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 Posted - July 17 2020 : 10:45:43 AM
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"I pulled 19 covered hoppers with a Bachmann f-7. I was surprised," said Walt.
I'm surprised too, Walt! I was barely able to move 7 covered hoppers with my
Bachmann F unit in the closing slide of this video.
https://youtu.be/58S5E3K8G1k
Like what RP is doing, so I'm going to start video taping shorter trains on Armodilloville,
while RP is getting longer. I used to run a lot of long trains, and burned a few motors,
while at the El Paso Model Train Club.
After over twenty years of building it up and watching the new admin destructing
all the positive moves, like blowing off a Corporate Sponsor I had worked to get,
spending 4K on a sea container for storage that doesn't actually do anything to
promote the club or its mission, I turned in my keys and bid them farewell. I couldn't
stick around and watch anymore, and words fell on deaf ears, making me into the club
nag, so really time to uncouple and let it ride off into the distance. What with Covid, I
suspect the membership will drain off pretty fast.
So, more Armadilloville, shorter trains. Maybe now I can get my Bachmann F to pull something
in a shorter consist.
I got some videos I want to shoot this weekend, and I suspect I may start the process of shrinking
Armodilloville down a bit and dial up on the video angles. I study RP's videography, and if you haven't
seen his EPVRR, it looks like a huge layout the way he edits his shots and scenery breaks, but it is
only a 4x4. The Alpine Valley German Line sits comfortably upon a small dresser, and it looks like it
takes up half a room. Again: good camera work and strong scenic elements. That's a direction I want to
emulate. AND make more room for some other projects I 'd like to do.
1. a point to point switching layout'
2. point to point subway layou.
3. larger, but still tight, old west layout.
4. Florida Mangrove swamp layout, micro.
Henley has worked out real well, but she is complaining that she wants a long main line run through the British
countryside over a long viaduct...
Edited by - Chops124 on July 17 2020 10:52:21 AM
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Posted - July 17 2020 : 10:49:16 AM
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So, you left the club? 
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Posted - July 17 2020 : 2:57:14 PM
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Those sound like some great projects chops! I'm most interested in the old west layout. Why not merge armadilloville and Henley with a viaduct like you were saying? It could be a new kind of "Above ground chunnel" 
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Posted - July 17 2020 : 3:25:15 PM
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Sad to hear that you left the El Paso Train Club, but I can understand your motives. I truly appreciate the compliments regarding my layouts and videography - I'm super honored to hear that I've inspired someone else, especially you, who has inspired me quite a bit through the years I've been a member of the TF. 
Sounds like some awesome projects, and now you should definitely have more time to devote to them - can't wait to see more.
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/rpmodelrailroads
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rp_model_railroads/
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Posted - July 17 2020 : 7:04:33 PM
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Jeff, I always thought the Model RR club in El Paso was pretty fun for letting you run the Tyco stuff and not having everything DCC and standards requiring all metal wheels, etc. I'm sorry to see it go sour, of late. No more big long trains on the club layout. I trust, though, that your active imagination will keep you in a steady stream of creative things to do.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - July 17 2020 : 9:30:22 PM
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It was not a decision I arrived at lightly. Ironically,
a number of the guys I actively recruited ended up
forming a new coalition And had a hypothetical
vision of the club’s affairs, where I took a much more
pragmatic stance. This became a source of increasing
friction, and the final straw was them spending 4 K
on a seacon at the height of the first pandemic wave
because they wanted to “grow the club and needed
more storage space.” Adding more storage space (instead
of getting rid of dusty junk) in and of itself would
have no bearing on growing anything. The cart was
so far ahead of the horse; as to be imaginary as the
Tooth Fairy.
This, and other blunders made it an agony to show
up at business meetings and bite my tongue bloody
or rave like a lunatic upon a wind swept rock.
The club was started in 1950, when HO, like Top Train’s
magnificent collection , was picking up steam, and is
one of a shrinking number of permanent layout clubs
in the USA. I don’t know of any others in Texas that
are not modular. I suspect that between the squandering
of funds and the dark cloud of Covid that this place
will last another few years, at most.
C’est la vie.
Edited by - Chops124 on July 17 2020 9:33:00 PM
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Posted - July 17 2020 : 10:51:02 PM
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quote:Those sound like some great projects chops! I'm most interested in the old west layout. Why not merge armadilloville and Henley with a viaduct like you were saying? It could be a new kind of "Above ground chunnel"
Originally posted by BlaxlandAlex3 - July 17 2020 : 2:57:14 PM
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Definitely imaginative. The reason I won’t be doing that is because of nostalgia.
