Geissel Got It

Recently my attention was directed once more to the Chester Valley Railroad of J. Harold Geissel. This was the “Layout of the Month” in the November 1939 Model Railroader. That original article wasn't the starting point this time around, rather, it was the article by editor Russ Larson exactly 30 years later in the November 1969 issue. “What makes an outstanding layout?” asks the title. The author answers in the text below:

“I feel the basic ingredients for a good layout are:

• A good track plan

• Authentic structures
• Attention to scenic detail
• Realistic operation, including the selection of rolling stock
  

The final product must be judged, at least partially, on how well the modeler blends these basic ingredients together. It also takes an intangible something extra. To create an outstanding layout you must, I believe, go beyond what is commonly done and develop something better in at least one of these basic layout qualities.”

Note he begins by describing what makes a “good” layout before leading the reader to the answer to his question, what makes that layout “outstanding”.  I appreciate his points and think they're not bad at all.  And yet...

I think he missed one crucial ingredient; the concept.

Oh yes, this is one of those contrary articles in which I espouse my fervent belief that the concept and the plan are distinctly different elements. What Larson missed is what Geissel explicitly stated in his article from August 1939. (The November “Layout of the Month” article shows the track plan which was reprinted in Larson's article while the August '39 article is by Geissel himself and includes photos, also reprinted in '69.) Quote:

“The Chester Valley is now in its third location as an operating layout. While the basic idea carries along without change, each layout has been different; the track plan has been simplified, curve radii have been increased, and real railroad practice has been followed more closely." p.386

Sorry Uncle Russ, but it all boils down to the "basic idea", i.e., the concept.  Geissel's article begins with a description of his rationale for choosing a short line - an idea that had remained with him since childhood.  Once a good concept takes root in your mind, grows, blooms and drops seed, it can be nigh impossible to dislodge, should that be desired (it most likely will not be).  How the concept is executed can change with income, location, skill, energy, etc. but a good idea - a good story - can call forth creativity for a lifetime, or at least until it has run its course and been successfully expressed.

New Year's Revisions

Make sure you read that right - it says Revisions, not Resolutions.  I do have a few resolutions but they have more to do with growing our savings and losing pounds, standard fare.  We actually did both in the previous year and have a solid plan for doing so again this year.  I like achievable goals!

Rather than go through a what-I-did and what-I-hope to do for last year and this, respectively, I decided to focus on the Pine Branch Park section of the Ocali Creek Railroad (aka "the layout").  Apart from ballast and the occasional paint and glue, I shouldn't need to purchase anything for the railroad this year.  I intend to begin setting aside my monthly stipend for a rainy-day fund, or, heaven forbid, a DCC system replacement fund, though the MRC system I currently use is still chugging along.  Still, I've had to send it back once already and it would be foolish to think it will last forever.  And, should I ever expand the railroad to the point at which multiple operators becomes desirable, I'll want a second throttle.

With that said, here are the focused goals for the railroad, including a revised plan.

I've moved the Gas Station away from the team track.  This is to give more room for each scene and has the bonus of providing an additional industry.  I can spot a tank car between the gas station and the orange grove.  That section of track really is the "continuous run connection" for when I just want to watch a train run.  During an operating session it can be a spot.

In order to move the gas station, I had to eliminate the residences that were going to reside there.  In that space I have planned a small honey stand.  It will be a tourist attraction of sorts, as the stand will be made from an old horse-drawn streetcar.  It will sit on a small stretch of track, complete with a dummy horse attached.  Folks can have their picture made at the "Strickland Street Car" and buy some "Horse-drawn Honey"  The remnants of the old streetcar line will run down the street, truncated by the tracks which cross it and paved over in spots.  Ocala, Florida, actually used to have a horsecar line in the late 1800s.  I've only seen one blurry image:

This should be a neat little scratchbuilding project.  The name Strickland comes from our old neighbors when we first moved to Ocala in 1980.  They were beekeepers and sold honey from their screened porch.  Interestingly enough, my youngest son is learning about beekeeping through 4H, and we each got protective bee suits for Christmas.

The station is nearly complete and I'm itching to build the Purina Feed Mill.  Along with the mill I'll rebuild the three Laconia Ventilated cars I've collected and a Woodland Scenics Diamond T truck with Purina lettering.  My plan for this railroad has always been to complete each scene fully - that means structures, accompanying rolling stock if applicable, vehicles and figures.  And, each scene should in some way contribute to the story of the railroad with either era specific or location specific details, or both.

But before then I must finish the cabeese I began back in the Spring of 2018.  Look for a post on these early this year, hopefully within a month.  The station scene will likely be next, followed by the Purina scene.  Somewhere in there I'll lay out the streets.  The benchwork still needs trim and painting.  Finally, by the end of 2019 I hope to have all the track painted, detailed and ballasted.   "All the trackwork" sounds like a lot, but keep in mind the overall size of the railroad is 4'x6'.  I could paint, detail, and ballast the track all in a week of evenings.  Relatively reduced time spent on any one task is one reason I limited the scope of this project.

I've also renamed the staging connection to "Main East" and "Main West".  Tony Koester advocates this practice of locating your section of railroad on a larger network by calling staging something more bound to geography.  In my case, the main line heading east runs towards Deland, FL, and the main west heads into town (Ocala) where the railroad's main yard and shops are located.  For operators, that means little right now as those physical connections off-the-table don't go anywhere...yet.  But it does add to the sense of story and place and when I do eventually add staging yards, they won't just be tracks on a tabletop, but representations of destinations.

Finally, a word of thanks to all my readers.  Thanks for following along, and Happy New Year!

