Model Railroading Aromas

[nkalanaga]

The only smell I specifically associate with model railroads is fresh lumber, boards or plywood.  That's probably because I try to keep the really smelly chemicals outside, neither Mom nor I like them, and most of our "outdoor" lumber has always been either used or treated.  The only locomotive I've had that smelled strongly of ozone was the Arnold FA. 

I have more memory of real railroad smells.  In Pasco, we once built a chicken house from used crossties and grain doors.  When we moved, the new owners had to use a bulldozer to knock it down.  Since they wanted to replace our single-wide with a double-wide, they also had to remove the porch.  It was also made from crossties and grain doors, the bulldozer had to do that as well.  That one had no joists or stringers.  We had a LOT of crosstie pieces, as the BN was cutting most of them into thirds for removal, so we set them in holes, made sure the tops were level, and nailed the grain doors to them - with very large nails.

The chicken house used whole ties, for corner posts, on the ground between the posts, and across the tops, Stonehenge-style.  Grain doors were nailed to them, and the roof was supported by a 4x4 ridge beam, held up by two switch ties in the middle of the ends.

I remember the smells of creosote and diesel exhaust very well, but those are RAILROAD smells, not model smells.

[robert3985]

Although I can't say that it smells "good", the aroma of CA Accelerator make me feel good.  When I'm using it, I'm always working on something that is interesting or fun.  I get the same feeling when I clean the tip of my soldering iron on a wet sponge and the aroma of that steam hits my olfactories.

I agree that the aroma of Midwest Cork Products cork roadbed smells good.  I like it in combination with CA Accelerator, and the added pungent smell of the CA setting off when I'm gluing flextrack to the roadbed.

Lastly, I really like the smell of freshly cut premium pine lumber, which I use for sectional benchwork.....ahhhhhhhhhh....

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[MetroRedLine]

Fresh cork roadbed and lichen.

[tom mann]

Back 10 years or so ago a few of us were using Future.  It had a sweet, kool-aid smell.

It tasted delicious.

[DKS]

A more recent association: the smell of freshly-laser-cut wood.

[nscaler711]

I don't know, I like the smell of brand new locomotives and some rolling stock... But then again I do that with most new Blurays games and other expensive electronics...

[chicken45]

Back 10 years or so ago a few of us were using Future.  It had a sweet, kool-aid smell.

It tasted delicious.

OMG it DOES smell good! I moved on to Tide Pods, though.

Additionally, down at @seusscaboose's basement empire, it mostly smelled like a$$, vinegar, and sweat. At least when Lee came over it gave use that fresh, salty ocean scent.

...and then there was the Asswater.

Basically, he had this cup of water that used for everything from painting to diluting matte medium. Problem was he would never wash it out. He would just add more water to it.
It was pretty horrible and lordy, I can tell you that I've smelled some things in my life.

[randgust]

Original Scalecoat I had a rather distinctive tang.

So did 'original' Testors model cement, and to a certain extent, still does.

Solvaset has a rather low-end vinegar smell that can trigger lots of memories.

I still have a few surviving jars of original Floquil, yeah, that's a memory, of what brain cells are left after using it.   I was glad to convert to acrylics.

But it's still hard to top Dullcote.  Same deal, if I'm supposed to be doing something else on the honeydoo list and she gets a whiff of it, I'm busted.

But the all-time most obnoxious aroma I ever encountered that could empty an entire house came back last summer when I made an aborted attempt to use Michael's Castin' Craft to do a water feature.   That is a clear plastic with a catalyst, and it outgasses enough to have the neighbors call you in as some kind of lab.   Didn't forget it in 1976 when I did a log pond, and was just as bad in 2017.

[spookshow]

I had an old American Flyer trainset when I was a kid and I absolutely loved the smell of the smoke goo capsules. Still do!



-Mark

[nuno81291]

I’ll throw in any of the filler puttys like testers or bondo... enjoying the tamiya grey I picked up recently (in a well ventilated area )

[pjm20]

and Walther's Goo.

+1000

[Englewood]

Ah, the sweet ozone smell of my old Marx 0-4-0 Penn Central steamer...

Nowadays, it's the smell of freshly painted hopper cars. The real ones. There's a Trinity plant close to the yard I work at, and we get new railcars all the time. The paint on those hoppers smell good! Strangely, the tank cars don't have the same smell. I'm guessing it's a different paint.

[up1950s]

Animal hide is all I smell when I stick my nose in my wallet , that smell of money with this hobby is long gone ..... actually never was there long enough to scent the dead beast .

[ncbqguy]

I’ll have to agree with several previous answers. ....
....the smell of American Flyer smoke sends me straight back to Christmas 1949...and ozone sparks remind me of the Burlington Junior...an outside third rail O Gauge Railroad built in the basement of a funeral home in Cicero, Illinois.   The owner’s daughter was married to a Q mechanical department official and he got drawings for all the new stuff on the railroad in the 40s and 50s and would scatchbuild models out of tin can stock before the real thing hit the rails!   They were powered by huge motors and apparently had two speeds....stop and go like hell!  I don’t think a thunderstorm could generate as much ozone as that railroad did!
Charlie Vlk

[Doug G.]

I have a 1949 American Flyer set my late father bought for my older brother when my brother was about 2 months old.

And Charlie, I just won a huge Treble-O-Lectric auction including one of the Montgomery Ward expanded styrene bead layout boards. The same one I had as a kid and later gave away. The auction cost me a lot of money but there's SO much stuff.

Treble-O-Lectric locos are fabulous for producing ozone.

Doug