Tiger-Tracks model train show

At the Tiger-Tracks model train show. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.)

Sunday (December 7, 2008 [“a date that will live in infamy!”], I took my old friend Art Dana (“DAY-nuh”) to a gigantic model train show at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Dana, you’ll recall, is like me a retired layabout do-nothing bus-driver, and has fairly severe Parkinson’s Disease.
I could say “severe,” but he still can walk, although barely.
We parked about 200 yards from the show-entrance. I probably could have let him off closer, but “I’m with you, Hughsey.”
Art and I have similar tastes: cars and trains and airplanes, but I’m not really interested in model railroads.
They collect dust, and I prefer the real thing.
Art had a layout he showed me long ago; all American-Flyer S-gauge, but on better track — not tinplate.
But his wife died, and he had to sell it all. He also had to sell his house in Rochester.
He’s moved into a house with his sister in a Rochester suburb.
He can hardly move, but the old fire is still there. And the old interests are still there too.
He had to give up on his fabulous Model-A hot-rod, which was very close to being finished (just wiring); but he swapped it for a finished ‘49 Ford custom.
And it has a souped-up Flat-head V8 motor; the Flatty being the standard V8 in a ‘49 Ford.
The model-train show was overload; 89 bazilyun vendors, but little traffic.
And no one was buying: “It’s a buyer’s market, Hughsey.”
Art wanted to find the HO Big Boy he saw the previous day, to make an offer. The tag said $149, but he probably coulda got it for $100.
But we never found it.
Stumbled upon seven gorgeous brown heavyweight Santa Fe passenger coaches instead; eight bucks each.
“Tell ya what. I’ll sell ya all eight as a package. Make me an offer.”
“Fifty bucks,” Art said. I woulda offered thirty to see what happened.
Art has a gorgeous Santa Fe 4-8-4 3700 steam engine, so with the Santa Fe passenger cars, he’d have a complete train.
The 4-8-4 was only 35 bucks, but something is wrong. The drive-rods don’t line up. It looks like the main drive-wheel rotated about 180° out of synch.
The engine is also only plastic, but looks great anyway.
Out comes a $100 bill, and the seven coaches got bagged.
“I’ll getcha change,” said the vendor.
Art seemed pleased, but I woulda offered only thirty. Seven eights are $56.
Poor Art was fagging out. We had hiked all over, and he had to sit down.
It’s a sports-hall, so he sat in a bleacher seat, suggesting I look around some more.
“Take some more pictures, Hughsey.” (I had my camera.)
I walked around, found the Big Boy, so walked back to Art.
“I already spent all my money, Hughsey.”
Back toward the vendors I headed; “Before I leave, I should make an offer on a book I saw.”
“Go for it, pardner.”
The book was on GG1s, and was priced at $16.
“$10 and I’ll buy it,” I said to the vender.
So I am now the owner of the GG1 book, and they had HO GG1s for sale too.
Shoulda bought one, to go with my TWA Connie and my McLaren M8D. —After all, the GG1 is the best railroad locomotive ever.

Model railroading has become much more realistic, and that’s since my last contact which was with 44’s layout in the basement of my brother Bill’s house in northern Delaware.
This is due to mainly -1) radio control, and -2) computers.
The track is now always energized at full current, and a tiny computer is inside each locomotive, so it can be individually controled by radio.
A single track can have multiple trains on it, each operating independently of the other; i.e. radio control to each locomotive tells each motor how much current to draw, and the locomotive only goes the speed you tell it to.
I.e. Multiple trains can be on the same track, one stopped, another going like the dickens.
Used to be the track current was what varied, and if ya did so, all the trains on that track operated en masse.
I still don’t know if other problems have been addressed; namely -A) train speed, and -B) the looping back problem.
-A) The GG1 vendor was pointing out his GG1s were superior to earlier models, some of which did 450 scale mph.
“Yeah, we measured that once with an Athearn rubber-band drive Budd RDC,” I said.
“250 scale miles-per-hour, and stopped from that speed in a hundred scale feet.”
“Do that in reality, and the passengers are on the floor,” I said.
Train-speeds looked more realistic.
The hopper-train pictured with the switcher is doing about 70. (A passenger train with a Daylight 4-8-4 was doing about 150.)
-B) The polarity of two-rail track is such that looping back (or wyeing) leads a positive rail into a negative.
Modelers had to insulate to keep the polarities seperate.
And a train negotiating such a thing would suddenly reverse when it tracked past the insulation. The modeler had to control the whole stinkin’ kabosh so that wouldn’t happen.
Radio control and computer technology don’t solve this as long as one rail is positive, and the other negative.
There were other problems, like the fact that a plywood table four feet wide required curves so tight, they’d never be that in reality. Horseshoe Curve is about four times wider. I was once shown pictures supposedly of steam on Horseshoe Curve, and it was obviously a model. The curvature was much tighter than reality. To properly model Horseshoe Curve ya need an entire basement. —And that’s just the Curve.
Another problem is the steepness of grades.
Bruce Stewart’s layout had an uphill loop around 10%. 10% in reality is a cogged railway — Horseshoe Curve is 1.8%.
Stewart’s hill was so steep, and so tightly curved, any more than five cars would stall an uphill train. —Even with two units.
I passed a similar model railroad layout at the show. Uphill around a U-shaped curve.
The train was about five cars, pulled by a small model steamer: a 4-6-0.
Slip-and-slide; the engine would spin its drivers on the hill, but managed to keep going.
It would almost stall, and recover going back downhill.

