As an amatuer programmer, I've decided to create a simple cargo loading delay program for use in model railroading. The program is nothing fancy. All it does is provide load/unloading delay timers so that you can simulate the time taken to load each car with cargo. Here's a screenshot:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/bigsol81/CargoLoaderBeta.jpg

Basically, you click the "Load This Cargo" button when your train is stopped at a station that supplies this type of cargo. This will then cause the bar below the buttons to slowly fill up, the speed of which varies from one cargo type to the next. Once it fills, the "Current Carloads" for that cargo type increases by 1.

Once you arrive at a station that can accept that cargo, you click the "Unload this Cargo" button, the bar fills up to indicate the unloading process, and once full the number of carloads decreases by 1. Clicking the unload cargo button when the current carloads is 0, obviously, will result in an error message.

The "Track Operating Costs" box is an experimental feature. Every ten seconds, it increases the total operating cost of your railroad. Eventually, I plan to have that operating cost increase depending on the number of locomotives you currently use, as well as other factors. Currently, the cost of operating the railroad increases by 800 to 1500 units every ten seconds. I use ambiguous 'units' of currency, but the final program will allow the user to select whatever symbol for currency that they desire. In addition to maintaining the railroad, each time a carload of cargo is unloaded, the "revenue" box increases. This amount is determined by the cargo, and the price varies from one type of cargo to the next. For example, a carload of mail generates less revenue than a carload of passengers.

Speaking of carloads, I've currently only got the five types you see, and this is how I've broken them down:

Mail - Obviously, this is envelopes, letters, and other small, light packages. Mail, due to its relative low density per square foot of cargo space, is lightweight. Mail loads faster than any other type of cargo, but also provides the lowest amount of revenue. It only takes 10 seconds of real time to load one car full of mail.

Passengers - Again, this is obvious: People. Passengers provide a very large variance in revenue depending on the type, their ticket reservations, etc. Passengers actually take longer to load than Light Freight due to the added time it takes to load on luggage, have baggage checks, make sure everyone is seated and comfortable, and other 'people' concerns. It takes 18 seconds to load one car of passengers.

Light Freight - Now, for the purposes of keeping things simple for this program, "Light Freight" refers to any perishable goods. This includes not only foodstuffs such as grain, beef, and poultry, but also livestock. Essentially, anything that can't be left sitting on a sidetrack or in a yard for very long. Light freight takes 15 seconds to load one car.

Medium Freight - This refers to any freight which is still somewhat important in terms of delivery time, but not something that will die or go bad while sitting on a side track. This generally includes manufactured goods such as computers and other electronics, furniture, home appliances, automobiles, and other larger cargo items such as those things ordered for shipping delivery Medium freight is often bulky and heavy, thus it takes 20 seconds per car of medium freight.

Bulk Freight - By this definition, "bulk freight" covers anything that is, in essence, 'not a big rush' and can be left on side tracks or in train yards for several days or more without a big hit to profits. Usually, this covers industrial goods such as coal and petroleum, as well as construction materials like lumber or steel. Bulk freight, due to its sheer weight and mass, takes 30 seconds per carload, but often provides the largest revenue per carload.

Those are the basics of the program. Now, my primary reason for posting here, aside from announcing the program itself, is that I'd like some ideas on the cargo system. Mine, as I said, is very generalized. However, I've come up with a more complex system using the following cargo types:

Mail & Passengers - Obvious
Grain - Includes cereals, as well as barley, hops, and other brewing materials. Also includes Salt, Sugar, and other bulk foodstuffs.
Produce - Both fruits and vegetables.
Meat - It's all frozen during shipping anyway, so it's grouped into one type.
Livestock - Both small and large.
Bulk Freight - Groups industrial metals (steel, iron, copper) and fuels (coal, petroleum) into a single category.
Textiles - Wool, felt, yarn, cloth, etc.
Automobiles - Also includes other vehicle shipments.

I can't come up with anything else specific, but this should be more than sufficient I should think. Also, I wanted to note that my program is designed to be a utility, and by no means a 'game' of any sort, so anyone hoping for something like that would be disappointed. Think of it as a very specialized calculator.

Opinions? Suggestions? Criticism?

Okay, while LEGOs are definately 'toys' by most standards (who says toys are bad?), I was wondering what most model railroaders thought about their Lego Train line of products. As with all Legos, they're on a set scale (Lego scale?), which seems very close to O-Scale. Here are some images:

http://www.cnettv.com/i/dl/vdl/media/image/25/85/1/18525_320x240.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/2436/mainview.jpg
http://scltc.org/images/galleries/events/2003.11.11.l.01/mic.205.jpg

Now, granted they're not as 'realistic' looking as the things I prefer to work with, but they can clearly be used to create very intricate designs, and there's definately no shortage of scenery pieces what with the various different types of scenery available, including medieval and sci-fi space scenery if you wanted to use those sorts of themes in your construction (Medieval magic-powered engine? haha).

