MyFlyerTrains.org

Having been around for a long time, and coming from the “scale” side of the hobby, one of the things I became familiar with was “operation.” This is a “scale model railroad” term for switching cars and delivering products to different points on the layout. Once you tire of trains going around and around, this is the next step up the ladder. Many model railroaders even create “waybills” so there is actual paperwork to tell you what is in a car and where it is to be delivered.
Now if you load and unload with operating accessories, this is really not a problem, open cars are part of the fun. But if you’re not into accessories, open cars can be a bit unrealistic going around and around the layout with the same load. This is a problem faced in N, HO, and narrow gauge “model” railroading.
Probably the easiest solution is to use trains of closed cars where you can’t see if they are full or empty. You can see if a hopper car is loaded or unloaded, but you can’t see if a boxcar is loaded or unloaded. Or a refrigerator car, a covered hopper, a tank car, or even a cattle car in some cases.
Here’s an example; Let’s say you have a very basic layout. It’s just an oval with a siding on the front straight and another on the back straight. You want to “operate” freight between these two sidings, but you are using no accessories, just buildings. You can use a couple of boxcars on each siding. On one side of the layout is a factory, and on the other a warehouse.
You imagine that the boxcars leave the factory “loaded,” make a few laps to rack up some “distance” and then are set out at the warehouse to be “unloaded.” You also pick up the cars that were at the warehouse, which were “unloaded” and take them to the factory to be “loaded.” Because you can’t see into the boxcars, there’s no tip off when they’re loaded or empty.
You could do something similar with reefers, perhaps loading at a small brewery and unloading at a beer distributor.

Or you could use tank cars loading at an oil storage “tank farm,” and being delivered to a gas station for unloading. Again, you can’t tell if the cars are full or empty.
You can even use different types of cars. Suppose you have covered hoppers loading grain at a grain elevator for delivery to a bakery, and boxcars at the bakery to take the baked goods away.
To make this even more believable, you could add a third siding as an “Interchange Track.” This is a siding with perhaps a small office only, where
two railroads interchange cars from railroad to railroad. The “other railroad” could be at the other end of the siding and “off layout.”
Still another easy spot to load and unload different types of cars is the “Team Track.” Any type of car can be placed here for loading or unloading into trucks for movement to a business not serviced by the railroad. The name “Team Track” goes back to the days when teams of horses pulled freight wagons to trackside to pick up goods.
This does not mean that you can’t run trains of all types of cars. You just switch the closed cars to the various sidings and their “industries.” The cars you’re not switching are “running through to another destination.”
If you ARE using operating accessories, you can use them too, putting cars into trains to have logs loaded and dumped at the sawmill, or coal loaded and dumped at a fuel dealer. The sawmill might need boxcars to take milled lumber away and that fuel dealer might also take delivery of tank cars too.
Of course, passenger trains are treated the same way as closed freight cars, all you need are two stations for the “local” or “commuter” train to stop at. And, if you can come up with two operating stations, you actually CAN load and unload passengers.
It’s all up to your imagination! And don’t be ashamed to “pretend” this loading and unloading is going on, “model” railroaders have played this game for decades!

While the example I gave of the small oval layout is basic, you can quickly see how you can make much more of these ideas with a bigger layout, perhaps switching many cars to many sidings for loading and unloading. By using Team Tracks and Interchange Tracks, you can get even more variety in your “operations.”
If you have a layout with an engine terminal, you might even have space for a “work train” to do track maintenance. Every once in a while, this train will have to run around the layout, perhaps even stop at sidings or block the mainline for emergency repairs for a time. Maintaining the right of way is yet another part of “operations.”
Perhaps another time I’ll get into making your own waybills and dispatching plans to add to the realism of running your railroad.

…Stumpy Stone

A lot of us in S gauge have space problems. Oh yes, there are many basement or attic filling empires, and spare rooms allow for good size layouts as well. But not everyone has the space to go beyond 4×8’ basic layouts.
No matter how much space a model railroader in any scale has, it never seems to be enough! After seeing large layouts in the magazines for so many years, we have been “taught” that “bigger is better.” That unless you can run three or four trains at a time, have plenty of structures and scenery, your railroad is “second rate.”
To get all those “requirements” onto a small layout, you really have to jam things in, and pretty soon, it looks like a spaghetti bowl of track in a junkyard. That may be quite well for someone who just runs toy trains, but if you have even the slightest knowledge of real railroads, this won’t do. If you have an artistic eye, it looks bad too.
I hear folks saying; “But there’s no other way!”
You’re wrong! There are alternatives to either a gigantic, maintenance devouring layout, or a tight knot of track and buildings. But it will require an adjustment of attitude and some “thinking outside the box.” You also have to decide just what you want your layout to look like.