I grew up in three different countries, and claim two states as my home. That
would be Canada, UK, and the US, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in that
order.
With Henley, I am aiming for a generally more realistic vision, with a little
whimsy mixed in. With Armodilloville, it’s full on zany and reflective of my
early fascination of North American railroading. I get tired, or annoyed
with one, I throw a dust cover over it and turn my attention to the other.
I never ever intended to get into Tyco as much as I did. Before Tyco I
was chipping at a large DCC Mexican depiction, trying to catch the ambience
of a country desperately trying to upgrade, but firmly mired in a troubled
past. I do have some video on video tape, if I can play it I can record it on
digital, and post it note to self.
At about the same time I was casually picking up a very few Tyco pieces
out of curiosity, I bumbled into the TF while doing a random search of
Tyco. It was like putting out the fire with gasoline from that point on.
Armodilloville, while fun, has become a bit of a monster threatening to chase
me out of my own house. There is so much maintenance involved in trying
to get the bus running right, two trolley systems working right, the 100 feet
of track to accommodate the vagaries of three dozen locomotives, all needing
traction tires, coupler adjustments, lubrication and track repair, that shooting
a video requires four hours of fiddling and two hours of retakes to make a three
minute video.
That being said, the new plan is to drastically shrink Armodilloville into a 4 x 6,
at most, keep an interesting track plan that involves two mains, likely
intersecting. I will rotate in and out structures , periodically, for different “sets.”
In this regard, I’ve long admired, and enjoyed, RP’s magical and supremely
detailed Euphrates Valley Railroad. His use of camera angles completely
hides its dimunitive 4x4 size, and the many beautiful trains run like clockwork.
That’s where I’d like Armodilloville to be at; so that I am running it, not the
other way around.
Years ago, when the internet was still a few years distant, I submitted a short
essay to Model Railroader magazine titled, “Less is More.” I never got a rejection
slip, but months later what did I see but a plagiarized version, titled, “Less
is More.” Ouch.
On that note the El Paso Model Train Club’s last track plan, begun in 1987
at it’s new Vaughn Street location- a former “Great Society” era soup
kitchen, later a Boy Scout hall, was a rather dull three track oval built on
non-standard modules if they ever had to move it.
Then the track laying bug bit, and it mushroomed, over a short succession of
years, into a spaghetti bowl of reversing loops both above and below ground,
long stretches of subterranean track, complex interchanges buried in deep
below baseboard nooks and crannies with no thought as to how to get in there
if a derailment happened (which turned out to br very often). You would
not believe what a tangled thicket it had become.
As a direct result, 99% of train running is confined to what visible parts
of the line could be achieved. Crimmies. In the videos shot at the club,
the vast majority was done on the three ovals, and still massive
derailments occurred in the worst, most hard to get places, causing
spinal injury to reach. On more than one occasion, a long lost freight
car would be found in a nest of wiring.
Speaking of wiring, all this rail confusion was wired up with actual
miles of salvaged phone wire, in great woven cables, by a professional
electrician, who has been with the club since the early ‘80’s. One
corroded solder joint, one bad electrical component, one good
short, and the whole system would be brought to its knees.
Several times, a locomotive might get caught between two electrically
opposed blocks, catching on fire.
If anything would cause the electrician guy to not come around anymore,
that would be the end of it. Other people tried over the years to fix or
improve the wiring, and the results were a disaster.
So, all this being said, my overall plan is not so much to down size,
but instead to refine what I a doing so more time can be spent
on the things I enjoy: videography, creating, track laying.
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Posted - July 17 2020 : 11:46:11 PM
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JwCBO1H1qw
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Posted - July 18 2020 : 02:47:49 AM
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And there she goes!
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Posted - July 18 2020 : 08:26:36 AM
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| I'd dismantle. If those layouts arent providing optimal enjoyment, it's time for something new. Having multiple smaller micro layouts each with their own knack Is much more fun than a few big ones you get bored of. Unless that's just me.
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Posted - July 18 2020 : 09:54:30 AM
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| BLRX!
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Posted - July 18 2020 : 11:59:55 AM
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quote:BLRX!
Originally posted by Chops124 - July 18 2020 : 09:54:30 AM
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*Ahem* yes? 
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Posted - July 18 2020 : 12:10:47 PM
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Love your box car, I missed seeing it earlier. What's status on your
table?
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