Layout Alternative

When did a model railroad become a train layout?  I'm no model railroad historian, but I bet there was a time before we called it a "layout".  I've seen it described as a "pike" and this term seems even more dated, as if I should be wearing an engineer's hat with my shirt and tie and smoking a pipe as I run the trains while my family gazes on adoringly.  If I told a non-model-railroader I'm building a train layout in my garage, would they know what that meant?  Would they wonder if I were planning to set it up for a while then take it down, like a train around the Christmas tree? 

As someone who has worked in a field with specialized language, I also recognize that some words don't mean much to the average person.  If you go to a traditional church on Sunday you probably enter the narthex before going into the sanctuary for worship and perhaps afterwards spend time in the fellowship hall.  However, you didn't go to church, you went to a campus.  The church is the body of people, not the building they meet in, but how many folks know this distinction?  The narthex is the foyer or lobby or entryway and the sanctuary is the auditorium.  The fellowship hall is a different auditorium, but sometimes resembles a gymnasium or large meeting hall.  Some churches work hard to eliminate "churchy" language and label their spaces accordingly.  Others stick with traditional names and expect newcomers to learn them.

Dictionary.com offers TEN variant definitions of the word "layout" and NONE of them reference model railroading.  Not that this is inaccurate for our use, as most of the definitions refer to the arrangement of elements in a space whether on an advertisement or in a room.  I don't think "layout" presents the same difficulty in understanding, but I wonder if there are better words that describe what we're building and perhaps even what we're doing.  Language is important and if we model railroaders want to share our hobby with a non-modeling public in a straight-forward way perhaps some more useful language is in order.  Even within our ranks it might be helpful. 

Miriam Webster does include a reference to model trains in their definition of layout, but there's an issue with that one.  "Something that is laid out".  Sounds like something that is set up only to be taken down later.  When we build our model railroad do we do so in a temporary manner?  Very few times have I seen articles about model train setups that are meant to be run then put away by taking the thing apart and putting it back in a box.  And, I'd bet we wouldn't call those things "layouts", but train sets or something similar.

So what is the alternative?  What about simply calling it a model railroad?  If we are scaling down reality or some version of it, and running scaled-down electric trains through that setting, then we are modeling a railroad and railroading in miniature.  In light of my previous post on a track plan, I'm going to make a conscious effort to change my language from now on.  I'm not building a train layout in my garage.  I'm building a model railroad.

Garage Railroad Plan

I've always looked at those 4x8 project railroads in the model train magazines with an eye for what could be.  Sometimes there is great potential, sometimes they just don't work that well.  Granted, there has been much ink spilled over how to create a better plan using the same space required for a 4x8 (much greater than 4x8, considering aisles and access to three sides) so I won't go into that here.  But I will posit a contrary view for the utility of such plans as they are - a rectangle in the middle of a room.  When you have a room in which you can't use the walls, one of these space-hogging 4x's may be just the answer.

I have space in our house for a nice railroad on a shelf, but barring some sections that must be put up to run and taken down when done, that doesn't make for easy loop running.  Sometimes (quite often) I like to just sit back and watch a train roll.  In order to do that I need to build something larger, and the only space for that is our garage.  Bob Smaus once wrote an article in Model Railroader about the hazards of building in the garage, and I recommend it if you can find it.  Summer heat, winter cold, dust, spiders (black widows, and not the Southern Pacific RR kind!) and clutter all make for a challenging environment in which to build a model railroad.

However, I have decided I'm up for the challenge.  I recently set up a test loop of EZ track in the garage, ostensibly for testing the 2-6-0.  This is actually our Christmas loop but only when there's a tree in the middle.  I've been having so much fun running trains on that loop - despite the rough conditions in the garage - that I decided I could be very happy with a layout out there.

After much cogitation (the details of which I will spare you), I returned to a simple plan.  Behold the HO scale Morgan Valley RR, first featured in the January 1989 issue of Model Railroader in an article by Rick Henderson (click for larger, or right click and open in a new tab):

This plan has always stuck with me, dating back to the first days of my subscription to Model Railroader.  However, I've learned much since then about railroad operations, model and prototype, and right away I knew I'd need to modify this plan.  I started by removing the short switchback siding and a few others.

I added a parallel siding to an existing one, and shifted a few tracks to align on 90 degree lines.  This was because I was already envisioning a grid of streets.

The dark gray are major roads while the lighter gray are secondary alleys and parking areas.  I believe this should be a consideration in the earliest stages of a plan, as this is often how city planners would view development.  People inhabit cities, and need a way to get around.  On so many model railroads, particularly smaller ones like this, roads seem to be an afterthought and consequently the scene lacks believability.  Roads lead to structures, or in the case of the driveways, connect structures to streets.

Here the olive drab colored shapes represent industries or railroad structures, the blue colored blocks represent city buildings and the dusty rose colored shapes are residential homes.  Trees and water features have been added and some track features labeled.   It is my intention that the streets and buildings will provide a strong grid-like structural element.  The tracks interact with this structure as if, in some cases, they were put in place after the grid was laid down, and in others in concert with it or before it.  The tracks follow a small creek in one corner and pass through a low cut in another, next to the orange grove; otherwise the topography is essentially flat.

While I will discuss operating this layout in another post, suffice it to say for now that the railroad can handle both freight and passenger trains as it stands.  With a connection to staging (most likely a train-length turntable) as a fiddle yard, the variety of equipment increases.  For now it can be built using track I already own, and using many key structures which I already own.  One final note - the 'Motorcycle Cop' is a nod to a scene from an extinct Epcot Center attraction, the World of Motion.  Find a good video of this ride on YouTube and see if you can spot the cop behind the billboard.