Planning is the MOST important factor for a successful railroad.
Do you like to run trains? Do you want to switch cars and service industries? Are buildings or scenery more important to you? Think about this, because as soon as you lay down the track, you’re stuck with that design.
Even on large layouts, there is such a thing as “selective compression” in order to fit things where they need to be. “Selective compression” or “compressibility” is the art of making something smaller than it really should be. For instance, some scale modelers try to model an entire “division” of their favorite prototype railroad on their layout. But even in N gauge, to really accomplish this could take a basement as big as a basketball court! Therefore, they choose what to model and what to leave out.
Now, let’s take that many steps forward. For instance a 4×8’ layout. Make a list of everything you want to have on your layout. Then measure how much space each will require, including where the track will go. The space each accessory or structure takes up is called its “footprint.” If a station’s base measures 4”” by 7”, that is it’s footprint.
I think the space requirements will be a real eye opener for many! But it is not a disqualifying offense! Go back to the list and start deciding what are your “must haves” from all the things you would like to have. Measure the footprints and track plan again. Rearrange the track or buildings and try again.
Yeah, I thought so! Now cut your actual “needs” from those “must haves.” At some point you will find out what is realistic for your available space. This is often very depressing. Go away for a day to “cool off” and then return to your planning.
You can draw designs on paper for years, but when it comes down to actual building and laying track, the reality sets in with a vengeance! But now that you know just what will fit, you can work out a way to do it, and do it well.
Yes, I know that most of you think that you can’t really make a nice layout in 4×8 feet, but my first S gauge display layout was just 34” by 54” and depicted a logging area and a small town! It was a single track line with one siding and used 15” radius curves. It always drew a crowd at shows because of the well thought out selection and placement of structures vehicles, people and scenery.
The biggest S display layout I’ve built so far is only 4×8 feet! And I have gone even smaller in On30 by building Micro Layouts for display. Micros are the ultimate in “selective compression” and there is a yearly competition for building an operating layout in a large pizza box! If you want to see what can REALLY be done in small spaces, go to Carl Arendt’s Micro Layouts website at www.carendt.us
You probably will never build anything as small as a Micro Layout, but you CAN get some great ideas for use in S gauge! Even if you do have a whole basement to fill, there are things to learn. And if you have a smaller space don’t despair, you CAN build a nice layout.
While we’d all like to have all the space we need to build our dream layout, there are real advantages to building small; It’s easier, faster, cheaper, and requires less maintenance after completion! Plus, if you get tired of your layout, you can dismantle it and build another one with minimal loss!

The photos were both taken of the same layout to point out that small spaces can be interesting. This was my second S display layout and was only 36×49 inches with 15” radius curves.

…Stumpy Stone

Probably the best known of these was Harry Houdini, who was a Magician, Illusionist, and Escape Artist. Aside from his stage career, he also was an author, early movie actor, and debunker of fake spirit mediums. There is also evidence that he worked with Scotland Yard and the budding British MI-6 spy organization on his European tours.
Few in the world of magic today can boast such accomplishments. But outside of the realm of magic and the world of spying, there is another and much, much larger group of illusionists: Model Railroaders.
You’re surprised? Don’t be! Isn’t that what we are doing once “playing with trains” extends beyond watching a toy train run in circle around Christmas? When we advance into the area of creating a train layout, we are creating our own little world. From exact scale modelers recreating a true to life section of a real railroad, to folks who put together a miniature world of their own, we are creating an ILLUSION of the real world!

Even the most rabid “rivet counter” must use imagination to believe that those little models are to some extent “real.” It is, after all, just an illusion.
I used to try to build very accurate models, even placing in a couple of train show model contests. But after years of trying to do that in HO, I slowly “burned out” on it. By the time I tried G scale Garden Railroading, I decided that I was not having fun. My modeling was as stressful as the job I was working. After two stress related heart attacks in 1997, both at work, I decided that I’d had enough!
I realized slowly that no matter how hard anyone tries, they cannot recreate the real world! It was all a fake, a sham of reality, an illusion. And then it hit me; It’s like making a movie! Movies are perhaps the ultimate illusion of reality! Many of the buildings are just false fronts, scenery was on a “set,” spectacular action just “special effects.”
From that moment on, I looked at model trains in a completely different way. But it was not until I got into On30 for a second time in 1998 that I found a way to really exercise the “movie set” concept of model railroading. It came about by discovering “Micro Layouts” and Carl Arendt’s Micro Layout website (carendt.us). Here was a REALLY small world of train layouts that were measured in inches instead of feet! People working on them had mastered the concept of creating illusions of a world bigger than it was. I was hooked!