“Sorry I couldn’t keep up with ya, Hughsey. I guess I’m too old.”
“Well, so far I don’t have that problem, Art,” I said. “I just have to take a nap every day.”
“Well, I hope ya never do; and if I took a nap I couldn’t sleep at night.”

RE: Art’s ‘49 Ford..........
“Well I felt bad ya had to give up on that hot-rod, close as it was; but ya did all right, Art. This thing is just as good,” I said.
And it’s a real Flatty, everyone; the motor that started hot-rodding.
“How many of these things got wrenched out and replaced by a Small-Block,” I said. “Don’t ever do that, Art.”
Plus it has Offenhauser heads, the aluminum head-castings that raise compression up around 10 to 1.
Plus it has air-conditioning and an alternator; someone hand-built the bracketry needed.
Inside is custom red-and-white pleating; looks like a candy-cane.
Gauges and chrome everywhere, and a three-speed floor-shifter.
“Art, ya gotta show this thing.”
“But it’s all over-the-road, Hughsey. Either a loose tie-rod, or needs the steering-box rebuilt. That’s $600. —And no heater!”
“Yeah, but it looks great!” White luminescent paint on a pink undercoat, with red flames.
And a nosed-and-decked hood with 89 bazilyun louvers. Plus skirts!
Plus, it’s a Flatty. “All new chrome, and new tires,” Art said.
“Art, ya gotta show this thing.”
(I couldn’t photograph it yet, people; it’s in the garage.)
“Careful with the door, Hughsey; don’t hit the shelving.”

RE: “‘Old guy’ with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). I also am loudly excoriated by all my siblings for preferring a professional camera (like the Nikon D100) instead of a point-and-shoot. This is because I long ago sold photos to nationally published magazines.

“Rochester Institute of Technology” is a technical college near Rochester, NY.

For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY. My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that. Dana was a bus-driver who was hired a year-or-two before me. —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston noisily insists all bus-drivers, especially me, are no-good lazy layabouts.

“HO” (half-O) is the track gauge of 16.5 millimeters between the rails; 1 to 87.086. It’s the most popular model railroad gauge in the world. Other model railroad gauges are “O” (32 mm apart), 1 to 43 scale; and “S” (.884 inches between the rails), 1 to 64 scale. Lionel was O-gauge (although it had smaller scale variations on the same track gauge), and American Flyer was S.

“Tinplate” was track Lionel used, and also American Flyer. The track looked little like the real thing, yet ran model trains. It was just a cheap stamping of “tinplate” steel; very thin. —Model railroad track became much better-looking, the rail being drawn brass (or whatever) on plastic ties, and looked very realistic. Just too high — realistic rail would be too small. The rail had to accommodate wheel flanges about 40 times deeper than the real thing; the only way a model train would stay on the track.

RE: “Model-A hot-rod......” —Dana was building an old style hot-rod based on a Ford Model-A roadster. It had a souped-up ‘56 Pontiac V8, and was on a ‘46 Ford frame.

A “custom” is a car that has been altered for appearance.

A “Flat-head” is the V8 motor introduced by Ford in the 1932 model year. Since it could be easily and cheaply improved; and was strong as is, it became the basis of hot-rodding. The “Flatty” was side-valve; valves in the block beside the cylinders — the technology used for years. Overhead valving (valves in the cylinder head) became the norm later. It had flat cylinder-head castings, much like the typical Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine; a “Flat-head.”

