N Scale Hi Rail - Retro Hollow Core Door Layout

[wm3798]

Started with this a few weeks ago.


Got a couple of donor tenders, so I scabbed this together...



A couple of dabs of paint later...



And it's almost ready for lettering.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Lee

[peteski]

I don't know if this was discussed earlier or not, but what's up with all the Kadee MT couplers?  True-retro rolling stock on a retro-layout should have rapido couplers. 

[wm3798]

The locomotive I started with had been butchered of its factory coupler box, so I improvised a coupler pocket and grabbed the first thing I put my hands on, which was an MT preassembled coupler.
In the end it makes sense, because most of my WM rolling stock is so equipped, and since this will be an ersatz Potomac Class J, it makes sense to have the right coupler for the job.

Also, if you were a 51 year old toy train, you'd want the low friction modern trucks on everything you had to haul around!  Just being thoughtful of the elderly!

Lee

[peteski]

Ok Lee, you get a pass this time. 

[CRL]

Back in the 1050’s, knuckle couplers were not even in use on HO scale trains. However, my S-scale American Flyer train set had operating knuckle couplers. Therefore, since knuckle couplers were present in the hobby, I agree it’s ok to use in a retro setting.

So it’s settled... right? 

[Point353]

I don't know if this was discussed earlier or not, but what's up with all the Kadee MT couplers?  True-retro rolling stock on a retro-layout should have rapido couplers. 

The Bachmann 4-8-4 loco was introduced in 1972: http://www.spookshow.net/loco/bach484.html
Magne-Matic couplers were introduced in 1969: https://www.micro-trains.com/50-years-of-magne-matic
So, the couplers pre-date the locomotive model.

[peteski]

The Bachmann 4-8-4 loco was introduced in 1972: http://www.spookshow.net/loco/bach484.html
Magne-Matic couplers were introduced in 1969: https://www.micro-trains.com/50-years-of-magne-matic
So, the couplers pre-date the locomotive model.

I wasn't questioning the timeline. Lee's layout depicts an average model railroader's effort.  Sure, N scale knuckle couplers were available, but the percentage of adaptation was relatively low.  I suspect that the modelers who had layouts of the type Lee created would be using rapido-equipped rolling stock. Even Kadee Micro-Trains cars were available with both, knuckle, and rapido couplers.

[Point353]

Lee's layout depicts an average model railroader's effort.

IMO, calling it "average" is an insult to the quality of Lee's work.

[davefoxx]

IMO, calling it "average" is an insult to the quality of Lee's work.

I agree. My understanding is that Lee is recapturing the trains he owned, or dreamed of owning, in his youth.  The layout represents the technology available then, so that his layout is a time capsule.

DFF

[wm3798]

No offense taken.  I'm having a ball taking this layout through its paces.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  Obviously, I'm working with skills and tools acquired over many decades, so this layout will have a better flavor than my low tech early projects.  And I still like taking pictures in reasonably good scenery.  But my time commitments are much different now, as is my budget, so while the equipment is pretty much two steps back, the layout itself remains a small step forward in my modeling lexicon...

Lee

[peteski]

It was not meant as an insult. Lee obviously had way-above-average modeling skills, but for this "retro" layout he seems to have chosen to use many techniques and materials available in the '70s and '80s.  It looks good, but it is not (by Lee's choice) a super realistic layout (like George Sellios' layout, or our own Mark Dance's).  It is what it is - I enjoy following this thread, and occasionally posting kudos, or friendly jabs.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

like George Sellios' layout

[pdx1955]

I can remember having a mix of both rapido and MT couplers when I started, so a retro railroad would have both and even with a judicious amount of conversion cars so both types can be in the same train. Sometimes, that in itself created some stranger consists depending on what you wanted to run.

[wm3798]

My 1972 Bachmann Northern has evolved into a foobie Western Maryland Potomac.  The 8 axle tender is wrong, the cab is wrong, and the smoke box is wrong.  And yet as I watch it haul a fast freight around the retro rig, it just feels right!

The Northeast Decals I used are almost as old as the locomotive!


In proper tourist trap tradition, I've numbered her one past the prototype roster.  Appropriately on Friday the 13th!  The original cab number still reads 2113, too!  But I'll be fixing that after a little surgery on the boiler shell.



She sure looks right at home crossing her namesake river!
Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

What's the story with the green smokebox?