John’s been in touch – he’s made an all American model bullet train:
“Hi Al
I have been receiving your model railroad information subscription for some time.
As you might know the U.S. has no high speed rail, that is until I made it. After repainting a Kato bullet train into Amtrak colors the rail road dream is on…
I am 63, retired and struggle with all this new technology but would love to show some modelers my layout ( as bad as it is) via pictures and a short video
I have lots of obstacles to over come. My rail road hangs from the ceiling because of the space available in my tiny little apartment. I have no sense of spaceial design so layout is difficult for me as well, but I have the basic track design down and track tested and working.
You really do offer a great service to those of us who don’t have local clubs and friends to talk to about our hobby.
Before…
After…
Thank you for pulling us together.
John”
John’s model bullet train really did put a smile on my face, I loved it.
Now on to Dave:
And now on to Dave:
“Hi Al… well I know posted too many lately, but well it was raining this afternoon, so what can one do?
No gardening, and so back up in to the loft and run a few trains, used the Mobius a bit, and spotted a lot of work that needs doing on the layout, which you do not see with the normal camera… they do have three uses..
Regards
Dave
“Hi Al
Someone asked if the water on my harbor was superimposed.
Definitely not (I would not know how to do it anyway)
Here are a few photos of the water in the harbor.
Many thanks
Brian – the HOn3 guy – Knysna RSA”
Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
“Hi Al,
Spent many frustrating hours trying to carefully strip the ends of the very thin wires on LEDs and Grain of Wheat Bulbs. I even resorted to not stripping them but just soldering them hoping the heat would burn off the plastic. Not ideal but it mostly worked. Today I have found a solution !!!!
I got an old pair of nail clippers, the cheap nasty sort from Christmas crackers, and squeezed them on 3 different gauges of spring steel wire. This created notches in the clippers which are just perfect for stripping theses fine wires. Hope this might help any one else struggling with the same problem.
Best regards,
John”
“Hi Al
I just want to share this with you, as some of our other readers might have had similar problems with signalling.
On my layout there is a passenger station with two platforms, that needs to be signalled for operating sessions as the engineers needs to obey the signals.
I encountered a bit of a brain teaser when it came to the simple arrangement of 3 signals at each leg of a turnout or switch.
On the opposite side of my layout, the arrangement is quite easy, as there is a single platform, so a simple double pole switch does the trick. Throw it to the left and it turn the east side home
signal green and the west side home signal red, and vice versa when thrown to the right.
At the next station which is more complex, I wanted to use a similar switch arrangement, which also helps with interlocking, that we do not get to opposing green signals.
I then realized when the Home signal controlling entry into the station, on either platform 1 or 2 is green, I need both the starter signals on platforms 1 and 2 to be red at the same time. To keep cost down, I opted to use only one single pole switch double throw switch to select between platform 1 and 2 to turn the starter signal green.
Another single pole double throw switch controls the home signal. If I simply wire the signals from the switches, I end up getting a green and red signal at whatever platform I select the starter to be green at, as there is a feedback from the home signal switch to both red starter signals.
Then it dawned on me, why not use the diode matrix system I am using for my turnout control for the signals too? I quickly drew a table with the 6 signal lights, and the switch positions, and saw that I would need 4 diodes to control the signals. I then wired the diodes into the signal wiring, and hey presto, all is working well.
(I still have to install the signals on the layout, but now the wiring is sorted.
I include a PDF with the wiring diagram. Hope this can be of help to someone.
Regards
Henry in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa”
What a clever lot you all are. Some great tips today – a big thanks to John for sharing his model bullet train, and to Dave, Brian and Henry.
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.
Excellent water effect. I remember someone touching the water on my layout expecting to get wet!
I like the nail clipper idea. A very good one!
Hello,
I thought I would pass on this info.
The US has had hi speed rail service on the east coast
since 1939, when the Pennsylvania RR started using
GE GG-1 electric engines which traveled at 90mph and pulled
up to eighteen passenger cars.
These engines were later used by Amtrak until 1984, when they
were replaced. Current rail service between New York and
Washington D.C. travels at 115 mph.
Lots of great tips and photos and videos. Thanks to all. Cheers! NJ Mark
John: Your redo of the bullet train looks excellent! Well done.
Live the green realistic water. most of us use blue but the green is much better. thanks for the pictures.
I agree with the problem of taking the insulation of off fine wire – even the gaps in my teeth didn’t match. Found an adjustable stripper at a used electronics shop – has the initial on it – KYP -. lost the card it was attached too – even my dentist is happy no more insulation stuck in my teeth. Additional recommendation – I use WAGO multi wire trap connectors under my table so that I can attach numerous lights quickly and easily and can remove them if I need to make a change
Dick
John,
Your version of the bullet train is fabulous, please post pic’s and video if you can….. would love to see it.
Thanks Keith (UK)
Amazing water effects.the best I’ve seen
John – High speed rail
Love your depiction of modern Amtrak. America is dependant on freedom and so the wild, wild west mentality prevails. So unless you figure out a way to have someone else pay for what you want you have virtually no chance of getting it. That is why other nations like Japan have these things, because they work together rather than trying to find the most cost efficient way to make anything. Both United States and Canada suffer from federal and provincial or state governments fighting amongst them selves as well as local municipalities, You will never see your dream. Elon Musk as a worse idea of a tunnel from New York to Los Angeles in which you ride in darkness and the vision of enjoying the countryside is completely lost. Young people have no idea how to enjoy the things they have.
