N Scale Hi Rail - Retro Hollow Core Door Layout

[Rich_S]

Hi Lee, If you ask the Lionel guys, they'll tell you "Hi-Rail" was a term created for people building O scale layouts but using Lionel three rail tubular track. Since Lionel tubular track is twice the height as scale 2 rail O scale track, a layout featuring O scale structures, automobiles, streets, scenery, etc. but using Lionel three rail tubular track, Lionel rolling stock and locomotives these layouts became known as a Hi Rail layout.  So I can dig the idea of your N scale Retro Hollow Core Door layout being a N scale version of a Hi-Rail layout idea. Since you're using code 80 track and most of your rolling stock has the pizza cutter wheels and the original Rapido N scale couplers. I'm enjoying the thread and reliving my childhood vicariously through the photo's and video of your N Scale Hi-Rail Layout.     

[CRL]

Hi Lee, If you ask the Lionel guys, they'll tell you "Hi-Rail" was a term created for people building O scale layouts but using Lionel three rail tubular track. Since Lionel tubular track is twice the height as scale 2 rail O scale track, a layout featuring O scale structures, automobiles, streets, scenery, etc. but using Lionel three rail tubular track, Lionel rolling stock and locomotives these layouts became known as a Hi Rail layout.  So I can dig the idea of your N scale Retro Hollow Core Door layout being a N scale version of a Hi-Rail layout idea. Since you're using code 80 track and most of your rolling stock has the pizza cutter wheels and the original Rapido N scale couplers. I'm enjoying the thread and reliving my childhood vicariously through the photo's and video of your N Scale Hi-Rail Layout. 

This explains why I had only ever heard the “hi rail” term applied to 3 rail Lionel layouts.

[peteski]

Hi Lee, If you ask the Lionel guys, they'll tell you "Hi-Rail" was a term created for people building O scale layouts but using Lionel three rail tubular track. Since Lionel tubular track is twice the height as scale 2 rail O scale track, a layout featuring O scale structures, automobiles, streets, scenery, etc. but using Lionel three rail tubular track, Lionel rolling stock and locomotives these layouts became known as a Hi Rail layout.  So I can dig the idea of your N scale Retro Hollow Core Door layout being a N scale version of a Hi-Rail layout idea. Since you're using code 80 track and most of your rolling stock has the pizza cutter wheels and the original Rapido N scale couplers. I'm enjoying the thread and reliving my childhood vicariously through the photo's and video of your N Scale Hi-Rail Layout. 

I don't want to argue, but c80 track is not really an oddity on N scale - it is likely the most common track used on majority N scale layouts. As you explained, Hi Rail in non-tinplate 0 scale was an oddity, while c80 track in N scale is very common.  IMO, the "retro? moniker fits Lee's layout perfectly as he is running vintage N scale equipment with Rapodo couplers, but it runs on currently the most commonly used N scale track.

[wm3798]

Not so fast, there @peteski .  Unless I'm mistaken, tube steel track was the original mass produced model railroad track for O, and also S.  Discounting Lone Star's track, which comparatively was not mass produced on the scale that Trix and Rapido track was, c-80 was the original mass produced track for N.  But again, as @Rich_S points out, the track is only part of the equation.

The fact is, there are great layouts built of c-80 track, such as Todd Treaster's behemoth to @Dave V ' Juniata Division and @mu26aeh 's Hanover sub that are decidedly not "Hi Rail" layouts due to their overall aesthetics, the models operated on them, and their operating scheme.

Those layouts represent the fisherman who invests heavily in the latest equipment, has a really good boat, and goes out every weekend with a fish finder radar, a weather radio and the latest technology in lures and reels to bring in the big fish.  Hi Rail represents the fisherman who takes his dad's rod and reel down to an old familiar pier and enjoys watching the bobber float on the surface while he drinks a beer.  Does that help clear it up?
 
Lee

[mu26aeh]

ah please, don't rope me in with those 2.  That's way too much pressure on myself to live up to those standards  

[wm3798]

I had to think of an ops-based layout that was built with c80, and yours lept to mind.  (Todd and Dave are unrepentent roundy rounders) And don't sell yourself short... your scenes come together quite nicely.

