On the Relationship of CVs, Thesis statements, and Place

HBS 700 cleaned up and ready to tackle the mean cobblestone streets of Hoboken, NJ.

A recent long email thread between modelers in Kansas City and Austin has centered around CV settings for realistic operation of locomotives. The concern has been to accurately set momentum, braking, and sounds properly to achieve the feeling of running an actual locomotive. This feeds directly into a running conversation among several of my modeling friends about the central organizing principle of layouts, or the thesis statement, that governs decisions about the construction and operation of a layout. Like anything in life, I believe having a central conceptual basis, or reason, for what you are doing with your layout makes your endeavor more cohesive, focused and helps it communicate your vision and intent more clearly.

I will concede that a majority of modelers may believe that a rigorous conceptual basis for a model railroad takes the fun out of the pursuit, because the enjoyment comes from doing whatever seems like fun at the moment. I can not stress enough that I have no problem with spontaneity and undirected play at all as a fun way to practice model railroading. (See my Fall 2013 LSR Marker Lamp editorial in vol 59, number 4 where I talk about modeling to escape versus modeling to engage.) But, suspend your disbelief for a moment if you think that modeling to engage sounds too much like work, and please think of it as just getting really involved in playing.

A huge part of any game and even undirected play involves a set of rules, or constraints, that make the game more fun for everyone, even if you are the only one playing, because how are you going to know what you are doing or if you are doing it well or not without rules? For me, having that central organizing principle or thesis statement is rule number one. Without knowing what I am setting out to do, how will I know if I do it or not? There may be several types of theses possible, but I would say that they are all sub categories of a very large catch-all bucket of categories that involve the idea and communication of the qualities of place.

On my layout, I am still developing my thesis, but the trajectory has something to do with conveying identity and the relationship of customer and railroad. Being a short line railroad, the Hoboken Shore had intimate interaction on a daily basis with its customers. My questions for this are, how could one model this closeness, and how can personalities come into play? On the Waterfront, which was filmed along the HBS right of way, provides an excellent example of the turmoil and roughness of the moment in time of the environment surrounding the HBS. I'd like my layout to impart some sort of understanding of this, and what it may have been like to work on a railroad in that particular place. Because of this trajectory, it becomes necessary to focus on the operator as individual within the context of 1950s Hoboken. 

The HBS was already waning on the heels of its busiest time during WWII. There must have been a malaise settling on the town and railroad as things were falling apart all over the Mile Square City. The mayor owned the local garbage collection company, and when decisions weren't made to his satisfaction, he refused to pick up trash for several weeks until the decisions were reversed. Graft, corruption, and general New Jersey politics led to empty buildings, dirty, malnourished children roaming the streets, and general hard times while the rest of the country was enjoying a post-war boom. It was so bad, that the mayor enacted a law that made it illegal to photograph the city during this time.

Capturing the idea of a place is a topic of an excellent blog post entitled "Power of Place" I read recently from Mike Cougill at his OST Publications blog. In it he explores the notions of place and the challenges of modeling them on a layout. He says,"in modeling, we give scant notice to how the railroad and community grew together. We only give a cursory acknowledgment of how the railroad fits the landscape and in turn, is shaped by it." We do tend to become fixated on the stuff and techniques of the layout instead of the overall effect we are trying to achieve. A 'can't see the forest for the trees' sort of thing, but I believe that creating an idea of place is the central reason behind creating any layout.

The place of Hoboken in 1959 is what I am modeling, so what does locomotive sound have to do with this? Simply and directly, the pace of operation for switching multiple industries in an urban setting is necessarily slow, so I want to make operation about the little things that were apart of the everyday movement of goods and products around the waterfront. This was what the railroad crews had, everyday things in small quantities that made up their entire lives. No varnish whizzing by at speed, no thundering Big Boys belching steam, nobody to really notice what was going on except for the people they dealt with everyday at the coffee factory, the shipyard, and the piers. The world was a small one connected to the globe, and it was these individual sounds that made up the ebb and flow of the aural scenery. 

It is easy to get sucked into tweaking CV settings on a locomotive just for the sake of getting the sound right. My driving interest, though, is to provide user feedback that makes prototypical operation easier and more enjoyable for the operator on my layout. Keeping this in mind while performing a seemingly isolated task of CV setting is important to me.