Union Pacific Railroad had a giant 4-8-8-4 steam-engine called the “Big Boy;” largest steam locomotive ever made. “Big Boy” was the name of the 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement.

“Heavyweight” passenger cars are essentially what was constructed after the turn-of-the-century. Passenger-cars constructed after WWII were lighter weight.

“Santa Fe” Railroad, no longer in existence, Chicago to Los Angeles; merged with Burlington Northern Railroad to be Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF).

The “3700” series is one of two series of Santa Fe 4-8-4 steam locomotives.

RE: “Drive-rods don’t line up.......” —The “drive-rods” of a steam locomotive should be a horizontal line, pinned to each drive wheel. The single line is a series of rods (steel forgings), that connect each wheel. This is so all the drive wheels are worked by the single piston rod connecting the drive-piston with the second or third wheel. —On Art’s 4-8-4 one rod is angled up at the end, as if the wheel it’s pinned to has rotated 180° beyond where it should be.

GG1.

A “Budd RDC” is the self-propelled Rail-Diesel-Car (“RDC”) marketed after WWII by Budd Company. By self-powering the coach, a railroad could provide passenger-service without a locomotive. The car was powered by two Detroit-Diesel tank engines.

“Rubber-band drive” is a long drive spindle turned by a small electric motor, that powered a model railroad locomotive (or a model Budd RDC) through rubber-bands around plastic drums between the driven wheels. It was cheap and flexible, allowing the drive-trucks to turn. Just too fast and abrupt.

A “Connie” is the Lockheed Constellation. “TWA” is Trans World Airlines. The TWA Constellation was the prettiest airplane ever.

The “McLaren M8D” was a fendered two-seat open racecar for the Canadian-American (CanAm) Challenge-Cup series about 1970; powered by an extremely powerful aluminum Chevrolet Big-Block Motor. It was extremely successful, and won a few championships for the McLaren car-racing team. —The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches. It was made in various displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. (The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year.) The CanAm motors were around 500 cubic inches, and produced about 7-800 horsepower.

A “Daylight 4-8-4” is the 4-8-4 steam-engine used by Southern Pacific Railroad. All SP’s passenger-trains were called “Daylights.”

“44” (“Agent-44”) is my brother-from-Delaware’s onliest son Tom. My younger brother-from-Delaware is Bill. Like me, Tom is a railfan — his father isn’t.

RE: “Take a nap every day.......” —Seems to come with brain-injury, which a stroke is. (I had a stroke October 26, 1993.)

A “wye” is a triangular layout of track for turning locomotives.

Horseshoe Curve, west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use. (I am a railfan, and have been since I was a child.)

“Bruce Stewart” is my next-door-neighbor in Delaware (as a teenager), a year older than me. He had an HO model-train layout on two 4x8 sheets of plywood, arranged in an “L;” 12x 8.

A “10%” grade is 10 feet up for every 100 feet forward; way too steep to operate. 1.8% is 1.8 feet up for every 100 feet forward — far more manageable. Horseshoe Curve is 1.8%. Go steeper than 4% and ya need a center rack in the track to engage a cog-wheel on the locomotive. Locomotive wheels won’t hold the rail (by simple adhesion) on rail over 4%. 2% is the average limit for mainline railroading, although I’ve seen as steep as 2.5%. Even 1.8% requires helper locomotives. (1.8% versus a heavy train requires additional locomotives.)

The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first at 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The “Small-Block” was so successful, it became the engine-of-choice for hot-rodding, replacing the “Flat-head.”

The standard Ford head-casting for a “Flatty” was cast-iron, but special lightweight head-castings were made by “Offenhauser” of cast aluminum. “Offy heads” also increased compression-ratio.

RE: “Nose-and-deck......” —From the ‘30 though the early ‘60s cars usually had hood-ornaments on their hood: e.g. the Plymouth ship or the Pontiac Chief. To “nose-and-deck” was to remove that hood-ornament, and fill in the mounting holes, after which everything was smoothed off and painted. The end result was a hood-prow devoid of that chromed ornament; the preferred look of custom cars. Usually it could be done fairly easily and cheaply, so many custom-car geeks did it. —But it was very hard on the 1956 Chevrolet, which had a raised embossing on top to mount an airplane hood ornament. To nose-and-deck that, meant hammering flat that embossment, and refinishing everything to make the hammered area smooth.

“Skirts” are “fender-skirts,” an application (usually a sheet-metal stamping) that covered, or partially covered, the rear-wheel opening on a car. Ya don’t see skirts nowadays, but in the ‘50s they were required by custom-car geeks to get “the look.”