Personally, I think Lego trains qualify as a type of model railroad, myself, having enjoyed legos for many years. Anyone else got an opinion on this?

Okay, as mentioned before, I decided I'd dedicate a thread specifically to the first real model railroad project I've ever done. So, let's get started with the table.

I constructed the table myself out of the following materials:
Three 8 ft. 4x4s
Three 10 ft. 2x4s
One 8x4 Plywood panel cut into one 3x8 panel, two 3x1 panels, and some leftover wood for use as filler.
Assorted wood screws

At first, I was going to make the table extremely simple. It was going to simply be a piece of plywood with four legs nailed to it. However, the naivety of my carpentry knowledge quickly became apparent when I noticed how warped this (and every other) piece of plywood was, which was only amplified when I actually tried to drive nails through the plywood at a straight angle. Okay, so taking the simple route wasn't going to work. So, I decided (in a moment of clarity) that building a frame of 2x4s and then attaching the plywood to it using a drill and wood screws would be far better. Needless to say, it was. Exibit 1:


As you can see, the frame worked rather well, as anchoring the plywood to the frame made it nice and flat. However, as you can see, there's a problem:


Again, my amatuer carpentry knowledge failed and I didn't realize that a 2x4 isn't REALLY 2x4, but rather 1 1/2" by 3-point-something. As a result, I had gaps where my pre-measured crossbeams (At 32", which is what 3' minus the 2 inches on each side for the "2x4"s) were supposed to go. So, I had to improvise by using some of that leftover plywood sheet as filler material. It worked well enough. You'll notice that the 'frame' is 2 feet longer than the table top. This is because I wanted a 3x10 table, but the hardware store only sells plywood, obviously, in 4x8. Fortunately, the extra 1-foot panel I had them cut off of the original 4x8 could easily be cut into two 3x1 panels, which were then placed onto the remaining framework.

Once that was done, it was time to attach the legs. Compared to the other work, this was a piece of cake:


There we go! Legs! 3 1/2 feet long, putting the table at a perfect height for me to use without having to stoop over or stretch to reach across it. The legs are really anchored to the table, too, with 4 wood screws each. Once the legs were on, it was time to flip it over:


As you can see, we got the table turned upright without breaking anything important. Also, you'll notice I attached those two final 3x1 pieces to the end there. The 'overhang' seen at the left of the image is where the controls (power pack, switch controls, etc) will be placed, and where I'll stand most of the time while operating the railroad.

Now, this next step might be out of the ordinary for others here, but this felt like the most comfortable way of doing things. I pulled out my track and started putting it together just as I plan to have it when the track is complete. This gives me an excellent view of just where the track will lie once the cork is down. Here are the results:


Yes, obviously I couldn't resist putting the train on the tracks, connecting the power pack, and running a few circuits on it. It runs well, though this process did indicate a few spots where I failed to properly connect the track together. This has been fixed.

Tomorrow, I need to buy some of the tiny nails used to nail the track to the cork. Then, I'll move the track aside and begin outlining the places where the cork will go, followed by replacing the track once more. Then that should finalize the process and I'll have my first model railroad completed.

I was wondering if there are any companies out there that are in the business of producing custom rolling stock and locomotives for private parties?

For example, if I were to send in a logo and a basic color scheme for a G-Series locomotive, the company would already have a blank locomotive ready, they'd paint it to match my color scheme, then paint my logo on it, and then mail it to me. Obviously, there'd be a steep price...cost of the loco itself plus the paintjob, which would mostly be handled by a computer or machine anyway.

Same for rolling stock. Wondering if anyone out there knows of such a company.

  Okay, I've only been on this site for a few hours, I haven't really gotten into the hobby yet (I'm a newbie, really, with only a hint of past experience with model railroading) and I've been looking at DCC for the future. The simplicity of DC has always sort of irked me, and the idea of being able to control different engines at different times while all on the same track is much more appealing than having to either have them all go or all stop at once.

However, I've read that DCC is unreliable and, apparently, it 'burns out' fairly quickly and can be costly to maintain and repair.

Is this true? If so, perhaps I need to wait until the technology is a bit more stable before I go out and spend money on some of these locomotives and other kits.

BTW, I work as a network designer and I support computer networking equipment for a living, so I understand the whole 'network/train address' and how commands are sent over DCC. It sounds extremely versatile and like it'd be great to use if the rumors of reliability are overstated.

