Large Scale Central

Is switching from 1:22.5 to 1:20.3 worth it?

General Discussion
#81

Quite correct, Ric…we really should have put the C19 on display at the Craigleigh engine servicing area, and taken pictures of various locomotives beside it. I should have organised it better.

At Craigleigh, we could have photographed the comparisons from both sides, front and back very easily.

The reason that Firgrove was chosen in a rush, was that the LGB Mogul was up there, at the time, and I wanted to see it and an Annie with the C19, not thinking of Jan’s loco.

With two engine servicing places now, we often forget where certain locomotives are stationed. We should keep better track of their locations in the future.

The new enginehouse at Firgrove, is something I have wanted for a long while. Now we can house six locomotives in place, with charging stations in each enginhouse. This saves transporting locomotives to chargers in the shop or elsewhere. They now can stay on the track, ready for service. I have left four locomotives in the Craigleigh enginehouse over the Winter two years in a row, with no problems.

#82

Nick S. said:

Frankly I dont understand why we are even having this conversation, everyone knows that in 5

years or so the whole Large scale Hobby will be 1/29th, Even the Bachmann knows that !!!

Nicky

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/nicholas_savatgy/_forumfiles/96_lg_clr.gif)

I hope that’s true. The 1:29 is big enough to be convincing in every way and “small” enough to allow more territory (less compression) than 1:20. I have some 1:29 and I run them together and don’t mix with 1:24 or 1:22…except rolling freight: I agree totally with Kevin and the prototype photo proves his point that mixed sizes of rolling freight is a “real” illusion.

#83

“Some people looking at this picture, might be interested in the rebuilt Aristo Wide Radius switch in the foreground.”

Fred, so what about the rebuilt switch?

#84

The more I see of the C-19, the more I like it. however, I won’t be stumping up the $1300.00 for another sparkie anytime soon.

At the end of this month we have the big [by UK standards] garden railway show at Llanfair Caereinion - coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway. There are certain to be a large number of used steamers there to choose from, maybe even an AccuCraft Climax going for what is a good price here in yUK. If I can find something North American that isn’t a logger, I might go for that.

tac

#85

Fred,

Don’t beat yourself up over what could have been. We’ll plan an afternoon photo session of motive power for next year and put Paul in charge. :wink:

Improvements on the railroad are always a treat every year. Very inspiring and, of course, fun.

#86

I have to say that it has been very civil here. Good going guys. I can recall a similar discussion on a different forum and it was not so civil. Hopefully Joe, you got some good info, I know I have.

#87

Joe;

We replaced the plastic guardrails with Aluminium rail, set at the correct gauge, and replaced the throw bar with a piece of strip Brass. The throw bars get brittle and fail. The Brass is a good replacement, as long as you don’t use track power. The new guardrails, set at the correct gauge to the stock rails, prevent the wheel flanges from contacting the point of the frog. Of course the back-to-back wheel gauge should be correct too.

These modifications to the Aristo Wide Radius switches, make them very much less prone to causing derailments. Any new switches we install are modified before we put them into service.

#88

Ah, Joe… As you say, “worth it” is a tricky standard. For me, it all came down to a choice between " the more the better", and “less stuff–better quality”, of which I finally chose the latter. I think it also depends on your commitment-level to a prototype. I went through that unfortunate phase where I bought anything that interested me, regardless of scale, period, etc. Bad concept, in retrospect. LGB propeller- driven whizbangs, Hartford 1/24 caboose and logging gear, 1/18 vehicles, lots of USA beer reefers, eggliners, Geoffbuilt live steamers, and a ton of other weird crap that was exciting to open, but went nowhere.
When Tony Ferraro and some others really punched 1:20.3, and the Bitchman Shay hit, I got hooked on the size. I still made the mistake of buying anything likeable in THAT scale, too. “If I had a nickel for every…” You know the rest.
Finally, it occurred to me that I should model my beloved D&RGW Chile Line in 1:20.3, and quit screwing around with anything else. My enjoyment and skill blossomed under those limitations. I have far less stuff, but the quality of each piece is lightyears ahead of my old style. When I get those Trainworld emails, I am able to quell my desire to order-up Streetcars, Circus trains, rail artillery and all the other gimcracks that cause me to wet my pants when the UPS guy drives up, but then get shelved away. $$$ is tighter now than it was, but my purchasing is wiser and purposeful. I like this mode a lot better…
john

