Fun with Foobies...defending the not quite right

[Jimbo]

I venture a guess that a large majority of model railroaders don't care that much about accuracy. Especially in N scale, and even more  so if a member of T-Trak or NTRAK. Only the top 1% elite modelers are such sticklers for accuracy.  Railwire seems to have a sizable membership of those elite modelers, but we also have plenty who take their model train hobby a bit more lightly.

Adding to this point… I think even most “serious” modelers make decisions on where and when to compromise.  The question really becomes - what compromises are acceptable, and which are intolerable?

Jim

[robert3985]

[Dave V]

Okay, here's my pet "Foobie" peeve.

A modeler takes their time, does their research, asks questions at TRW so the a$$hats can get him/her those correct answers, does a bang-up job on the detailing, paint and weathering...then (ARRGGGHHHhhhhhhhh....!!) ...takes photos of his/her fine workmanship on Kato Unitrack, with the sectional joint right in the middle of the photo.

The irony of it bangs me over the head every time...

Yup...ALL N-scale and N-gauge track is a "foob"...some examples are just foobier than others...and we all know which is the foobiest! (psssst....Kato...)

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

This one's for you, Bob! 

[robert3985]

ROTFL!   Yes Dave...and it still smacks me upside my head to see it!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[OldEastRR]

I think "Fun With Foobies" should have its own separate section like Weathering and Scenery Techniques do. It would make interesting reading for us other than top 1% modelers.

[johnb]

let's be honest, I can't spend $1000.00 on three brass 2-8-0's and then add DCC to them, yet I can buy Bachmann 2-8-0's for a lot lessand make them kind of look like an SP loco for a whole lot less. Also, there isn't any Baldwin Freight Motors in N, Kato makes a "steeplecab" that is inexpensive.

People forget that no matter what, we are just playing with toy trains.  They might be expensive,  but they are still toys.

[Dave V]

let's be honest, I can't spend $1000.00 on three brass 2-8-0's and then add DCC to them, yet I can buy Bachmann 2-8-0's for a lot lessand make them kind of look like an SP loco for a whole lot less. Also, there isn't any Baldwin Freight Motors in N, Kato makes a "steeplecab" that is inexpensive.

People forget that no matter what, we are just playing with toy trains.  They might be expensive,  but they are still toys.

And... Modern plastic/diecast steam runs much more reliably than brass!

[Dave V]

ROTFL!   Yes Dave...and it still smacks me upside my head to see it!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

I definitely struggle with raw Unitrack. I feel like some degree of weathering, painting, and/or ballasting is the minimum required to go from train set to model railroad. But in the end, what I find aesthetically appealing is not as important than the fun the modeler is having. This whole T-TRAK exercise has definitely driven that home for me. What someone else might find unappealing has been ridiculously fun for me.

Won't stop me from wishing more people would paint, ballast, and weather their Unitrack though! 

[OldEastRR]

You can also pull out the Code 80 Unitrack rail and replace it w/ code 55, and replace the Unitrack joiners with Code 55 ones. .

[robert3985]

You can also pull out the Code 80 Unitrack rail and replace it w/ code 55, and replace the Unitrack joiners with Code 55 ones. .

As I've said many times, it's not merely the height of the rail, or even the slab-sidedness of Kato and Atlas80 rail, it's all about the tie size & spacing....so, replacing the stock rail with shorter ME rail would be virtually unnoticeable except in close-up photographs...and, IMHO, not anywhere worth the effort.

Dave's experience with using Unitrack Concrete Tie sections (less foobiness) because of the better tie size and spacing is a very good example of the visual advantage that more correct tie size & spacing have over Unitrack Wood Tie sections (maximum foobiness)...with the caveat being that it takes a lot more effort to paint the concrete ties (if you're not going to ballast between them) than it does on the wood tie sections...with Dave opting, in the end, for the easier-to-paint wood tie sections.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[nickelplate759]

...

This makes 11” corners. Steps are there, and the clearance is much more reasonable. And that gap is constant, unlike a MTL joint with its scale 1.5’ of slack.

@turbowhiz , which N-Possible coupler did you use on the Micro-Trains passenger cars?

[Lemosteam]

Email sent!

Dave, all,

I have successfully printed the arch (balloon) roof and it fits perfectly. They will be offered soon. I have also printed all of the types of roof vents matching many images. Just drill some holes and print. This includes the escape hatch seen on some coaches in images I have.

Here is the print on my coach fron the same mail set:



I am also perfecting prints of my etched door inserts. The porthole style is perfect, but the panel doors, not so much they tend to warp while printing so I am trying to solve that issue so that I can offer them soon.



Porthole wafer thin 0.2mm doors:



Panel doors after warming and flattening with a magnet on a steel plate:

[Dave V]

Cool! Very cool!

[bbunge]

Here is one I just finished.  I picked up an Atlas 0-4-0 at Altoona last year (in that estate firesale) for $20.  It ran and had been converted to MT couplers. 

I swapped out to a new Bachmann slope back tender to get all wheel pick up with the tender.  While a bit large, this tender is nice because the frame is metal so it doesn't need additional weight.  I put my new favorite combo in there, a Digitrax DZ-126 and TCS KA-N keep alive.  In the course of tearing apart and cleaning the locomotive, I was able to polish the drivers and the rim pickups.  Since I went to that trouble, I went ahead and wired back to the tender for all wheel pickup.  This arrangement is sort of interesting since the front driver has a traction tire (which I "renewed" by scraping it with a sharp blade) so if the flange is in contact with the track, there might be a hint of contact.  With some tweaks to the CV's it runs amazingly smooth and has no problems with unpowered frogs.  Because of the metal shell, it pulls like a horse, way out pulling my Bachmann 0-6-0. 

The most fun was the headlight.  I cut off the original and drilled a hole through the boiler to come out right beside the front screw.  The headlight was salvaged from a BLI M-1 shell that arrived in that infamous parts package.  A pre-wired LED was installed and the wires ran down the hole and along the boiler under the running boards and back to the tender. 

B&O 96 was originally a tank engine, one of the famous "Little Joe" Pratt street locomotives.  It was later given a tender, the saddle tank removed. It was scrapped in the 1940's. 

There are all sorts of various minor things wrong with this, but for me, they are good enough.  This will mostly see service on N-trak layouts where no one can get close enough to see all the problems.  With the large flanges, it won't see service on FreemoN layouts where the height is such that people observe details more closely.

This has the original motor.

[johnb]

have fun with Foobs