So hearing the small, but can-do nature of the revving of a 44-tonner before it moves is modeling the character and the reality of the Hoboken Shore Railroad. It wasn't glamorous, it wasn't pretty, but it was specific and part of the everyday experience of the individuals of the railroad, and that's important in supporting the thesis about the place that I am recreating on my layout. This small sound detail directly helps the central conceptual basis for my layout to communicate the particular place of Hoboken, NJ and how the railroad fit into it. For me, this makes for loads of fun, even though I am focused, rigorous and deliberate in my play.

More

For a great example of a strong, central thesis, see the layout of Jim Senese of Tulsa, OK. He has a clear intent for operators explore the interaction of multiple railroads with differing personalities on his "Kansas City Terminal RR" layout in Model Railroad Planning 1998.

I think place is a great topic for further exploration and conversation. I'd like to hear from you if you know of modelers who make place an important part of their layout.

This first appeared in Vol 61, Number 1 of the Marker Lamp.

Operation weekend at home

Check out Lance Mindheim's recap of a fun weekend of guest operations on two of our local layouts. Then read the rest of his web site, buy his books, and pay attention to his spot-on model railroading sensibilities. Lots of fun having these expert operators in for some prototypical operations. Turns out they are fun to hang out with as well.

Erie Dynamos in N Scale Part Deux

For the first part of the Continuous Model Railroad, see Erie DYNAMOS layout in N Scale

Applications (continued)

So let's apply the dynamo principle to the Erie Railroad. First we need to gather the prototype's track charts. We need the charts to know what the track alignments are in order to figure out our module requirements and configuration. The first chart on the Erie's east end is the Jersey City to Carlton, NJ that includes the large Croxton Yard complex. This covers the first 9 miles of the eastern end of the line.

The black blob is Croxton Yard between Jersey City to the right and Carlton, NJ on the left..

The next section takes us from milepost 10 at Passaic Park to Hohokus and mile 22, but we are only going to be able to make it to Paterson, NJ at mile 15 in the first session. Now we can look at the track arrangements and match that up to our stable of standard modules.

Part of the track charts for our journey to Chicago from Jersey City.

The classic model railroad problem is that we model railroaders want to fit 900 miles of railroad into 400 s.f. and Dynamos allows one to do that, just not all at the same time.

The space that I have to work with is a living room that measures about 16' x 20' which is convenient for a standard 2'x4' (or 1'-6"x 4' since this is N scale) module with 4' aisles. Included in each session will be staging modules at each end, so those will pretty much be set and all we have to do is fill in between. The corner and aisle turnback modules also end up being fixed for all intents and purposes since this is the best way of filling this particular size room in a traditional "E" configuration of modules. This means that all that will change from one session to the next are the 18 intermediate modules.

Our stable of standard abstracted Operational Design Elements modules

Module identification

The first session on the Continuous Model Railroad includes only modules "A" through "I" since we haven't hit the 4 track main line, yet, which starts at "WJ" tower at Ridgewood, NJ. In addition to the fixed requirements of staging (2 "H"s and 2 "G"s) and corners (6 "A" modules) we will need these quantities:"B" 2,"C" 1,"D" 4,"E" 4,"F" 2,and "I" 2. I would build the staging modules "H" on wheels to make getting ready for the next session a snap!

Session 1

How the sessions break down moving East to west. In retrospect, I might do the sequence starting in Chicago and moving west because there is a greater flow of loads moving East to NY. I could, of course, easily do this the second time around.

The next session sees only minor changes to the overall set up, only the names of the towns are changed. (This could be accomplished through a nice sign pocket on each module that allows for quick re-naming between sessions.) Session 2 will move us from Paterson to Suffern.


There are only six modules that need changing in this session. Shown with the red dots in the next figure, the major change is the addition of another yard at Allendale between Paterson and Suffern. Now sharp Erie railroaders will be cringing at this point, because I have been showing a two track main line in places where there should be four between Rutherford and Suffern. I honestly don't remember why I didn't do this when I originally presented this idea at the Tulsa LD/OpSig event a couple of years ago, but I can perform some post-rationalization at this point and say that it didn't make financial sense to build so many four track main line modules to only use in this session as almost all of the Erie was not four track main, or maybe I simply messed up.

Only a few changes are necessary for the second session.