When I returned to S gauge for the third time in my hobby life in 2000, there was no question that I would be a “Hi-Rail” practitioner! Where else could you find the operational reliability of big wheel flanges and couplers, and yet strive to find the realism of “scale” railroading?
I quickly developed my “Hi-Rail Philosophy” that pretty much was to produce the movie set illusion of a scene or layout without worrying about building all the details! As a former “scale” guy and having a library of books and videos of steam era railroading and narrow gauge, I knew what these things were supposed to be like. So “faking it” would be fairly simple.
I have built and dismantled or sold three S Hi-rail display layouts since 2000. These have been to several train shows and every S Spree since 2005. They are illusions, looking “movie set realistic.” And there is no reason that anyone else can’t do something similar on their own layout.
Step back and take a look at what creates the illusion of reality. You’ll quickly discover than many details can’t even be perceived from more than a few inches away, that building interiors are virtually invisible, that under body details on rolling stock can only be seen if you have a spectacular train wreck!
The point is that you need not get bogged down with the details unless that is your specialty! Few people seeing your railroad won’t notice them unless you point them out anyway. But they will be impressed by a nice looking layout with unique items on it. Every loco, every car, every structure creates the special illusion that is yours!
WE’RE ALL ILLUSIONISTS! We’re creating a world that WE imagine, WE build or kit bash, that WE control. This isn’t “rocket science,” this is common sense and having fun with your hobby!
This is escaping the real world for a time, learning new skills, the satisfaction of accomplishment, creating something no one else has because it cannot be purchased at a store or on the Internet!
You and I are “The Illusionists” of S gauge! Welcome to what is, so far, a somewhat exclusive club.

…Stumpy Stone

With the exception of a few failed attempts in HO by Tyco and Life Like, “operating accessories” and “operating cars” are generally found only in “toy” trains, those made in O and S gauges. Here, unlike in “scale” model railroading, they found an enthusiastic following. Most don’t look anywhere close to the prototype structures or cars they are meant to represent, if there even was such a real item.
Being that they were developed in an age when small motors, solenoids, and relays dwarf today’s circuit boards and micro servos, they were based on very simple, if sometimes rather clumsy, electro-mechanical movements. Often, the more complicated ones didn’t work reliably or last long.
American Flyer made a number of trackside accessories and “action” cars which operated pretty well, didn’t look too bad, and have stood the test of time. In point of fact, when MTH Trains started making operating accessories, one reason that they chose to reproduce the Flyer ones was that they were good originally, and of course, they fit O gauge trains even better than they fit S gauge trains.
Of the many “action” cars American Flyer had made, the #717, 714, and 914 “Log Unloading Cars” and the #719 and 919 “Operating Dump Cars” were very popular and plentiful.

They fit easily in any train, and some of these even came in certain sets. Operation was simple, a solenoid dumped the tilting bed of the car to one side and the logs or coal slid off the car and into a trackside pan. Only a trackside activation rail and a push button were required. Today these cars demand a collector price well above what they sold for originally.

MAKING YOUR OWN

While S gauge is still pretty much dominated by collectors and those who love running the old trains just as they were made on one side, and the S “scale” model railroaders on the other, there is a growing group of “Hi-rail” enthusiasts.
“Hi-rail” is defined generally as those who tend toward “Scale” trains and operations, while using the original, as manufactured track, trucks, and couplers. The term itself comes from the height of the “toy” rail when compared to “scale” rail. Many “scale” folks started out by doing “hi-rail” many years ago because there was so little S scale available. In those days what we now call “kit bashing” was common as old American Flyer trains were then plentiful and very cheap compared to some of the complicated and expensive “scale” kits.
Even among model railroaders, there are “mavericks” that think outside the box and as most of you know, I am one of those! The idea of making my own “operating cars” started many years ago, but really never came about until I was working at a local hobby shop which sold more “toy” trains than “scale” trains. Every month, the sales of O gauge, three rail was in step with the sales of HO and N “scale” trains!
There was also a train club that was more or less headquartered at the shop. They had started with a modular HO layout, but some of the members also had Lionel and MTH trains, so a second modular layout was built for three rail. This made the group
Read the Rest!