Lee

[Dave V]

And honestly, there was nothing novel or special about the Juniata Division.  If I did anything well, it was in giving it publicity.  I never quite understood why it had the following it did...it was a Model Railroader project layout track plan with a shitload of green Woodland Scenics products.

[wm3798]

@Dave V the JD was brilliantly executed, though.  You applied a consistent philosophy to it, even if your eras ended up a little all over the place.  The good news for you there was that the Middle Division looked pretty much the same from the the installation of the position light signals until they came down.  Other than that, it's just a matter of the volume of ivy growing on the buildings to tip you off what year it might be.

And your publicity work is not to be dismissed.  You have the demeanor of a good teacher...  You set your own expectations pretty high, and you provide the necessary information and encouragement, delivered with a high level of quality, clarity, and humor to let your audience know that there's nothing wrong in raising their own expectations of themselves.  The RGS continues that impressive cycle.  I look forward to the time when Rho and I find ourselves in Colorado (she lived there for 17 years) and we can sip good whiskey while your HO scale crews go about their business...

Lee

[Dave V]

Well thanks!  My overriding philosophy is that if a no-talent hack like me can do something, quite literally anyone can do it.

Both the finished JD and the finished RGS do one thing well...they hide the trail of failures and do-overs that led to them.  If I could teach anything about model railroading (as unqualified as I am to do so) it's to set aside the fear of failure.  Failure is the foundation of learning.

The beauty of this hobby is the size of the tent.  Watching your work here Lee makes me not a little nostalgic for my old HO scale white-box Bachmann and Tyco stuff.  God only knows why, because they ran as well as a Soviet Lada...but it was all so fun and magical anyway!

[wm3798]

Get a load of this!


Lee

[Frank Amato]

I see what you did there @wm3798 :^;

  Frank

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lee's getting loaded and posting on the internet... so, what's new?

[wm3798]

I have enough of that aluminum to make 9 million scale tons.  I like it shiny, but I'm thinking a dusting of rust and grime will make a really nice looking scrap iron load.  Maybe sprinkle in a few recognizable chunks of things to spice it up a little.

[wm3798]

Started by toning down the scrap loads with some matte finish.  Helped knock down the shine, as well as seal the tiny bits a little better.



Then I rummaged around in the stacks to find this:
 


A genuine artifact from my first layout.  The ubiquitous Heljan warehouse.  I had sliced it longitudinally for a backdrop building on the WM, but I never finished painting and weathering it, so it retains its ancient patina.
It's perfect for this location, because I need something to provide a better photo back drop for the train station...



The good news is the old switch plate is metal, so I can simply install some magnets on the back of the building flat so it can be removed for the purpose of seeing what the hell I'm doing...

Pardon the blur...



But it should work out just fine.  I may yet paint it if for no other reason to let it fade into the background behind the trains a little better.  There's room in front of it for a stub of track to add some visual interest to the scene, but I doubt I'll connect the siding.  It's facing the wrong way, and I don't really have any other infrastructure to support switching even one car, so odds are it will be modeled as an abandoned track, which will be fun to do in its own right.

Then I broke out the track maintenance train, my old Armstrong track cleaning car bookended by the new drive Bachmann Plymouth.  Apart from being gigantically over scale, these pups run really well.



But the Retro Hi-Rail coup of the night was the discover of this back there in the stacks of stuff...



That's it.  Genuine Noch grass paper from the 1970s.  I had liberated a big chunk of this from my dad's stash used on our annual Christmas garden and squirreled it away.  I never used more than bits and pieces of it on my small layouts, so there's still a whole chunk of it left.  Looks like the grass just got a little (a LOT) greener on the N Scale Hi Rail!

Lee

[peteski]

Started by toning down the scrap loads with some matte finish.  Helped knock down the shine, as well as seal the tiny bits a little better.



A genuine artifact from my first layout.  The ubiquitous Heljan warehouse.  I had sliced it longitudinally for a backdrop building on the WM, but I never finished painting and weathering it, so it retains its ancient patina.
It's perfect for this location, because I need something to provide a better photo back drop for the train station...

The good news is the old switch plate is metal, so I can simply install some magnets on the back of the building flat so it can be removed for the purpose of seeing what the hell I'm doing...

Pardon the blur...



Lee

Did you already add a siding serving the warehouse?!

Speaking of old Heljan kits, do you have their brick station?  That would be a nice companion to the warehouse.