The long track to realism
This article is definitely not about ‘the good old days’ of model railroading, our hobby today offers so many exciting possibilities I’ve never enjoyed it more. No, this is about the pursuit of realism.
My eighth birthday in the mid 50’s was particularly significant; I was given a Tri-ang train set. I had an oval of track, a diesel loco and some coaches. As it ran in a circle on the kitchen floor surely this was as close to running a real train as you could get! Future Birthday and Christmas presents enhanced the experience with a Tri-ang bridge and more carriages.
A later birthday present was my first brass locomotives an Akane factory painted standard gauge Rio Grande 2-6-0; this little locomotives took modelling to a new level compared to the Tri-ang diesel. I also had a small room on the end of our veranda. Trains now ran through some rudimentary scenery, no more imagining grand mountains, towns and rivers on the kitchen floor. This was even more like the real thing.
I still have that engine; it resides in a place of honour on a plinth outside the main station on my layout.
There is a photo. of it on my web site, http://www.charlespagephotography.com/layout-updates.html
Perhaps you can see a pattern beginning to emerge, each time our modelling technology moves forward we tend to think that this is the definitive transformation of the prototype into our miniature empires, the closest thing to reality. But of course it isn’t, the question is, will we ever reach a point where we can’t get any closer to the real thing.
By the time I had my own house and room for a layout, the technology had moved well past Tri-ang diesels, an oval of track, a transformer and a rheostat controller. I now had a few better quality brass locos and inertia controllers were the latest devices to bring train control closer to the prototype, at least that’s the way they were promoted. It was certainly a great improvement. So I built four inertia throttles with tethered walk around connections, a capacitor meant that the loco. would drift while a rotary switch would give a couple of stages of braking. All very realistic! And so it was for a long time. I actually still use one of the throttles to supply power and set the throw rate for Tortoise switch machines.
Then of course DCC appears, the next evolutionary stage and perhaps the hobby’s most far-reaching advancement in operation, sound and lighting control.
So I converted to it because it was closer yet to the real thing, but of course the degree of reality depends on how you program the decoders and other factors as well.
I subsequently installed 23 Tsunamis into brass steam locomotives and also a few diesels. I was quite pleased with how everything sounded and operated, that was until someone brought over a locomotives that had Dynamic Digital Exhaust (DDE) activated. The difference was startling and having heard it I knew that I had to install it.
It turned out to be quite easy to install and fairly quickly the fleet was operating with DDE and sounding even more realistic.
An interesting area in the pursuit of realism is smoke. Smoke units in various forms have been around for a long time and as far as I can tell haven’t advanced much at all, the cigarette type wisps of smoke are now synchronised with the chuffs and of course BLI has ‘steam’ coming out of the whistle when you blow it.
When I’ve photographed real steam engines working hard especially in very cold conditions I’ve always thought that they looked like erupting volcanoes on the move. Then of course there’s also that intoxicating smell of escaping steam. How do you replicate all that in a model, I won’t say it will never be done, but it would place some interesting demands on the train room, especially the exhaust system? Of course the screaming smoke detectors could also spoil the illusion.
So a long journey from that Tri-ang train set, it’s easy to think that the current technology has taken us so close to replicating the prototype that it can’t get much better. Of course I thought that when I got my first train set and then later when I built an inertia throttle and look what happened next.
I have a feeling that there’s a lot more to come and I wonder what those younger modellers who have recently become involved in the hobby will experience in the future. They will probably look back at DCC etc. the way I look back at my Tri-ang train set, primitive but a curiosity.
Of course trying to replicate the real thing can easily be achieved by doing what Walt Disney’s top animator Ward Kimball did years ago. He owned and ran a full size narrow gauge locomotives on his Grizzly Flats Railroad. A great smoke unit and no decoders or CV programing required!
This article is definitely not about ‘the good old days’ of model railroading, our hobby today offers so many exciting possibilities I’ve never enjoyed it more. No, this is about the pursuit of realism.
My eighth birthday in the mid 50’s was particularly significant; I was given a Tri-ang train set. I had an oval of track, a diesel loco and some coaches. As it ran in a circle on the kitchen floor surely this was as close to running a real train as you could get! Future Birthday and Christmas presents enhanced the experience with a Tri-ang bridge and more carriages.
A later birthday present was my first brass locomotives an Akane factory painted standard gauge Rio Grande 2-6-0; this little locomotives took modelling to a new level compared to the Tri-ang diesel. I also had a small room on the end of our veranda. Trains now ran through some rudimentary scenery, no more imagining grand mountains, towns and rivers on the kitchen floor. This was even more like the real thing.
I still have that engine; it resides in a place of honour on a plinth outside the main station on my layout.
There is a photo. of it on my web site, http://www.charlespagephotography.com/layout-updates.html
Perhaps you can see a pattern beginning to emerge, each time our modelling technology moves forward we tend to think that this is the definitive transformation of the prototype into our miniature empires, the closest thing to reality. But of course it isn’t, the question is, will we ever reach a point where we can’t get any closer to the real thing.
By the time I had my own house and room for a layout, the technology had moved well past Tri-ang diesels, an oval of track, a transformer and a rheostat controller. I now had a few better quality brass locos and inertia controllers were the latest devices to bring train control closer to the prototype, at least that’s the way they were promoted. It was certainly a great improvement. So I built four inertia throttles with tethered walk around connections, a capacitor meant that the loco. would drift while a rotary switch would give a couple of stages of braking. All very realistic! And so it was for a long time. I actually still use one of the throttles to supply power and set the throw rate for Tortoise switch machines.
Then of course DCC appears, the next evolutionary stage and perhaps the hobby’s most far-reaching advancement in operation, sound and lighting control.
So I converted to it because it was closer yet to the real thing, but of course the degree of reality depends on how you program the decoders and other factors as well.
I subsequently installed 23 Tsunamis into brass steam locomotives and also a few diesels. I was quite pleased with how everything sounded and operated, that was until someone brought over a locomotives that had Dynamic Digital Exhaust (DDE) activated. The difference was startling and having heard it I knew that I had to install it.
It turned out to be quite easy to install and fairly quickly the fleet was operating with DDE and sounding even more realistic.
An interesting area in the pursuit of realism is smoke. Smoke units in various forms have been around for a long time and as far as I can tell haven’t advanced much at all, the cigarette type wisps of smoke are now synchronised with the chuffs and of course BLI has ‘steam’ coming out of the whistle when you blow it.
When I’ve photographed real steam engines working hard especially in very cold conditions I’ve always thought that they looked like erupting volcanoes on the move. Then of course there’s also that intoxicating smell of escaping steam. How do you replicate all that in a model, I won’t say it will never be done, but it would place some interesting demands on the train room, especially the exhaust system? Of course the screaming smoke detectors could also spoil the illusion.
So a long journey from that Tri-ang train set, it’s easy to think that the current technology has taken us so close to replicating the prototype that it can’t get much better. Of course I thought that when I got my first train set and then later when I built an inertia throttle and look what happened next.
I have a feeling that there’s a lot more to come and I wonder what those younger modellers who have recently become involved in the hobby will experience in the future. They will probably look back at DCC etc. the way I look back at my Tri-ang train set, primitive but a curiosity.
Of course trying to replicate the real thing can easily be achieved by doing what Walt Disney’s top animator Ward Kimball did years ago. He owned and ran a full size narrow gauge locomotives on his Grizzly Flats Railroad. A great smoke unit and no decoders or CV programing required!