#89

John Egert said:

…

My enjoyment and skill blossomed under those limitations. I have far less stuff, but the quality of each piece is lightyears ahead of my old style. When I get those Trainworld emails, I am able to quell my desire to order-up Streetcars, Circus trains, rail artillery and all the other gimcracks that cause me to wet my pants when the UPS guy drives up, but then get shelved away. $$$ is tighter now than it was, but my purchasing is wiser and purposeful. I like this mode a lot better…
john

Now here is a man who follows some principles!

I’ve been doing the same since the late 70s. Drives the hobby shop owners, who like nothing better than show you the latest and greatest, almost around the bend.

Between that and quitting smoking back in '76 there was more money to spend on “what fits”.

#90

Wow! I feel like a psychoanalyst here. “So tell me, when did you start having these feelings about your (insert name of person, animal, thing, or occurance here)?” And yes, I have “got some good info,” as Jake wrote. Duly noted, as I’m wont to say.

For now, I’m tempted to stick with 1:22.5 because I have so much stuff in that camp. But as a narrow gauge fan, 1:20.3 is still my dream scale.

At the moment, I’m doing what I do best: flitting among tasks. I know I should be painting my two-story house and experimenting with how I can best fit my Aristo track together into a temporary switching layout. But an hour ago FedEx Ground brought my LiOn battery, the final link in switching to battery power, so this afternoon I will fiddle with my Bug Mauler tender, trying to figure how to position battery, charging jack, Artisto receiver and Phoenix so’s it looks nice and tidy. And hopefully, works too! :slight_smile:

#91

Concentrate on the “works” aspect of the equation. “Neat and tidy” can come later. That’s what tender shells are for, anyway.

Later,

K

#92

Nice and tidy is very good and highly recommended. Rat nests are for rats!

:wink:

#93

Hi Guys:

The general observation of the posts is that:

a) the 1:22.5 scale members really like the 1:20.3 locos
b) the 1:20.3 rolling stock is far too large for most layouts, especially the 1:20.3 passenger J&S coaches
c) the 1:20.3 diesel was far too large for the 1:22.5 crowd
d) the Bachmann 1:20.3 Connie, American 4-4-0 and 2-6-0, C-19 are usable with 1:22.5 rolling stock

The Bachmann 1:20.3 American 4-4-0 looks “OK” with the Bachmann 1:22.5 J&S passenger cars ( until one looks at a historic 1800’s photo revealing the size difference between the loco and passenger cars, so just do not look at a historic photo ! )

John Egert wrote of how he now buys logicially in a planned fashion. I think that includes most of us now as the product line offerings have matured into a full selection.

If I was starting from ground zero, I would buy one Bachmann C-19 and the four car set of Accucraft plastic J&S passenger coaches.

But then I would have missed out on the Aristo Craft C-16 locos and the Bachmann J&S passenger coaches and other 1:22.5 out of gauge items.

So it is all a trade off.

Possibly the best plan is to use the 1:20.3 locos with 1:22.5 rolling stock.

Norman

#94

Norman, yeah, but my Connie won’t go around 4-foot diameter curves, which is why it’s a mantle decoration.

Kevin and HJ: I am plugging away on my battery installation and have things pretty much figured out. However, after HJ spoke up about rats and such, I decided to be neat and have delayed the process so that I can go to the electronics store (not Radio Shack, but a real one) and buy diffirent-colored wire so that I’ll know at a glance where everything is going. When I tore out my old track power setup, I went nuts trying to determine which wire belonged to what.