Operations

It is now a matter of getting out our employee schedule to start working up our operating scheme for the sessions.

The part of the schedule that corresponds to the Session 1 area on the system map.

The Westbound schedule from Jersey City to Port Jervis that includes what we need to know for operations in the first few sessions.

Almost all of the trains run daily, so it doesn't really matter what part of the week simulate. I would choose a particular day to start off with, though, so that we could keep a consistent timeline going as we move across the country to make the experience more relevant. A little research will tell us what these trains are and what the normal consist would be. Moving westbound, a lot of the trains will contain empties moving back into the heartland where goods consumed on the East Coast are manufactured or grown.

So what gets interesting is how you set up the sessions. There are several possibilities, of course, and it depends on what you are looking to get out of the experience in order to determine how to craft the operating scheme. If one were interested in a particular train, one could operate a very slow clock and model only a couple of hours in each session so as to follow this train from end to end.

The Erie Limited, train No.1, for example, departs Jersey City at 9:30 AM each day, so operating the schedule from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM the first session would see this train move from East to West and arrive at Patterson. In order for the next session to be properly aligned in time, No.1 would start at Paterson and the session would again start at 9:00 AM, because No.1 moves through Paterson only a few minutes after leaving Jersey City. In fact, since it makes no stops, No.1 is scheduled to depart Goshen, which would end up in our 4th session, at only 10:49. This means that the first FOUR sessions we hold are all modeling operations between 9:00 and 11:00 AM on one day.

During this time, however, all sorts of other activities are happening with locals, through and way freights doing their work. Since we are shifting our focus from East to West, we would see the same locals operate in the same direction each session. This would happen with the eastbound traffic as well with their entrance to the layout occurring a few minutes earlier each session until they no longer show up within the time frame set by our following of the train of our interest, No.1.

What is fascinating about operating the Continuous Model Railroad in this manner is that the trains operating during a given session would largely remain the same from one session to the next, as would the time. Differences would be small and mainly consist of when the train moved through the layout. The larger difference would be seen in the shifting of the towns from one session to the next, almost as if they were standing still and the layout were moving underneath them.

Another way to organize the operating scheme would be to model an entire day before moving on. This would place emphasis on the location rather than a selected train. This scheme would allow for an appreciation of the rhythm of the place, rather than the experience of the train. The understanding, then, of the whole trip from New Jersey to Illinois would be more about the patterns of the entire Erie Railroad. Appreciation is gained of busy commuting trains punctuated by a named passenger train or express freight and how this is mapped onto a daily pattern of traffic on the railroad.

By following a train across country as in the first example, the appreciation is centered on the experience of movement, not on the experience of place.The constant is the train - everyone will be focused on when the train is present in relation to the location. Time then becomes the measuring stick. It is as if we see the train as a second hand passing each city which is a number on the clock face.

Shifting the focus around by modeling an entire daily cycle in one location, the reference is switched from following a sweeping second hand of a clock to a static orientation based on where you are and gaze upon the face of the clock where a particular number is being passed by the clock hands. The same schedule and operations routine of a prototype railroad can then be experienced and understood in two completely different ways using the same layout space. 

Different understandings of a railroad

This is the crux of the whole idea of the Continuous Model Railroad: through the abstraction of space (the transformation of track arrangements into dynamo ODEs) and the ability to swap them around interchangeably (the Dynamos modular system), we are able to bring focus onto the temporal component of railroad operations, and because of that, experience railroading in a completely different mode than we are accustomed.

This shifts our perspective from the current practice of representing an entire railroad through a single specific instance to understanding each location of a railroad in relation to how the entire railroad operated. This effectively reverses the adage that we can understand the whole world through a single grain of sand to understanding each grain of sand by looking at the entire world. A microcosm representing the universal or the universe explaining the microcosm? The flexibility of Dynamos sets up a duality where you have a choice between the two, but you should really try both for the most complete understanding of the operations of your chosen railroad.

Module construction

I have been working on developing a lightweight modular system for a while now, but I don't have an ultimate proposal as of yet. A recent NMRA Magazine article described an aluminum angle and Masonite method that is similar to my thoughts. I've been looking at aluminum shapes, but I have not decided on the skin component. I've looked at honeycomb cardboard, Gator board and regular building insulation foam among other materials. I am leaning towards Gator board at the moment.

