h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks Bluebottle - I appreciate that it wasn't your writing, so especial thanks for the help with clarifying skinnylinny's thoughts.

I've made those tweaks, so hopefully the Layout Entry reads well now.

Many thanks FS

I read the posts in this thread, and your extra information and I think I am clear about the Brake Coach now - I made some tweaks so I hope that's OK.

Details of Eurail added as well, so that's clear now

Unfortunately, the Entry is now queued for moderation, though but hopefully it will be back soon

Page Turner:

A87791700 - Project Page

A87791719 - Introduction
A87791728 - Glossary
A87791737 - Scales and Gauges
A87792105 - Baseboard Locations
A87798361 - The Trains
A87792114 - Themes
A87791746 - Layout
A87791755 - Scenery

<BB<

Thanks BB

A87792114 - Themes

A few questions on this one:

"freight service dropping off and picking up cars from various locations"

- Is 'cars' carriages or goods rather than automobiles?

The Schedules and Timetables section reads a bit oddly to me:

- Do model railways have different maximum speeds on different sections of track?

- I'm not sure of the relevance of mentioning Engine Drivers...

"Be sure to take a picture and add the experience to your log book in both situations"

- What are *both* situations here?

A87791755 - Scenery

First of all, if there were a prize for the best Header in an Entry, I would award it to "The Small Hills are Alive with the Sound of Mod-Roc" - brilliant!

Quite a few questions for this one:

"small cliff faces as found in cuttings"

- What is a cutting?

"push down the edges so that they are very flat, and push down the middle, but leave it thicker in the middle by moulding it with your fingers."

- I'm not clear about what's going on in the 'middle' here.

The Construct Every Mountain section is quite difficult to understand - I see you had some debate about the grid in this thread, so I'll think about that...

- Is masking tape needed on the grid when you cover the wood with Mod-Roc anyway? Do you need to cover the wood with chicken wire, or can you create mountains from chicken wire on its own?

"Once the ballast has dried, remove the masking tape from the points and check that they are still working and not glued solid"

- What would happen if they were glued solid?

In relation to electrofrog points, do small trains always struggle on insulfrog points, or just sometimes?

"Hornby's point motors which have since had their design changed, making them impossible to connect to the signal unless you can find the old, flat, mark one type"

- mark one type of signal? or motor?

"This will still not make your surface look like real grass, but it is a start."

I was a bit puzzled by this, as I couldn't see any other information about what to do to make the surface look like real grass.

I also couldn't visualise the 'best model trees' - mention of hot glue was a bit confusing. Could you explain that a bit more and I will think about how to tweak the sentences?

" small twigs with many crotches "

What are crotches in this context?

The Rolling Stock section seems out of place in this Entry - should it be in the Trains Entry?

A87791755 - Scenery

Tav's the lead writer on this one, so I'll let her have the first opportunity to address the points you've raised, although I am happy to answer any queries she'd like to delegate to me.

I will just quickly discuss a cutting as it's another phrase that should be added to the Glossary.

A cutting is where the railway passes through an area of land where the land on one or both sides is higher than the trackbase of the railway line, and the railway trackbase has been artificially lowered by cutting away the soil that was there originally in order to reduce the gradient that the train ascends or descends. A cutting is normally found when a railway is passing through hilly country. It's sort of like an open-top tunnel.

So a cutting cross-section would look a little like this: ~ ~

The opposite is an embankment, where land is artificially raised to support the line.

<BB<

A87791737 - Scales and Gauges

This was the most challenging for me to get to grips with, but I think it is a very useful component of the Project...

In the Scale section, first of all, I think the scale relates predominantly to the track, so the occasional mentions of the 'engine' should be changed to 'track', is that right?

"•Gauge 1 - 10mm = 1 foot scale (1:30)
Gauge One" - is that "also known as Gauge One"?

When I got to 18mm gauge, I got very confused, but I think that's because the reference scales are given to 1 foot rather than to the 4ft 8½ in full size. Is that a standard way of writing scales? Is there some way to add more information to avoid confusion?

Why is re-wheeling needed for 00 Gauge to run on EM?

Proto4 gauge - why is that also 4mm to 1ft like EM?

"•N gauge - 2mm = 1 foot scale (1:148 'British N', 1:150 in Japan, 1:160 elsewhere)
Short for Nine mm, this is the world's most popular small-scale railway."

What does this mean? Are real world railway tracks different width in different countries?

"H0 scale is the global standard for model sizes between 0 and N scale"

What does this mean?

A few questions on this one:

>"freight service dropping off and picking up cars from various locations"

>- Is 'cars' carriages or goods rather than automobiles?

Please replace 'cars' with 'wagons' throughout the Entry US coming through

As I read through to help answer your comments I noticed;

>What Type of Operation Are We Running?

>Railway operations are basically divided into two areas – passenger and freight service. These are seldom combined in a single train as the passengers would be inconvenienced by the marshalling of carriages along the route. Only a very small railway in a rural setting would resort to this practice

*****

In this case 'carriages' needs to be replaced with 'wagons'

>The Schedules and Timetables section reads a bit oddly to me:

>- Do model railways have different maximum speeds on different sections of track?

