Bachamnn Railroad Club Electronic Magazine

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Bachamnn has launched a new free electronic magazine.

http://www.bachmannmodelrailroadclub.com/

You will have to register separately for it.  Good story on Doodlebug service was in this first issue. It will be a quarterly thing.

[Kevin Strong]

Should be interesting quarterly reading. One correction - the caption at the top of page 25 says "The N scale Baldwin 4-6-0 is a recreation of the same prototype locomotive as the HO scale, O Gauge and Large Scale models." It's a model of a locomotive of the same wheel arrangement, but since the large scale model is a model of a 3' gauge locomotive, and the others are standard gauge, they cannot be the same prototype.

And I have to echo the comments in another thread--what's with the only indoor large scale photos? Indoor large scale railroading is a minority pursuit within the scale.

But overall, it should be a fun read every few months. Hopefully we'll see some "behind the scenes" showing what goes into producing the models. Always cool to see that kind of stuff.

Later,

K

[charon]

Kevin, I question your statement "large scale railroading is a minority pursuit within the scale"
My first large scale indoor layout was constructed in 1972, 40 years ago (25 years ago one of my layouts was featured in Narrow gauge and Short Line Gazzette).
Over the years I have talked with many large scale model railroaders (train shows, conventions, etc.) and it seems to run two to one that their modeling/layouts are all indoors.
"Large scale railroading" also includes dioramas, Gn15 layouts, etc.
This is why I espouse more equipment configured for tight radiuses. Of course it does not look prototypical, but then again, if not configured for minimum radii, we can be losing perspective members in our hobby!
Just my humble opinion.
Chuck

[Kevin Strong]

I'm not doubting your experiences, though I'd encourage you to get these indoor folks to take photos and write articles. If the ratio is even half as much as your experiences, they're still being under-represented in the press 50:1. I love to see photos of well-executed indoor railroads, but in my experience they're few and far between. I know a number of people who--for lack of space--toss some track on the living room rug and call it their railroad, but in terms of indoor railroads as we traditionally think of them in the small scale, I've seen maybe two dozen or so that were exclusively indoors and built to typical indoor model railroad standards. For my part, technically speaking I do have an indoor large scale railroad--and a permanent one at that--but it's just a shelf railroad in my workshop that I use for testing. So maybe this call for indoor photos will draw some of these indoor large scalers out of the woodwork and get their work seen.

Later,

K

[Loco Bill Canelos]

There are also a very large number of modular layouts.  I have also seen indoor layouts in empty retail spaces, and some very nice operating layouts in museum settings.   Some indoor layouts even have very complex track plans using the Bachmann cheap steel track. These last seem to have a toy train look, but none the less are very nice.

It would be interesting if Garden Railways magazine did a poll and asked about interest in indoor layouts.  It seems that most literature creates a bias toward outdoor layouts as seen by the fact that even our major magazine is called "Garden" Railways magazine rather than Large Scale Railway Magazine.  

When I first started in the 1960's I had a small indoor switching layout then went outdoors for many many years.  In 2006 I decided to do an indoor layout, because I wanted to have the same kind of detail as many of the modular layouts, without the destruction caused by the harsh outdoor environment.

For now I have both the indoor and outdoor layouts as separate entities one depicting my Missouri Western Railway in the period 19810 to 1940, and the outdoor layout depicting it in the period 1950 to 1965.

As I age (now 73) I find that my body cannot handle the heat and the on my knees work needed to keep my outdoor layout in top shape.   At some point I will be forced to dismantle my outdoor line, and retreat to the indoor line.  My indoor line is L shaped 11 feet by 50 feet with the leg of the L being 2 feet by 20 feet.  This is in part of a 30 by 50 metal building.  This winter I will write about my indoor layout and see if any venues are interested in publishing it.

I agree with Kevin that indoor modelers should be encouraged to come out of the woodwork.

[Skarloey Railway]

Re large scale indoors. I have seen a number of large scale exhibition layouts in Gauge 1, 1:22.5 and 1:20.3
World's End Quay (gauge 1) http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/179/entry-393-worlds-end-quay/ was the best of them with St Jean Sur Mer 1:22.5 http://www.narrowgaugenorth.org.uk/exhibitors/past-exhibitors/93-st-jean-sur-mer a close second.  
These are large scale layouts that are not only 'indoors' but built to go in the back of a van!

The weird business with the 'same' 4-6-0 avalable in large scale, O, HO and N. i suspect they mean that they have 'a' 4-6-0 available in each scale. The magazine does not seem aimed at those who might tell one 4-6-0 from another.