Well folks, if all goes according to plan, this will become a regular feature here at MyFlyerTrains.org, thanks to Chuck Harrington’s kind invitation. And since this is the first one, let me give you an idea of what you’ll be finding here in the future.
It seems that I have found a nitch in the S gauge world by being a champion of all that collectors and rivet counter despise, Kit Bashing and model building using basic materials. I suspect there are one or more “Stumpy Voodoo Dolls” out there, because it seems that every time I write something even the tiniest bit controversial, I get these shooting pains in my rear parts!
I’m not sure why this is, I have built just about all my kit bashes out of junk box finds, and have never condoned butchering rare items. I also don’t think much of people which get hold of complete locomotives and strip them down for parts to sell like some low rent Flyer “chop shop”.
Ouch! There’s that pain again! A new group doesn’t like me.
I also get some nasty e-mails from rivet counters for not adhering to exact scale fidelity or prototype. Well guys, after years of being a “scale” modeler, I have tired of the hassle and am looking for the fun! And, after all, that’s why I’m in a hobby!
As we progress through these “essays,” there will be some history, stories, humor, and a lot of encouragement to strike out on your own and do something which satisfies YOU! It’s YOUR railroad, your miniature world, do it your way!
We’ll be talking about Kit Bashing. Sometimes that means spending time hunting down locos, cars, parts, and usable materials just like those guys in “American Pickers,” that’s fine! There is the “thrill of the chase,” and the “triumph of the find.” Not only have I done this with model building, but during my years racing Stock Cars and building Hot Rods. Wandering through the old “Mom and Pop” junkyards in search of car parts was part of my hobby world. The goodies are where you find them!
In S gauge, I usually cruise around a train show, checking the tables in my first lap, and then checking UNDER the tables on the second. Often what is on the tables can be an indicator of what might be under them. Many times the seller will give you terrific bargain for the stuff underneath, sometimes you can get a whole box for what you expect to pay for a single item!
Here’s a tip; TAKE THE WHOLE BOX IF THE DEAL IS RIGHT! You get the item you want, a box to carry it in, and a bunch of other stuff you just might need down the road for another project! You just never know when that Hudson tender shell or those Plasticville windows might come in handy.
What do you do when you decide you have too much? Last year I had built up seven large boxes of parts and pieces. That was more than enough to store. So I went through them all, set aside one or two of anything usable, and came up with three boxes to sell. I priced the stuff cheap and ran a “Thinning the Herd Sale.”
This also works for locomotives, rolling stock, and structures too. I have been in every scale from Z up to “ride on” size (7 ½” gauge) and you just can’t keep everything when you change scales. So I “blew it out” in a similar sale at a train show.
The guys at the hobby shop I used to work at always asked why I sold things so cheap? Well, it was simple; I needed money for the new scale, had no place or reason to keep the old stuff, and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life trying to get top price. Better to get a little than waste a lot time and money carrying the stuff around to train shows for years. After all, I’m not in a hobby to make money, someone else is welcome to that stress.
I’m also asked why I use common materials and build things rather than just buy kits or ready to run items? Well, you must remember I was started on this trail back when there weren’t many R-T-R items. I also had a father who was a professional model builder for a time, and I learned from him. Money was also tight, so we made things out of common stuff.
Dad was a master at this, even when working for the company. He used those round Quaker Oats cereal boxes as oil storage tanks, sandpaper to make shingles or rolled roofing for buildings, dowels from the lumber yard for dock pilings, air tanks, and logs, lots of 3×5” file cards, and probably a ton of balsa wood over the years.
The possibilities are endless. But today we have it much easier with wood pre-cut to dimensionally correct sizes, excellent plastic structural shapes, and all sorts of detail parts! You can build from scratch today more easily than you could build many kits years ago!
So along with the other stuff, there will be a lot of articles here about building things. Some of you may recall the series I did for S Gaugian a couple of years ago on layout building. Well, I might even do some articles about that here as well!
With the economy as it is, you can save yourself a lot of money by learning to use your imagination and your hands, instead of your wallet! And, you’ll have the personal satisfaction of building it yourself! I’ll be explaining how to do that and how even someone with no experience can build models! You CAN do it! Don’t be afraid, I’ll help!
See you next time. …Stumpy

Stumpy’s latest “How To” guide is now posted at the top of the photo albums.