They can if you want them to, it's your railway If you bring home an expensive brand new locomotive and watch it jump the track on a curve and fall to the floor, you might wish you had set a speed limit for that section of track as you sweep up the pieces . It also adds a challenge to take the hobby another step beyond just 'watching the trains go 'round'.

>- I'm not sure of the relevance of mentioning Engine Drivers...

This was intended to emphasise the importance of schedules in real world railways, but it might just be an old man's recollection of his Grandfather. In any event I would like to keep it for selfish personal reasons

>>"Be sure to take a picture and add the experience to your log book in both situations"

>- What are *both* situations here?

Situation 'A' You run your train on someone else's layout.

Situation 'B' Someone else runs their train on your layout.

Thanks, you are making great progress on the project

F S

A87791737 - Scales and Gauges

Gauge 1 - 10mm = 1 foot scale (1:30) - Gauge One - is that "also known as Gauge One"?
Yes – 'also known as Gauge One or One Gauge....'

In the Scale section, first of all, I think the scale relates predominantly to the track, so the occasional mentions of the 'engine' should be changed to 'track', is that right?
Well, sort of. The trouble is you cannot tell just by looking at the track whether the track is supposed to be representing Standard Gauge, a narrow gauge or a broad gauge, but if you look at the engine and/or rolling stock, you can. You could change the sentence to 'A model railway's scale is the model's size when compared to the full-sized engine and/or track'.

Are real world railway tracks different width in different countries?
Yes – in the UK, Standard Gauge is 4 feet 8½ inches, a measurement based on the commonest width for a cart horse to pull a mine cart, mainly because on the earliest railways they wanted to be able to use horses if the engine broke down. In many countries wider gauges are used, as they have the benefits of greater stability and the ability to carry more passengers and/or heavier goods.

H0 scale is the global standard for model sizes between 0 and N scale
Although in the UK OO is the most popular model railway size, worldwide it is eclipsed by H0 scale in the mid-sized model railway range. (0 Gauge and bigger are considered to be large model railway, N scale and smaller are small model railways.) H0, OO etc, being neither large nor small, are comfortable sized model railways. Of the railways in this Goldilocks zone of not being too big nor being too small, worldwide H0 is the most popular.

I got very confused... because the reference scales are given to 1 foot rather than to the 4ft 8½ in full size. Is that a standard way of writing scales?
Yes. It's very bizarre – I think it is because model railway enthusiasts in Britain, in recreating the era of steam, use imperial measurements as that is what the railways were built to – yet also use millimetres when measuring the often very small models. So we have small measurements in millimetres, big measurements in feet. But then I buy my Irn Bru in 2 litre bottles, but my milk in 4 pint bottles, so I too mix and match my measurements.

Why is re-wheeling needed for 00 Gauge to run on EM?
The main problem with OO is that the wheels are technically not quite to scale. They are a bit bigger than they would be on an exact scale model, in order to help keep the model on the track. As EM was an attempt to make a more accurate model railway, to go from OO to the more accurate-sized EM, you need more accurate-sized wheels.

Proto4 gauge - why is that also 4mm to 1ft like EM?
As technology has improved, the ability to make models to the exact scale has also developed. OO originated in the 1920s and weren't particularly accurate, but close enough to become extremely popular. This wasn't exact enough for some modellers, who found the slightly disproportioned wheel size very upsetting, and so as technology improved and models could be made more accurately, EM was introduced, which again wasn't quite 100% exact (being half an inch out when scaled up), leading to P4. (Obviously I wouldn't describe this as quibbling over microscopic differences that no-one would ever actually notice in a million years, but it is.)

Hope this helps

<BB<

Thanks FS

"Please replace 'cars' with 'wagons' throughout the Entry"


Sorry - the "marshalling of carriages" thing was me messing around - now fixed to "wagons"

Speed Limit section tweaked

"This was intended to emphasise the importance of schedules in real world railways, but it might just be an old man's recollection of his Grandfather . In any event I would like to keep it for selfish personal reasons "



"both situations clarified"

Thanks BB - that was very helpful, so I have made some tweaks.

I realised I was getting muddled up between scales and gauges, so that didn't help for starters.

I also realised I was confused because of getting fixated on British standard gauge - it's one thing to say you buy 0.568 litres to the pint, but it's another to say actually how many pints you buy...

I understand the 4mm to 1ft scales better now - EM being 4mm correct to the nearest whole mm, whereas P4 is 4mm correct to 3 decimal places, so much more accurate

Phew - quite a few changes made there, but I hope it's OK.

A87791728 - Glossary

I've made quite a few changes to this, in particular adding an introductory paragraph. I added in the extra items that were mentioned in this discussion, too

The only other term I thought needed adding was "rolling stock".

Let me know what you think and I'll make more changes accordingly

I'll try to answer most of these questions next week. Not sure if I can answer all because the passages are mostly from the original Entry.
Give me a few days please.

