umtrr,
That's right. I have no problem with people sharing their work in a magazine. My beef is the implied idea that the only worthwhile model railroads have DCC and the very expensive locomotives equipped with it. Even smaller model railroads like MR's Virginian project railroad.
The Gorre and Daphetid , as far as I know, used a DC control system. But what is generally overlooked was a very innovative feature, which I read about only once.
John Allen had a sort of capacitor system in the loco tenders that would cut power to the motor if the capacitor was not recharged at regular intervals. The recharging was done by touching the tenders with the water tank spouts. Maybe there was no incentive to publicize this because it was not available commercially.
Frank Ellison's railroad would be a non-starter today because it used (Gasp!) third rail power distribution. This could only use third rail electrics by today's standards, but he used it with steam locos.
I have an ancient book entitled "Practical Guide to Model Railroading". This was a Kalmbach publication copyright 1952. One of the chapters described a sequence operation for passenger trains.
It was a good article that would still work today. The author (Linn Wescott?) explained what cars would make up a typical limited passenger train of the time, and how the cars could be be selected and arranged to make a day local and a night local also. The typical steam motive power needed was also discussed.
He explained to how set up a sequence operation on a closed-loop mainline, using passing tracks and reversing direction of operation to simulate eastbound and westbound trains. It would be perfectly do-able on a single-track loop if you had sufficient tracks for trains to meet and set out cars on both sides of the oval.
There is no timetable or train orders involved in this. Just a sequence listing the trains and the order and direction they are to be run.
I use a similar system on my own model railroad. I have researched the period timetables to determine what trains served my terminal in the time period I model.
It was then possible (and fun) to draw up a daily sequence, listing all trains in both directions by railroad and train number. My first train arrives at 4:45 am, and the last one departs at 9:30 pm. I have 20 arrivals and 20 departures. My operating "days" start at 4:45 am, but I can stop at any point in the sequence and restart from that point next time. It takes me about a week to run all the operations involved in one "day".
This is a good way to operate a model railroad with one person. No dispatcher, train orders, or track warrants. The only involvement of a computer was to make up the sequence schedule in MicroSoft Word, and run a copy of it to post on a wall. At first, I didn't even do that, just wrote the sequence in a spiral notebook.
You don't need a full set of equipment to represent each train pair. Through trains can use the same set of equipment to represent both eastbound and westbound legs. Also, some cars can be set out or picked up, or switched into other trains, especially RPO cars. For example, my Denver Zephyr, which terminates/originates at Denver,usually arrives with eight cars. My Royal Gorge train (which is modeled in the period it ran all the way to Grand Junction) consists of four cars, plus three or four cars added from the Denver Zephyr. These Denver Zephyr cars are carried as far as Colorado Springs. Most of the remaining Grand Junction cars are later added to the Prospector at Grand Junction and go on to Salt Lake City.
My trains arrive and leave at the times their prototypes did. The Royal Gorge train takes a lot longer to get to Grand Junction than the Prospector did (it travels via Tennessee Pass and the Prospector travels via the Moffat Tunnel), so it leaves much earlier in the sequence. Since each train takes a different route to achieve Grand Junction, they leave the Denver Terminal in opposite directions.
Even a small model railroad can be operated this way. My previous railroad, the West Central Nebraska (which was built in Minnesota, moved to South Dakota, then moved to Texas, then moved to Mississippi, and finally moved to West Central Nebraska) used a sequence operation, with card-card and waybill freight car forwarding. My current railroad moves very little freight, it is a passenger terminal operation. I do keep some freight locomotives and cabooses on hand, and if empty express cars start building up, I will run a special freight after the last passenger train to clean them out of the terminal. These cars do not move on a forwarding system.
Another feature my model railroad has is air traffic above it. I also like to build model airplanes and ships, and prefer to build my model airplanes in 1/144 scale as it is close to N-scale. I have some planes hanging from threads and cup hooks above the railroad. Above Commerce City, a US Coast Guard R5D is making an approach to Stapleton Airport, gear down. Over the Burnham neighborhood, two B-52's are lining up on a KC-97 tanker aircraft for a quick top-off on their way to Rapid City.
Rafters are making their way down Cherry Creek to the South Platte River, and upstream from them, fishermen are trying their luck. I modeled Cherry Creek as a wild, boulder-strewn stream and not the concrete-lined ditch it is today because, well, it is my railroad and that's how I like it.
Les
