Tag Archives: scale

Layout Design, Layouts, Liked off site, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site Seeing 18 February

Introduction

The IAIS Grimes Industrial Line

1 – The IAIS Grimes Industrial Line

In my site seeing post yesterday I mentioned the publishing bonanza we’ve inherited thanks to the internet. One of these great sites is the free (as in Beer) internet Model Railroading Magazine – the Model Railroad Hobbyist (Link Here).

Apart from a great magazine that I’ve read since issue number one, there are the modellers blogs that are associated on the site. Among the best of the blogs is the Grimes Industrial layout blog of JFMcNab (Link Here).

You can also see a range of photos from his layout on the Unofficial IAIS Railfans website (Link Here).

Take some time and take a look around and discover the Grimes Industrial Line. I think you’ll enjoy the Grimes Line sites.

Resources:

Watch one of James’ videos from his YouTube channel:

Diesel Rail Cars, Manufacturers, Rapido Trains HO, RDC

Rapido trains in releasing a brand new model of the RDC

Introduction

I think that the RDC is a great addition to any layout. For those who model passenger operations anywhere from the late 1950s on, these little beauties fit right in. I believe that even in the USA they’re mostly gone now from day-to-day service.

Rapido’s new RDC-1

Thankfully they’re going to be remade by Rapido. And the work they put into this is amazing. Apparently they’ve scanned the real thing, and then worked off the scans and the blueprints to decide what was as-built, and what was in-service.

These cars also ran as is here in Australia. The Commonwealth Railways bought three of them for service in South Australia. I believe that ComEng (Commonwealth Engineering – Granville NSW) also built a set or two under license for use on the South Coast Daylight trains running from Sydney to Bombaderry (Nowra) and return daily but they never worked right for the NSWGR.

Eventually they had the motors pulled and became loco hauled (which is how I remember them in my youth on runs down the coast).

In chugging around their site I noticed that Rapido will produce units that are painted but unlettered. Hopefully this gets some of the Australian modellers interested.

They’re not cheap at CN$325 (especially with our rapidly sinking currency), however, I just checked and the Canadian Dollar is worth slightly less than ours at the moment (0.97 as of writing) so with shipping I’d expect landed costs to be under AU$375 mark..

Resources

The product information page: http://www.rapidotrains.com/rdc1.html

The versions page showing all the versions being produced: http://www.rapidotrains.com/rdcus.html

Site seeing

Site Seeing February 02

Introduction

Often I wonder how I can fit the layout I’d like to have in the space I have available.

Then there are the brave souls who decide to build an industrial switching layout in 1:29 G scale.

Losco yard

Losco yard is Hugh Flynn’s switching layout in 1:29 scale. I found this today while looking for something else entirely. But I like the design and the bulk of the models so much I thought it deserved to be brought to a wider audience.

Link number 1 is an older link from 2008 but shows a lot of photos and a track plan, along with some thoughts from the RMWeb community as to what could be done to make the operational value better.

Link number 2 is a newer version of the layout and some other work in progress. According to the owner, the layout has since been sold on.

Link number 3 below is a link to a video taken by a punter at one of the UK shows of said layout. Only 480P but it gives you an idea of the size of the models when you take a look at the video and realise that there are massive models. Note that the audio track is quite loud, so turning down your sound at work might be advisable.

The video runs from the start through to the 2:20 mark. Nice one Hugh.

Resources

There are some other nice photos on the modelrailroadforums page here:

http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?9761-Weekend-Photo-Fun-10-3/page3 – look at the 5 photos starting just below the top of the post.

There is also a whole heap of track plans by Hugh here if you are interested.