Because Del Tapparo (one of our guys) recommended stranded wire, that’s what I’m getting. The big problem for me is soldering. Although I was trained how to solder by our gumint, I can’t do so worth a sh**. In fact, I was pleased that my only soldering job of the day, attaching the Tamiya plugs to the Tenergy battery and Tenergy charger, worked, because after about two hours, the red indicator light on the charger went out, indicating that my dandy new $49 batt was charged. Either that or the connection fell apart and the charger just quit running in disgust. BTW, the battery fits real nice inside the coal pile in the Bug Mauler tender and I added a styrene strip strap (say that fast, five times) to hold 'er in place (photos to come).

While installing the battery hold down strap, I also glued a piece of styrene under the tender water hole opening and drilled a hole to accommodate the charging jack. Because it fits almost flush with the surface of the tender, the stock water filler cover would close OK, but since I had an Ozark or some other brand, white metal water tank filler thingy on hand, I’m gonna glue that on 'cause it looks bitchin.

While I’m there, I’m thinking of painting the tender shell. Any thoughts/tips? Just flat black. I was hoping to avoid having to wash down the whole tender shell in soapy water before painting, because I learned that with acrylic, if ya don’t wash off the grease, the paint won’t stick. But maybe if I use Floquil or something unsafe, I can just spray 'er on. What do you think?

Sorry to ramble. Expect a dedicated battery install post soon.

#95

My experience is that if you don’t properly prepare the surface (and that includes cleaning the grease and oil from your dirty hands) that paint won’t stick, no matter what you use.

But, its your railroad.

:slight_smile:

#96

I usually use just plain old dishwasher (Dawn) soap and water to clean most things or use Acetone. It works but have you found anything better?

#97

The view from the cheap seats is: I guess it all depends on whether you have the soul of an artist or an engineer?

As some have mentioned, we all make compromises. For a giggle, I once did the math on the V&T Carson City yard/shop complex… It simply would NOT fit in the average backyard uncompressed. - not even in 1/32! (off the top of my head, IIRC it would have been something like 50x120?)

OTOH, I get a lot of compliments (and only a very few snarky comments - usually from people who seem to only live to make others miserable) on my layout. And it’s nominally 1/24!

http://www.the-ashpit.com/mik/layout.html

Part of what made me switch to LS to begin with was what the Brits call “Rule 8”(ITS MY RAILWAY, I WILL RUN WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT, HOW I WANT, AND IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT… BUGGER OFF!) :slight_smile:

but your mileage may vary

#98

True dat, to all of you. Yes, I have washed my styrene work with kitchen soap because the one time I didn’t, the paint ran like crazy and made a helluva mess, which I then had to clean up before respraying. The only reason I’m a bit reluctant to scruba-dub the tender is 'cause it has genuine Durango & Silverton coal glued to the top and I hate to have it wash off, although I have a ready supply stored away. Maybe I’ll run the loco first, then paint it (most of the time I don’t screw the tender shell back down in case I need to get in there. And yes, I know, don’t pick it up by its ears like LBJ did to his beagle).

Speaking of painting, any thoughts on removing the C&S lettering? Some, like famed airbrush painter Mac (brain fade, forget his last name) says just spray over them, but I’d hate to have a shadow under the new paint. Yes, I’ve heard of ELO, brake fluid and all the other paint removal methods.

Mik, you’re right.

Speaking of telling people to “Bugger off,” me and my coworker were driving back to LA from Houston and after the second day on the road, after dinner, while we were washing down the trail dust, I said, "Ya know Bert, sometimes even I get tired of the sound of my own voice and want to say, ‘Just shut…’ " We got to laughing and swore we’d have T-shirts made with the initials “JST…” Oops, better not post them.

#99

There’s no magic bullet for removing lettering. Some products work on some paints/inks/whatever and not others. Bachmann’s white lettering is a bugger; resistant to many of my usual go-to solutions. On my C-19, I used ELO (Easy Lift Off) and some ultra-fine steel wool. Still took some doing, and I’m really not sure how much the ELO actually helped the process, but it at least made me feel like I was doing something short of just sanding the lettering off.

You don’t need to remove all the lettering, just knock the edges off so they blend in well under the new paint.

Later,

K

#100

I tend to use Acetone and will until I melt what I’m working on!