Real Model Railroaders do not use MyFace

Real Model Railroaders do not use MyFace

In my worklife, I am a librarian. We all have to do something to support the basements in which we dwell. And one of our current projects at MCL is called "Learning 2.0". In this project we are learning how to use the Web 2.0 tools, things like flickr, rss feeds, wikis, etc. And the more we do this, the more I am enjoying it, at least this week. One of the questions we had to answer as part of the learning exercise is #3 below, and I blogged about model railroaders and social networks. I have edited it a bit -- replaced train nuts with train fans for instance -- but this is pretty much as written.

3. Explore a social network site for a topic you're interested in and blog about your reactions. Can you see ways the library could connect to users of the site?

My topic: Model railroading. Model railroaders are still in the dark ages when it comes to social networking. The dark ages were back when people posted questions or comments to various bulletin boards and people responded. These phenomena are prone to exaggeration and bullying, so I nave the impression that a relative few model railroaders are active on the lists, but there is good stuff to be found. Some of them turn out to be real experts or real authors, and you get good ideas from them.
Is this really social? It seems to be interest driven, and some of the social interaction is less than positive. Once I see a thread has gone on for a long time, it has usually degraded into name calling and dead horse kicking.

Then there are the good guys (this is mostly a male hobby). Some of them have their onw websites or blogs. It is useful to check them out, because some of these people get tired of answering the same questions carefully, only to have their comments disregarded or disrespected. Here is one of my favorites: Byron Henderson: http://mrsvc.blogspot.com/, and when you get there check out his entry on Death of Discourse.

Find a Friend (MySpace): We weren't able to find a " model railroader " on MySpace.com

A Social Networking and Model Railroader search on Google turns up little of real significance. Some guy is promoting his “secrets of model railroading” book; a number of bloggers admire the model railroad slums website at http://dinowalrus.com/gallery/model-rr/
Isn't this cool? But this guy is an artist!

It seems to me that model railroaders and train fans in general are more attuned to the boards, with all their deficiencies, because of their topic driven content. The trolls and flamers who dwell there are more content to snipe at participants, knowing that nobody would ever seek out their myspace facebook.

However, model railroaders and train fans do seem to enjoy posting videos, as you’ll see if you look up trains at youtube or one of the video sharing sites.

Model railroaders are not particularly social. Should I say “anti-social”? No, because some of my friends are model railroaders. Call me codger!

New Waybills for the GR Terminal

GRT Waybills
Originally uploaded by conford4

Here are the revised waybills on the Grand Rapids
Terminal. After I read an article in the Opsig
Journal, I got to thinking about the model railroad as
an information system. Most users (operators) really
don't know much about your particular railroad, so one
of your jobs as owner is to make sure the information
that is needed to run the railroad is clear and easy
to understand. This is especially true if somebody is
going to be sorting and spotting cars.

Rubber stamps for train destinations. It seemed to me
that the routing instructions on the Old Lige Graphics
waybills were a good idea, but that there was not
enough room for them, and it would have to be in some
sort of code. Then I remembered the tickets we used to
buy when we took the train and the little rubbers
stamps the tickts sellers had for just about every
common destination. Rubber stamps!

I figured color coded rubber stamps could be used to
identify the train that would carry each load to its
destination, and I got a bunch of rubber stamps made
up at the Stamp Connection in Gresham.

Here are the color codes:
Red -- PRR
Blue -- C&O
Green -- NYC

Now each "train" has a rubber stamp that marks the
waybills it will handle. For instance "PRR Fort Wayne"
is for southbound traffic on the PRR; "C&O Local
South" is for C&O local traffic for South of the West
Side Yard. There are about 12 stamps in all, 6 for
PRR, 4 for C&O and 2 for NYC. We'll see how this
works, but it looks good. I only wish I'd gone for a
12 point font rather than 10 point.

Reformatted car cards: I'm on the car cards list, and
somebody posted a modified version of the Excel
spreadsheet used by Wolfgang Dudler, on his Westport
Terminal RR. This was posted by Gerry Hopkins on the
Car Cards Yahoo List. I took a look at the output from
this and recognized that here were car cards that were
easy to read and looked good. I copied these and
revised them for the GRT, removing the colors, and
using a more industrial looking typeface.

You can see from the picture what the revised cards
and waybills look like.

Improved Waybill Box on the GRT

GRT Waybill Box
Originally uploaded by conford4

Here are the revised waybill boxes for the Grand
Rapids Terminal. Each section of the box is marked
with the railroad that switches each siding. Most
sidings are served by only one railroad, except
interchange tracks and a few sidings that are jointly
switched. This particular box, located near downtown
Grand Rapids, holds the cards for three different
sidings.

From left they are:
1. the PRR team track and Elston Richards storage, a
long sidings that runs alongside the curving mainline
approach to the bridge.
2. The Consumers Power siding. This sidings is jointly
servied by the PRR and the C&O, thus both railroads'
herald is displayed for this siding. Each railroad
only sets out and picks up its own cars (or the cars
of connecting railroads) from this siding.
3. The C&O freight house siding. The freight house is
still invisible, but it will be located near the Union
Station platforms. It is only switched by the C&O.

I have also increased the font size on the boxes to
make things more legible. I wish there was more
contrast between the heralds and the boxes, but for
now that's what we have with a dark green fascia.

Staver's Locomotive

P1010105
Originally uploaded by conford4

Here is a photo of Larry Staver's new locomotive, a Lima Berkshire. We were at Staver Locomotive last Friday night, and it was cold, but the trains were running. And of course live steam looks better in cold weather. So the Berk was puffing away, pulling the heavyweight passenger train. It looked great. You can see in this photo (from December 2007) what a fine looking locomotive it is. Staver Locomotive is worth a visit if you are in Portland Oregon the first Friday of the month. Chek www.staverlocomotive.com for details.