Easy S Gauge Scratch Building
by Terry “Stumpy” Stone – View The Guide Now!
Stumpy shows us how to make our own custom rolling stock!

Terry “Stumpy” Stone has been kind enough to share with us his new Kitbashing Guide in its entirety! Stumpy takes the junk that you find under the tables at train meets and turns it into prized models. His 36 page document will show you how to recycle that beat up locomotive into something to be proud of!

Kit Bashing American Flyer Locomotives
by Terry “Stumpy” Stone – View The Guide Now!

I found something interesting when cleaning up my email, an email with attached photos of a room sized floor layout that I received in September of 2009, but somehow never looked at it. My apologies to Christopher Hilbert, and thanks for submitting these spectacular floor layout photos. These pictures should inspire those of you who can’t have a permanent layout.

Christopher Hilbert Floor Layout – 2009 – Christopher’s Album

Posted in the Albums section of this website you will find some very rare Gilbert paper, a press kit that was used to promote the All Aboard Sets along with other A. C. Gilbert products of the year 1965.

All Aboard Press Kit – Bob Conner Collection

We dreamed of having the K-line O gauge version of the Big Boy remade into S, then early in 2008 Lionel announced that they were doing just that, complete with TMCC. It was presumed (and correctly so) that much of original K-line engine tooling would be used on the new S gauge version. (The K-line engine was not strictly scale reportedly 1/60th scale, give or take).

Lionel Big Boy vs Sunset Models Big Boy – Photo courtesy Bob Conner

I put my Big Boy on order early, and prepared to wait, just as I had for my Mikado a couple years before. At the April 2008 York meet, I eagerly went to the Lionel booth and looked for the engine, but it was not there, and it wasn’t at the October meet either. Then in 2009 there were rumors of May delivery, which moved to summer and then to fall. At October 2009 York there she finally was, running at the Lionel booth. Finally in December, the Big Boys started to be delivered, but after nearly a two year wait, not all owners are completely happy with the product.

I love my Lionel Big Boy, I can’t say it any clearer. But having said that, my Big Boy had a few problems as delivered. The tender derailed on S-Helper S-trax switches, there are a couple stiff and visible wires hanging down on the trailing truck, and the knuckle coupler sticks when trying to close it. Also the tender has tipped over onto its side a couple of times, and appears to be top heavy. In fact, Carl Tuveson now has a web page that seeks to catalog all of the engine’s defects, and provide solutions.

For me, satisfactory performance of the engine has been a matter of altering my layout, while having to debug the engine as well. I was able to easily fix my tender derailing problem by moving the flanged wheels on the tender, a solution mentioned at Carl’s site. Keeping the tender upright will require you to make sure all of your track work is up to snuff. I had to make a number of changes and repairs to my layout before the beast would run around with ease. I had expected to have to work on my tunnels and curves, to provide the necessary clearance for the engine to swing out over the track, but I was real surprised when the engine failed to clear my railroad bridge in my over under layout, so that meant raising the bridge a bit.

Lionel sought to deliver an engine that would run on most of our layouts, which means negotiating 20 inch Flyer radius curves and the articulated drivers navigate these curves with ease. The engine has sound that is impressive! We have not had in S before, an engine that really had enough room in it to have a decent sized speaker. Compared to the sound in the Mikados which was certainly adequate, the Big Boy’s sound is richer and fuller. I love the whistle, and let me tell you, this beast can really put out some smoke! I have never had a toy engine that felt so real on the layout. Yup, it’s a toy. It is not a highly detailed scale model, but for us ham handed big kids, we can pick it up without having parts break off!

There are already those who are kit bashing the engine, modifying the tender to trucks for better scale, and I even heard of someone who is planning to build a complete replacement tender for their toy, ah model. There are many different opinions as to what modifications can make the engine better, but it is certainly nice that we have this wonderful engine available for us to modify.

Some have pointed out that an engine that retails for $799 should really not have the problems that have been seen with this product, and I couldn’t agree more. It certainly is not plug and play at this point. If you want to just take an engine out of the box, put it onto your tracks and have it run perfectly the first time, this engine is not for you. But if you have always wanted a Big Boy, and don’t mind adjusting the engine and your layout some, this engine can be nothing short of spectacular!