A matter of scale D
o you ever wonder about the continuing appeal of some of the niches of model railroading such as branch lines, secondary mains with locals identified only by their numbers in the timetable, or even better, shortlines or narrow gauge? Or traction?
I like them all, and on occasion I have wondered why. Recently I had an “Ah-ha” moment, and
now, for myself at least, I have begun to understand a little more. In real life railroads are massive enterprises. Everything about them is big. If you look just at locomotives, they go from big to bigger. A couple of decades ago I went to watch the Chessie Steam Special with its Reading T-1 4-8-4, accompanying a friend and his son, who was only pas- sively interested in trains. The boy was ten or twelve at the time. When the train was a plume of smoke in the distance, the boy was as close to the track as his father would let him be. As it drew nearer, the sound and fury of a steam locomotive at speed–maybe 45 or so miles per hour– dawned on all of us and the boy especially. When it was maybe 100 or so yards away, he started backing up. When the flailing mass of smoke, steam and steel passed in front of us, he was run- ning backward as fast as he could. It was BIG! And that was only a T-1, moderate as 4-8-4’s go and certainly dwarfed by an N&W Y-6, a DM&IR 2-8-8-4, a Big Boy, or even the brace of five GP9’s that was on a following train. Size is certainly impressive, but not necessarily comfortable, as with the boy and the T-1.
That’s where niche operations come in. They are less intense in every way, and I find that com- fortable. I can look at pictures of a two or three car passenger train and see how it might fit my model railroad. It would even fit my sidings. I can relate to a carload of lumber more easily than I can to 100 cars of coal. Regardless of era, I think I could identify with a locomotive roster of six or so locomotives on a shortline road and if I lived nearby, I could probably identify an individual locomotive by type and even by number by merely hearing it pass. Compared to large Class 1 railroads, both the trains and facilities of shortlines and branchlines seem already scaled down for modelers. Their smaller, more manageable size offers advantages when it comes to designing and building layouts and choosing equipment. Narrow gauge trains are even easier to appreciate. You almost feel protective of them, much as you do or did with small children, because they are physically smaller. For modeling, not only were the trains smaller, they were usually shorter, the curves sharper and the grades steeper. You can fit more in less space and have everything look right doing it. Finally, there is traction, where not only were the cars smaller, but the trains were often a sin- gle car crewed by a single operator. There were usually more trains per unit of time over less track than on any other type of railroad, a plus for most modelers. They were more personal, too, since the operators were right there with you, not car lengths ahead. And because you, a passen- ger, were their main source of revenue, you were important. You were a part of the operation. They fit into your world, and you into theirs. The same holds true for freights on interurban lines, where a handful of cars behind a steeple cab made up a typical train. Your own memories and expectations are, of course, the primary factors that define your mod-
eling preferences, but try looking up or down from your existing preferences. You might find an- other approach that can give you equal or maybe even greater enjoyment. And, if not in doing, just knowing about it is interesting.
THOMAS BAILEY
photography/THOMAS BAILEY and CHRISTOPHER P. D’AMATO 38 MAY 2014
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