For the semaphore signalling on my father’s layout, we used PECO accessory switches on the point motors to determine which way the points were set, and as we were using a home-made controller, we replaced the DPDT switch on that with a DPTT (triple throw), with the third set of contacts wired into the signalling circuit to determine the direction of train movement. So set the route, switch the controller switch in the desired direction and the signal clears ready for the train to depart!
High speed rail in Europe and Japan were paid for in part by the Marshall plan. The United States helped build and pay for high speed rail after WWII.
I love the TGV in France. 185-190 mph.
We could have high speed rail in the US if only back after the war, we wouldn’t have scrapped passenger rail and the infrastructure associated with it. The interstate highway system and jet engine technology led to commercial air travel and doomed rail in the USA.
Stunning harbor water effect, Brian. What’s your secret?
Warren – AL, USA
Excellent water and lovely Dock scene Brian. Looks like the water in most docks around the UK. Keep going and enjoying it. Thanks for the inspiration. I am ex Cape Town now living in Hull England.
This is for Brian / first of all great looking Diorama! Now How in gods green earth do you keep the dust from accumulating on the water? Doesn’t it tend to stick to surface ?
From Robert B
Firstly to Tom, I am also ex Cape Town now in Knysna. Thanks for the kind words. I am very proud of my harbor especially the Woodland Scenics realistic water and it is still unfinished.
Secondly to Robert, thank you and it is part of the lower level end of my HOn3 double deck layout in a 14ft by 10ft converted garage. When dust appears on the “water” I use a large women’s blusher brush to dust it off. The dust does not stick to the surface as it is quite hard. If a boat or barge is left on it for a day then yes it will stick to it but only temporarily and can be lifted off. WS water is a fantastic product if used properly, I accidentally left a marker buoy on it in the wrong place overnight and when lifted off the next day, it left a mark and I panicked but a few hours later it disappeared. That is how flexible it is.
Brian – the HOn3 guy – Knysna RSA
I forgot to add that once the harbor is “finished” the boats and barge will be permanently positioned in the correct place because wiring for the lights on them will have the wires going through the hulls and “water” to buss wires under the layout for power via switches on the front facia of the layout.
Brian – the HOn3 guy – Knysna RSA
Harbor Scenes and barge is terrific!
thanks for the tips, good ones.
I’m pressed to respond to the discussion of high speed rail in America. Airlines are such a pain that I drive 600 any trip of miles or less.
The best rail service in America is the Northeast corridor, Washington D.C. to Boston. On a good day it’s ¾ as good as any day in Munich, Germany, where rail goes everywhere, and is nearly always on-time. A 2 year job I had there on a locomotive contract, and I never rented a car, traveled all over Germany – no car and no hassle.
The problem is that when discussions of where transportation money goes there is never, as far as I can tell, an “apples to apples” comparison, it’s apples to oranges. Since Congress has determined that Amtrak is “America’s passenger railroad” then they will be my rail apple for this discussion. Airlines are the oranges. Congress has also determined that Amtrak has to supply service all over the place like to Goosecrotch South Dakota (if a railroad goes by there). There is no such mandate for the oranges, airlines, even to the Goosecrotch regional airport. Other than the Northeast corridor, Amtrak does not own the land, track, bridges or other railroad infrastructure. The result is that Amtrak has to rent space on the rest of the tracks in America, help pay maintenance, and share the space with freight traffic. Most railroads hate Amtrak and their congressional “let them go first” rules allegedly enforced by the Federal Railroad Administration.
An example is the years long fight to resume service west of New Orleans knocked out by Katrina some years ago. The Surface Transportation Board is considering Amtrak’s request to run trains again there, but CSX and Norfolk Southern are wining like a bad power-steering pump, so no service yet.
And now to the federally grown and polished airline oranges.
I like to listen to the pilots talk to the FAA Controllers as I sit, knees pressed to chest next to a 350 pound woman who needs to pee 84 times between Baltimore and Chicago. There is no way airlines pay for all the radar, radio, infrastructure, training and actual controllers. BWI to ORD is probably 12 different people looking out for us up there in that shiny cigar tube. The communications and radar alone likely cost more to maintain and operate than Amtrak’s whole budget. Then there are the airports. I wonder how much it costs to heat Detroit or Minneapolis air terminals in the winter, or to cool Sky Harbor in Phoenix when its 118° outside.
There is hope, the Brightline people who built a really great rail system in Florida are now working their way from some lizard infested sand dune in California to Las Vegas NV. I say sand dune because as usual nothing can be done business-wise in California, but it’s a high-speed foothold.
Sorry for the long-winded post, but after 52 years as a railroader, I tend toward getting on a soap box!
the boat on the water taking out & or laying stones is really a great touch of realism
Great nail clipper idea!
That water feature is outstanding, luv to see the finished photos.
Here in California progress is beening made on the SF to LA hi-speed rail. Cars are starting to be manufactured and the first section, granted not connecting a major city but a real start is almost done.
Building something like this on a major earthquake fault line is a extreme challenge but when it’s completed hang on to your hats.
John,
I would love to see a video of your bullet train running. Very cool idea. Don’t worry about what the layout looks like. All layouts look kind of sad during construction.