The other part to consider is what the modules will sit on. There are several examples out there from Freemo, Ntrak, and other module systems. My priorities include lightweight, ease of set up and tear down, and finally storage space required.

I would use standard code 80 track with manual switches. No need to complicate anything for modeling realism that might compromise operations. No layout is fun if you have derailments or power problems, so the simpler the better in this case.

Proof of concept

I guess the next thing for me to do is to actually try this. We all have good ideas, but do they mean much if we don't try them? I believe it would prove to be a worthy distraction from the Port of New York layout, but I don't think this will translate into HO, so I can't use any of the equipment I already have. I'm not sure I can justify this divergence of funds. I've only got a handful of N scale equipment at the moment, but maybe I could simply lease what I need. This is what the prototype would do...

If you are interested in hearing more about this, I have a slideshow of the presentation I made at the Tulsa convention.

More on the Continuous Model Railroad as it develops...

WP 1st Sub Rides Again

After a year long hiatus to attend to more pressing matters, Tommy Holt hosted a regular operating session on his Western Pacific 1st Subdivision layout set in and around Stockton, CA. We were actually pretty lucky that we operated after his building was struck by lightning (again) this week. He had some trouble that he worked around, and repairs started on electronic systems the day after we operated.

The kitchen aisle, as I call it. This is the heart of the layout. Stockton Yard is on the right and lines West to the left with the towns of Ortega, French Camp, Lathrop, and Cochran. Most of the crew is here (hence the kitchen reference where everyone gathers), front to back is Gordon, Bill, Jack, Tom and maybe Stan.

It was good to be back in the saddle again, and tonight I was breaking in the new guy. Brian, who had been to the layout only once or twice previously, and I ran mainline trains as is the custom with a rookie, so he can familiarize himself with the overall layout, rules and particulars before trying other more complex jobs. Brian is a member of Op Sig, so he has plenty of experience, and he caught on quickly.

A switcher sits quietly in a Flora Street Yard track with a long string of autoracks filled with freshly built Fords. I guess the work day is over here, as no one is in sight and the locomotive isn't even on.

It is lonely out on the road, especially at Altamont. Most famous not for WP's very useful long sidings, but rather for the free concert run amok hosted by the Rolling Stones in 1969 - three years after our train rolls through town in the late summer of 1966 on Tommy's layout.

We first ran OWPX, an eastbound freight expediter to Salt Lake City. I tried to explain as much about radio protocol, yard procedures, horn blowing, how to call the signals, etc. on the first trip and then just remind on the subsequent runs. He had operated on the layout before, so this was already familiar material. Here's some of the stuff we saw along the way.

We didn't stop at the call box today, so it was a quick pass through the sleepy control point at Trevarno.

A Merchandise Dispatch box car sits by itself on a track at the Kaiser gravel company at Radum. 

A front loader works to load gravel beyond the shack that houses the office at Kaiser.

The crossing to get to Kaiser.

Gravel hoppers ready to be picked up at Kaiser. The Rockswitcher didn't run tonight, so this will probably get picked up next session.

Stockton depot is always busy.

The depot was built by Mike Barrett after a trip to California to measure the existing building. Excellent work!

Something to mention is the "all off" switch seen here at the entrance to the layout. The red switch is lighted and turns off all the railroad related electrical circuits for safety considerations. This way you know everything is off whether for working on the layout or at the end of the evening when it is time to tie up.

I keep meaning to ask Tommy why this says "(RILEY)". If I know the building this refers to, it is a concrete structure with Egyptian detailing on it. I've seen a few pictures online, and it is an unusual building. It is located near the ST&L interchange near the Flora Street Yard.

Headed into the hole at West Staging through the SP crossing at Radum.

Blowin' and goin' through Flora Street (although in this part of the railroad, it means we were probably going about 15mph...) This is Weber Ave. with the SP tracks crossing in the foreground.

Brian minds the signals moving through Tracy on the west bound extra out of Stockton.

We ran a couple of other trains including the Auto Parts Forwarder (APF) and a westbound freight extra (WPW) without incident. The extra was the last train of the evening for us, so I let Brian take it solo, and I just hovered in case I was needed. He did great, and from what I could tell, he enjoyed the evening tremendously.