No problem if there is something that was taken directly from the original that you're not clear about either - we can think about them together and see how it goes.

I'm happy with the Glossary - looking good.

If there are any questions you'd like to delegate straight away, Tav, then feel free to let us know which, if any, questions you'd like to answer, and which, if any, questions you'd like the rest of us to answer.

<BB<

Sorry for the delay, I had the flu.

"push down the edges so that they are very flat, and push down the middle, but leave it thicker in the middle by moulding it with your fingers."

I know what it means and I'll try to explain... the plaster bandage should get a smooth edge that seems like it grows out of the wooden plate that is used as underlaying construction of the railway. The middle of the plaster should be higher and the plaster should be thicker at this place, to form a hill. It can also be a bit wriggly and such, depending on the landscape you want to form.


'- Is masking tape needed on the grid when you cover the wood with Mod-Roc anyway? Do you need to cover the wood with chicken wire, or can you create mountains from chicken wire on its own?'

You need the masking tape or chicken wire to get a surface on which you can stick the plaster. The chicken wire is also good because you can bend it and therefore get more shapes than with masking tape, because (I imagine) with masking tape you can only connect the pieces of wood in a straight line. You can not use only chicken wire if you want to make higher mountains because it would be too instable and would probably bend too much if you apply lots of plaster.

' "Once the ballast has dried, remove the masking tape from the points and check that they are still working and not glued solid"
- What would happen if they were glued solid?'

Well, basically the ballast would get in the way of the moving parts when they try to move and there's a high probability that they then would not move anymore.

'In relation to electrofrog points, do small trains always struggle on insulfrog points, or just sometimes?'

sorry, I have no idea

' "Hornby's point motors which have since had their design changed, making them impossible to connect to the signal unless you can find the old, flat, mark one type"
- mark one type of signal? or motor?'

I also don't know this one, I'm afraid

'"This will still not make your surface look like real grass, but it is a start."
I was a bit puzzled by this, as I couldn't see any other information about what to do to make the surface look like real grass.'

This one is probably my own fault. To achieve real grass look, especially in larger scales, I think it looks best if tufts of grass (http://www.modelrailwayslimited.com/model-railways/grass%20tuffs%20l.jpg) and other longer grass things which you glue on the scenery individually are used in places. You can also get flowers and stuff to create meadows and fields.
This is an example of what I mean: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n0o38cED2cM/UB4n8KoswxI/AAAAAAAAAyI/pY-4ALGUX64/s1600/Finchley+N+gauge+model+railway+188.JPG
It's not just grass litter or static grass but has added tufts and undergroth.

'I also couldn't visualise the 'best model trees' - mention of hot glue was a bit confusing. Could you explain that a bit more and I will think about how to tweak the sentences?
" small twigs with many crotches "'

Sorry, this is also my fault, I could clearly not find the right translation for 'Verzweigung'. Maybe forks?
So, you take a little twig of the size your tree should have, or a bit smaller.
Then you take pieces of lichen which you can buy in bags http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/9/4/6/4/6/6/webimg/666397354_o.jpg
It's soft usually. You can also go to a forest and collect moss, which will get hard after a while when it dries. I guess they but some substance on the lichen so it stays soft.
Next you get a glue pistol http://homeexperiments.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/hot-glue.jpg and when it's hot you use it to glue the lichen on the twigs. Hot glue is in my experience the best way to glue lichen.
The result looks about like this http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/models/scenery/treemoss.jpg
and this is a whole forest http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/sites/model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/users/rtw3rd/N%20Scale%20Tunnel%20portal.jpg


'The Rolling Stock section seems out of place in this Entry - should it be in the Trains Entry?'

Yes, I think it should be moved.

>> "Once the ballast has dried, remove the masking tape from the points and check that they are still working and not glued solid"
- What would happen if they were glued solid?'

> Well, basically the ballast would get in the way of the moving parts when they try to move and there's a high probability that they then would not move anymore.

First you remove any bits of ballast with tweezers or a pin, and then try to remove any glue with solvent. In a worst case scenario the points will have to be replaced.

F S

Hi Tavaron - thanks for your reply, much appreciated. Sorry you've not been well, and I hope you're soon well again.

I can visualise the mountains better now, thank you (My mental picture of chicken wire was wrong, but I understand your description that it isn't strong enough to hold up a mountain by itself). I tweaked the section, and hopefully it is clear to you as well, but let me know if further tweaks are needed.

Sorry I didn't ask the question about the glued points clearly - thanks to Florida Sailor for answering what I meant to ask

Thanks for explaining about the tufts of grass - details added.

I tweaked the Trees section, so hopefully that makes sense to you as well.

I have moved the mention of trains to the Trains Entry.

Just a couple of questions left in the A87791755 - Scenery section:

~ In relation to electrofrog points, do small trains always struggle on insulfrog points, or just sometimes?

"Hornby's point motors which have since had their design changed, making them impossible to connect to the signal unless you can find the old, flat, mark one type"

- mark one type of signal? or motor? ~