times about 50 feet away. In the 1980's, SCL had at least 20 miles of cars stored on it. You could only see them at creeks. You sure could hide staging behind about 3 inches of this stuff in N scale!

My wife and I were just down in the Chassahowitzka area (south of Homosassa) a few weeks ago on vacation.  I noticed the old ACL RR grade on the drive north on 98 as we headed back towards Tallahassee.  You could barely see the thing with all the trees overgrowing the right of way.  What gave it away were periodic sightings of short wood trestles, which were still in remarkably good shape.  You're right, that RR grade couldn’t be more than 100' from the road and you can barely tell it's there.

Erik

[TrainCat2]

Funny thing about the Downtown Spur on Lance's site, he did not mention that NOW it's a spur. It used to be the throat for the passenger station near I-95 (10Ave & 22st). The station used to be next to the baseball stadium. Both were razed in the mid 70's, but you can still see remnants using Maps Live. I don't know if that station was for ACL or SAL but absolutely not FEC. The FEC came down from the north between I-95 and the bay where the station was near the courthouse. The tracks are still there today going over the bay to the Port of Miami.

The throat was two or tracks flanked by sidings on either side going to businesses all along the way, mostly produce. I remember as a kid getting on at the downtown station onto an Amtrak train for a scout trip. Where the spur turns east on Lance's map I am pretty sure there used to be a wye. I still remember, the engine backing the cars down the throat to the station using the wye on our return.

[3rdrail]

Funny thing about the Downtown Spur on Lance's site, he did not mention that NOW it's a spur. It used to be the throat for the passenger station near I-95 (10Ave & 22st). The station used to be next to the baseball stadium. Both were razed in the mid 70's, but you can still see remnants using Maps Live. I don't know if that station was for ACL or SAL but absolutely not FEC. The FEC came down from the north between I-95 and the bay where the station was near the courthouse. The tracks are still there today going over the bay to the Port of Miami.

The throat was two or tracks flanked by sidings on either side going to businesses all along the way, mostly produce. I remember as a kid getting on at the downtown station onto an Amtrak train for a scout trip. Where the spur turns east on Lance's map I am pretty sure there used to be a wye. I still remember, the engine backing the cars down the throat to the station using the wye on our return.

The ACL got nowhere near Miami, only the SAL and FEC served the "Gold Coast". All of ACL's hotshot East Coast Florida trains were turned over the the FEC at Jacksonville. Why to you think Ed Ball tried to derail the ACL-SAL merger??

[squirrelhunter]

Ed, think about doing it steam era style.

Do you have Speedway to Sunshine? You need to look at some of the pictures of the Heavy Mountains at the back of the book. The undergrowth back then was pretty thick.

If you do it in the later 30's, say 1938 or so, you don't have to worry about the small 4-6-2's and 4-4-2's since they had mostly been scrapped or sold by then.

The vast majority of your power would Bmann Light Mountains, with a few Heavy Mountains and USRA Light Mikes. You could throw in some 0-8-0's if you had a yard.

You could use the older shorter crew districts to your advantage, since you would only be compressing 100 miles, not 300+.

[GaryHinshaw]

Check out this group  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fecrs_N/

This group has some pretty nice modules.  They had a setup last fall that was documented in a Trainboard thread:

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=101840

I hope it isn't a breach of etiquette to cross-link here...

[John]

I hope it isn't a breach of etiquette to cross-link here...

Naw, we don't get hung up by that kind of stuff ..

[Hyperion]

Check out this group  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fecrs_N/

This group has some pretty nice modules.  They had a setup last fall that was documented in a Trainboard thread:

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=101840

I hope it isn't a breach of etiquette to cross-link here...

I'd like to direct TrainCat's attention to the fact that the very first question that was brought up was in regards to the auto transporter....

I'm not the only one, Bob!

[TrainCat2]

I'd like to direct TrainCat's attention to the fact that the very first question that was brought up was in regards to the auto transporter....

I'm not the only one, Bob!

Nevill did one and showed it at the Micro-Trains Love Fest in Chantilly back in 2003. I tried to buy the molds from him last Oct since he did nothing with it . No go. He also bought quite a few other companies (Alloy Form, Chooch, Period Miniatures) that went out will try to resurrect them.