The ongoing conversation for us this evening was about how long it took to learn all the rules and how we were trained, etc. I can't remember exactly how long I've been operating at Tommy's, but it has been close to 8 or 10 years. Sounds like a long time, but it isn't if you remember that at best we operate 10 times a year and there are at least 8 different jobs on the layout. That means out of about 80 possibilities to do a job in 8 years, you probably have not done each job more than about 10 times. This is not a lot of practice when it is spread out over several years. With this in mind, it is impressive that there are several people who are really good operators of the layout. At this point the evening is usually uneventful in terms of mistakes. We can now concentrate on efficiency and enjoying the ride more now that we are not trying to remember rules or procedures. Even after a year long lay-off, we all just fell back into the groove.

To (and From) Russia (on Trains) with Love

Sounding like a 19th century Napoleonic missive (see the history of the idea to build the Chunnel between Britain and The Continent) there is talk about building a tunnel in the Bering Strait to connect the US with Russia by rail.

 

The proposed connection between the US and Russia via inter-continental rail

This is quite an idea, and it, too, was thought about long ago (a musing of Czar Nicholas II in 1905), but the economics of it are apparently now ripe for the actual mission to take shape. Seems the Chinese are also keen on this, and with three of the largest nations on earth all thinking about doing something, it just might happen sooner than later.

I'm certainly excited by the idea, and I might start saving my pennies to take that train trip (although in reality it would probably be miserable as a passenger and more exciting and easier for a piece of freight to be shipped to me "ground service" from China). This could mean a whole new category of rain service - the ultra-long distance freight express.

So my question is, naturally, how could one model this new ridiculously long route? It would be a great candidate for the continuous model railroad Dynamo concept, of course, but what other ways might this vast and frozen route be tackled? I'm feeling a little silly at the moment, so I might take on the tunnel itself.

"What on Earth is this guy thinking?" Well, I'm thinking that the most important signature element this railroad has to be the bridge and tunnel system that gets the railroad across the Bering Sea. Viewed as either an LDE (a layout design element) or an ODE (an operational design element), the tunnel layout would not be a John Allen subway line, but rather more like an Iain Rice portrait layout that captures the essence of what the railroad is at that point - under water, probably going quite fast, and cold. Some interesting things to model.

A cross section of the proposed Bering Strait tunnel. How would this translate into a model railroad?

Capturing those elements would be a fun challenge. Imagine a layout whose backdrop was actually more of an overdrop extending down from the valence and right in your face. A model of a cross section of frigid ocean water and life would be quite stunning. Then below the very narrow strip of train tunnel at eye level would be a think cross section of sand, rock and earthen modeling that would make for an unusual framing for a railroad. The trains would move fast (who wants to slow-poke it through a mulit-kilometer underground and undersea hole), and they would probably be container trains. Maybe a new type of container for this different sort of trip? I would think the  locomotives might rate a new look and functionality as well - perhaps ones with sleeping berths and extra fuel compartments integrated into them?

Such a layout would be future-projecting, which doesn't happen much in model railroading. Most of the alternate realities are simply freelance or what-if railroads whose validity comes from being as believable as possible to fit into an existing context. But there are not many (any? Tell me about them if you know of one!) that are set in the future? What happens to the hobby activity when it becomes speculative (like a freelance railroad) and also forward-looking?

The modeler would necessarily become more like a sci-fi author/designer having to extrapolate and extend the railroading of today into a future setting that has new constraints and needs to be designed for. What a great opportunity to experiment and play with scratchbuilding new locomotives, liveries and specialized rolling stock. The scenery would be out of the norm, the presentation unusual at least, and the demand on creativity very high. Might be a good challenge for someone out there who has mastered recreating railroads from memory or research, and who is up to the challenge of designing a railroad mostly from sheer creative vision.

Ops at Pete's

This week was an operating session at Pete's Conundrum and Pacific Railroad. A pure switching puzzle, the C&P is without staging, timetable or mainline trains.

Looking from East Port to Westport. Jack is working in Pearson Yard, and Dick is his assistant working a local out of the yard.

I usually hang out in Pickard Yard at Cascade Locks, but this week since we had 7 operators (2 in each of three yards, then one leftover), I chose to run the local sweeper. (The other job is to stay in East Port and West Port all night.) Basically I had the run of the railroad running transfers between yards and performing switching along the way. Fun job because of the roaming nature. I think I was supposed to move from Pearson one way, then back, then out the other way and back to the yard. I ended up just going where the wind blew and doing what ever could help the three yardmasters the most when I came through their yard.

