January 6 meeting at Highland Baptist Church Activity Center, 7:30pm. Program to be announced.
I am posting articles to the World Wide Web page as they are written. Many of them will be there before the newsletter gets in the mail. We have a lot of room on the Web for your long articles, books, encyclopedias of model railroadania, and pictures. Get them to your new newsletter editor, Jack Seay.
The modules at the Science Spectrum were taken down December 29th and 30th. Thanks to all who helped.
Dues are due. $12 individual. $18 family.
Slide SIG - Rock Island slides will be shown. Thursday, January 23, 7:00pm, at Patrick Prichett's house, 4702-16th St.
Next director's meeting will be Tuesday, January 21, 7:30 at Jan Kutch's house, 3611 Chicago (on a cul-de-sac).
Jan Kutch (president), Patrick Pritchett (vice president), Tony Horn (secretary), Bob Anconetani (librarian), Jack Seay (editor), Jim Baker, Jon Hayes, Dr. T. H. Holmes, and Ken Riediger as deadwood.
Should you build in G (1/24-1/28),O (1/48),S (1/64), HO (1/87), N (1/160), or Z (1/220) scale? That depends on many factors. Consider the following before spending your money. Write down the advantages and disadvantages of various scales for you.
If you plan to have only a module(s), you can pick any scale you like that has modules. In our club, this includes HO, N, O, and G. Although if you want to build S or Z modules, no one will stop you. Most any module can be leaned against a wall or put into a closet when not in use. The disadvantage of having only a module, with no home layout of your own, is that you only get to run trains several times a year when the modules are set up. A pity.
If you want to build a home layout, you may need to limit yourself to a smaller scale, depending on the plan you select and space available. Regardless of what scale you pick, make your first layout a small one, so you can practice making mistakes where they're not so costly.
You might want to build your home layout in N scale and a module in HO scale, for example. You can also have trains you run on the club module without making a module yourself. Or you could make a module without owning trains to run on it.
Do you have a greater interest in scratchbuilding or kitbuilding model trains and buildings? Consider HO or larger, although some rare individuals scratchbuild beautiful N scale buildings. Do you like grand stretches of scenery, including mountains, lakes, and forests? Consider N or Z.
If you live in an apartment, your space will likely be limited, and you may expect to move sometime in the next few years. N or Z are the ones to look at first. Most apartment dwellers will pick N. Z scale is more limited in the types of models and buildings available, and the turnouts are expensive. If you want a small portable layout to display at shows and meetings, you could build a small briefcase sized Z layout with few or no turnouts. A Z train is so cute. Every club should have at least one as a conversation piece.
If you live in a house, especially if you own it and plan to stay there for a long time, you have a lot more options. You can probably think about HO or larger, although if you like the other advantages of the smaller scales, you might choose one of them even if you have a lot of space. How big is the room you have available? Will it be used for other purposes also?
A quality layout will likely last several decades, so can be a very inexpensive hobby per hour of involvement. Before you dismiss the smaller scales as too expensive, ask yourself how much space in a home or apartment costs you. Do you want to operate the railroad like a business simulation, and with how many people involved? Get high quality turnouts and locomotives. How many of these you can afford may determine the design of the layout you choose to build. Dependable turnouts may save you from having to tear them out to replace them later. Perhaps nothing is so important to your enjoyment of the hobby as a good running locomotive. Make this the first thing you buy.
Before automatically dismissing N scale as too small to work on, ask yourself if you could comfortably use some type of magnifier to work on the models. Although I have excellent eyes, I bought some strong reading glasses to wear while painting my Z scale buildings. It works for me. You need to also consider how difficult it is for you to couple and uncouple the cars. Use a rerailer ramp to put smaller cars on track. What size can you comfortably assemble kits or scratchbuild in, if that is your interest? Of course, just because you have good eyes doesn't mean you have to pick a small scale.
This needs no explanation.
The greatest variety is available in HO scale. You can find most things in N scale, also. Far fewer are the buildings and trains available in Z, mostly European designs. But many modelers of the smaller scales have a greater interest in scenery anyway. You will just have to look at what is available, and decide if it will fit your needs. If you like to scratchbuild buildings, you can make them in just about any scale you want.
The US Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates.
Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots.
Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus we have the answer to the original question. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification (Military Specification) for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. Military Specifications and Bureaucracies live forever!
So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's a*s came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of two war horses.
Received via E-mail Bob Anconetani.
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