Hey. My name is Justin, and I'm getting into the hobby of...well, what do we call them? Model trains? That seems to fit best. A little history, first.

My great grandfather, whom raised me, was the first one to get me into trains. I was always fascinated by them, and he had two model trainsets. One of them was a G-Scale, I believe...G or O...it was large, anyway. The second was my personal favorite, HO scale. Now, when I was a kid, I was a destructive brat...my favorite thing to do was run the trains at full speed and watch them fly off the tracks in tight turns. If I ran across my younger self today (I'm 26 now), I'd probably slap myself upside the head for not appreciating what I had, especially now that it was all lost in a fire about ten years ago. My great grandfather's setup was very basic...track, trains, and that was basically it. Very little in the way of scenery, though we used matchbox cars in places, which weren't quite on scale with those trains.

My grandfather had a very impressive, albeit small, setup of his own, also HO scale. This was also over a decade ago. He lived in Vegas, and had set up his own miniature representation of the Las Vegas / Pahrump area. He'd actually put work into it. There was grass, trees, buildings, people, cars, roads, you name it. It was an ongoing project of his and, unfortunately, he never lived long enough to complete it. What's worse is that he and my grandmother didn't quite get along, so after his death she simply trashed his entire setup, all of his trains, locomotives, track, everything. Such a waste, too, since he had thousands of dollars invested in it.

I personally don't have much experience with trains. Most of what I've learned actually came from playing Railroad Tycoon. For those that don't know, it's a series of computer games where you build a railroad and connect cities, manage shipping lanes, buy industries, etc. That game, along with my grandfather and great grandfather, got me interested in trains in the first place.

So, here I am starting into the hobby on my own. I don't make much money, so I'm buying it a little at a time. Before I go and spend TOO much money on this, I have some questions along with personal input.

First off, I prefer HO scale. N scale I can see has the clear advantage of space, given that you don't need as much space to set up a track, and space is an issue for me as I live with my great grandmother and don't have much room to set up a model set. However, N scale trains just seem too small and 'dinky' to me, no offense to anyone, and HO just feels more solid to me. That being said, on to the questions:

1. I'm not a pure enthusiast in that, while I understand the appeal of laying your own track tie-by-tie, rail-by-rail, it's not something that appeals to me. I want to spend as much time 'playing' with my set as I spend building it. That being said, can anyone give some advice as to the best type of track to buy? I've seen both the older type of track which is put together using small metal connectors and then nailed onto corkboard, and I've seen the newer 'snap-together' kind. The snap kind seems almost too 'toy-like' to me, but I've never used it so I don't know.

2. I spent around $40 today at a local hobby shop and got myself a basic locomotive (F9) and a handful of cars, two of which use the wrong couplers and I'll need to return. Turns out only the Bachmann cars I got have the right connectors. However, the loco I got is the 'simple' type. That is, it goes forward or back based on the current flowing through the track. At first, when I saw locomotives 'on sale' for between $70 and $120, I thought to myself 'Yikes! This hobby is more expensive than I thought!'. However, I then learned about digital control, which implies that now each train can be run separately even if they all share the same track, which is great compared to what I'm used to. The question here, I guess, is "How much can I expect to pay before I can create a simple setup?". What I'm looking for is something small, preferably that will fit into a 10'x10' area, with at least two circular routes that I can use switching to move between. Scenery is optional at first. In fact, it's optional at all, really, since my love for model trains revolves more around operations than appearance, though I do hope to eventually have a setup that looks as good as it runs.

3. Once I get going, I want to simulate cargo weights on my trains. Meaning, I want a train that's more cargo-laden to travel slower, hence simulating the need for additional locomotives in certain cases. Along those lines, I was wondering about how safe for the equipment this is. Obviously, I don't want to burn out any motors. Along the same line, I was wondering if any of the older models of engines are available in HO scale, such as the Iron Duke or, heavens forbid, the Grasshopper, and if these older engines have less pulling power than the more modern engines just like their real life counterparts. I've noticed that 90% of the locomotives in my hobby shop are all G-Series locos, with a few of the F-Series thrown in. Very few steam locomotive models, and even fewer of the classics, like the Consolidation, Iron Duke, Mikado, etc. In fact, the only steam engine I saw in the shop that was HO scale was a Pacific. Are these uncommon? Or is it just that the G-Series are more popular and there's not as much demand for the older models?

That's it for now. I thought I had more questions, but that's all that came to mind. I'm at work, too, so time is short. In any event, hopefully I can dive headlong into the hobby and find a way to fit it into my limited income.

Happy trails, everyone.