End of the session watching the last moves by Dick. Left to right: Roy, Tom, Dick, Pete, Jack, David, George.

Something funny that happens all the time is at the end of the session, everyone ends up gathering around the last person operating. Tonight it was Dick who was who was working out of Pearson Yard at West Port. It can be a little unnerving when you are tired and trying to make tricky moves in front of an audience. It also keeps you from talking out loud to figure out how you are going to make your moves and what order you are going to do your work.

I'm looking a little tired after 3 hours of operating.

We are getting pretty good at moving things around, so Pete has started to add cars and lengthen spots so we have more to do. We've figured out most of track and can efficiently move a lot of cars in and out of the yards, which is what sets the pace of any railroad. We've also figured out what industries are trailing points from what yard for the most part. So, things move pretty smoothly, especially since Pete has gotten really good at setting up moves. Very deliberate traffic movements help keep sessions interesting as well as being able to adjust difficulty according to operator experience level.

So now that we are comfortable after about a 6 months (?) of operating, the last challenges are in trying to break rules without Pete's finding out. Don't tell him I said that (although I think he might find that funny).

Conundrum is empty at the end of the session.

Charles' First Op Session

Charles Etheredge had his first op session on his SP Austin to Llano line layout a couple of weeks back to good success. We ran a sequenced timetable using steam engines for the most part. I ran an extra up to the quarry in Marble Falls and a local out of Austin meeting Gordon with a local out of Hempstead.

A full kitchen (Tom, Gordon, Duane, Charles)

A few usual first-time bugs were found (that's the point of the first few sessions!), but none were catastrophic. One problem was a steamer that had no pulling power. I saw Charles last week and he had applied Bull Frog Snot to one set of drivers (the geared set) and the guy now pulls like a champ.

Track charts are used for prototype arrangements

Erie DYNAMOS layout in N scale

Erie New York Division in N Scale

I've taken a stab at developing my Dynamos idea for the Erie Railroad from Jersey City to Chicago milepost by milepost. This first layout uses some standard modules developed from looking at the track arrangement charts for the Erie arranged to replicate the operating characteristics of the railroad instead of the physical characteristics of actual places. The first layout models the operations between MP 0 and MP 16.

An article I am working on explains further:

How to Model More Railroad than Your Room Can Hold

A layout design methodology for dynamic operating schemes

Terms: 
 Dynamos: DYNamic Abstracted Modular Operating System, Dynamo: DYNamic Abstracted MOdule

ODE: Operational Design Element. A typologically identifiable portion of a model railroad layout that is linked to the operation of the layout. A section of a model railroad that has a discrete (or particular combination of) operating elements such as an interchange, siding, yard (or separate yard element), passenger station, industry spur or spot. Can also be used for type of landmark or scenery element such as a bridge, tunnel, cut, roadway or other part of the natural or built environment that affects operations.

History
The hobby of model railroading has continually advanced in the areas of craft, manufacturing and technology since modeling became distinguishable from simple toy train activities in the early part of the twentieth century. For some hobbyists, the reason for modeling itself also has continued to evolve over the course of the last 100 years from simply being a quest for more accurate models and better looking scenery to modeling the railroad operations and prototype practices as more than a model of a railroad to more of a simulation of a railroad. ¹

Layout planning has very directly been affected by this evolution in approach to the hobby. Most recently, forward-thinking ideas of David Barrow and Tony Koester have had a great influence on those of us who are striving for clarity, realism and operations-oriented model railroading. Two of those ideas, the domino benchwork construction and planning method of David Barrow and the Layout Design Element, or LDE, of Tony Koester have both shaped current discourse of layout planners and are particularly interested in the simulation, or game of model railroading.

If one were to combine the layout planning methods of domino construction and an abstracted form of Layout Design Elements, it would result in a dynamically flexible and effective system for modeling the operations of an entire railroad by allowing for continual reconfiguration of domino sections from one operating session to the next. Combining modified ideas of domino construction and LDEs results in a flexible and effective method for modeling the operations of an entire railroad by allowing for rearrangement and reuse of domino sections from one operating session to the next.

David Barrow used the term “domino” for a benchwork construction method in an article for Model Railroader magazine in 1995 and gives credit for the term to Bruce Goehmann who wrote about “domino” planning for traction layouts in a MR article in October, 1985. [Diagram XX] Related to Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s Maison-Domino, a basic building prototype for mass production housing with free-standing pillars and rigid floors that privileged modularity and clarity in architectural form and construction, the effect of domino planning on model railroading has been significant in that it reinforces the around-the-room, or shelf style layout that is sincere (the train moves through each scene only once maintaining the same direction).

In his own layout evolution, David has most fully taken advantage of the domino method of construction in a way very closely aligned with Le Corbusier’s emphasis on modularity through the re-use of benchwork modules in new track configurations as well as an organizational method during the re-design of new representations iterations of Santa Fe track and operations around Lubbock, Texas. (see MR XXX 2009)

What I take from the domino method is the ability to rearrange standard modules in the manner of NTrak or FreeMo in a home layout setting with a standardize dimensional relationship (such as the convenient 2’x4’ module Barrow frequently uses). In addition, Barrow, among others like Mike O'Brien and Tom Pearson, have been a part of a larger discussion about minimal model railroading (to the ire of many modelers who have said to Barrow, "that isn't model railroading"). The idea that photographs of a place or industry can be used instead of modeling a structure or scenery in three dimensions suffices for the purposes of modeling operations.

Bare plywood and Code 100 rail aren't even noticed if one is really involved in the operations aspects of a layout. David has tested this on us operators by replacing code 83 rail with code 100 rail on a section of mainline and then asking us if we noticed in the post-op debriefing session. Nobody did, because we were all intent on what we were doing with our trains and couldn't care less about the rail size. This changes, of course, when there is no operation happening and one is only railfanning. This boils down to which master you would like to serve: operation modeling or physical modeling.

The idea of Tony Koester’s LDE or Layout Design Element is to represent a prototype location as closely as possible in a modeled portion of the layout. [Diagram XX] His definition in his own words is,

a visually and operationally recognizable model of a specific prototype location, such as a yard, junction, industry, engine terminal, and so on. A scene that comprises elements of several familiar scenes or reminds one of a general region or type of railroad is not an LDE. It has to reflect the visual and operational characteristics of one actual location. The name can be changed, or even the structures (to some degree), but the physical layout cannot other than by the judicious use of selective compression. ^{2 email to author, dated XX/XX/XX}

Operational Design Element
Generated from a series of conversations with Tom Pearson, an extension of the idea of an LDE could be an ODE, or Operation Design Element. Instead of striving to be an exact duplication of a prototype situation like the LDE, an ODE is an abstracted representation of a particular typology of a railroad’s operational situation (be it prototypical or free-lanced). An ODE is not necessarily directly representative of a specific prototype's location and situation, but it would be based on the practices of a particular railroad such as roadbed sections, color of ballast, signaling, sidings, etc.

Furthermore, it is a section of a model railroad that has a discrete (or particular combination of multiple) operating elements such as an interchange, siding, yard (or yard element), passenger station, industry spur or spot. The term can also be used for an identifiable type of landmark or scenery element such as a bridge, tunnel, cut, roadway or other part of the natural or built environment that affects operations. [Diagram XX]

Mark of a Dynamos layout design

Dynamos

What the combination of the ODE and the domino method makes possible is the ability to design a dynamic layout, or a layout that can be re-configured to meet a host of different operating possibilities. By using a standard position for track placement between modules like the FreeMo and Ntrak modular standards, one can create several LOEs using the same dimension domino module and reconfigure their arrangement to create different operating layouts without the need to relay track. This system is called the Dynamic Abstracted Modular Operating System, or DyNAMOS method of layout design.

There are several possibilities for taking advantage of the flexibility of dynamos. My own impetus for developing this idea comes from grappling with the necessity of “selective compression” in layouts juxtaposed with the desire to model an entire class one railroad, in my case, the Erie Railroad from New York City to Chicago. [Erie Schematic Map] With the re-combination of a set of dynammos that model a variety of typical main line situations of the Erie, one could model the entire length of the Erie by rearranging modules between operating sessions. Over the course of an extended period of time, it is possible to model the operations of the Erie’s flagship freight The Flying Saucer from Croxton Yard in New Jersey to Chicago over the entirety of the Erie main line all in a relatively small amount of square footage.

The “selective compression” of space becomes “selective sectioning” of space that is dynamically recombined across time to create an otherwise unmodelable scope of a large railroad system. In terms of operation, one could think of this as The Flying Saucer’s standing still as the layout moves beneath it since the train moves across the layout each session in the same direction. [Diagram XX]
One could also model different eras of the same portion of a railroad by merely dropping in the appropriate track arrangement for the given era. The double tracking of a section of the UP line in Cheyenne, Wyoming that took place in 19XX could be switched out to see how it affects operations or to match the modern equipment you have recently purchased.

The dynamos system could also facilitate modeling different railroads altogether. If one were interested in operations in New Jersey, for instance, one could model a multitude of railroads that connected to each other. If you were to take the area around the Erie operations in Croxton, New Jersey, there are several Erie branches and other railroads that connect o the yard. The Northern, Greenville Lake and Weehawken branches originate from Croxton, and along with the railroads of the DL&W, PRR, Northern, Susquehenna, NYCentral, NYO&W, LV, etc. there are plenty of tentacles that radiate from Croxton Yard to keep modeling new operations for many years while still remaining in the same immediate area. [Diagram XX]

Application
To make such a system manageable, one would need to use quick-disconnect cabling for power and DCC systems, a standard accessory arrangement for lighting, signaling, etc. and a construction method that allows for temporary, yet secure, placement of benchwork modules. One might look to the system under development by Ian Rice ³ that is attempting to standardize infrastructure arrangements, in his case so that one can reuse modules for completely new scenes and track arrangements. We would want a system that merely connected in a consistent and easily unplugable manner, and ideally would stack for convenient storage.

Construction out of lightweight materials would also be desirable for ease in handling. Metal and plastic structural systems could be used along with foam and other methods already employed by modular modelers.

For track configurations, one would need to generate a set of standard arrangements that were typical of a particular (or generic) railroad. A set might include:

A Corner
B Double track main line (with crossover)
C Double track main line xtra (with crossover)
D Main line with working siding
E Yard throat
F Yard Body
G Staging ladder
H Staging body
I Interchange
J Quadruple track main line end
K Quadruple track main line body
L Quadruple track main line body with industries
M Quadruple track main line with interchange 1

N Quadruple track main line with interchange 2
O Quadruple track yard throat
P Quadruple track Yard body
Q ?
R ?
S ?

Potential Conflicts

To keep the number of total dynamos relatively contained, one would need to make concessions on a few track arrangement issues. Whether a diverging route came off of the far or near side of the main, turnout orientation (trailing or facing), etc. An optimal number of modules would have to be arrived at considering storage space, concessions required, etc.
I'll update as this idea progresses. [See part 2]

References
1

2

3 Rice, Iain, Layout Design Haynes Publishing:Sparkford, UK, 2010, p 52.

Operations at Jack Merkel's

I'm the guy behind the guy (that guy is Charles)

>

Upcoming Operating Session

This coming weekend is an operating session at Jack Merkel's. He has a really fun, low-key and challenging operating scheme on the Santa Fe between Houston and Temple. Sealy and Brenham provide lots of switching opportunities as well as the Southern Pacific branch line that connects to the Santa Fe at Giddings. NCE controls with about 30% of the motive power sound equipped. Everything is landscaped with a smattering of buildings still in mock-up cardstock. (A good way to populate the layout until you have time to finish all your structures.) Centralized Traffic Control and radio dispatch with an analog fast clock.

Pictured above is the town of Brenham where I am switching in the town and Charles is entering the town on the main. It kind of looks like he is waiting on me, but he's not, he is aligning the main in front of his train. The trick with Brenham is that there is a house track within town that gets clogged on occasion with set outs, and getting back to the upper industries can be a bit challenging at times.

A nice operating element is that the passenger trains service REX as well as drop dining cars and sometimes coaches in towns for service. This keeps you busy (and thinking) on those mainline jobs. Thru-freight is mostly just that, but there are a couple of exchanges that happen in Houston's New South yard. The double-ended staging makes it possible to restage the railroad in about 30 minutes, so Jack has two back-to-back-sessions on the Saturdays that he operates. It also makes it really easy to run extras all day long if there are crews that are just sitting around.

Always a fun time.

-Riley