I happened back across this posting I made to another forum a few years ago. Thought I might repeat it in its own subject thread as it is still very much a guiding theme with my new layout plan. I just like Model Trains,...of all sorts....the scale miniaturization. I'm particularly fond of steam engines, and particularly the large ones. I'm a fan of C&O, B&O, NW, etc, etc. And as a kid of course I had the ubiquitous Santa Fe diesel engine,...those famous worldwide recognizable colors. I had recently returned from Asia and was living in the Wash-Balt area when a company in Balt called Life Like made the bold move to really upgrade plastic trains to nice scale models. They introduced their Proto 2000 line. They introduced a whole line of detailed diesel locos, then they introduced that superb 2-8-8-2 steam engine.....WOW. They set a standard in plastic scale model trains that the others quickly followed. Bachmann, Athearn, etc all jumped on the band wagon to introduce their premium lines as well. Plastic detailing became an art that eventually was a rival to brass locos. I was collecting a little of everything. I would buy some stuff that eventually got superseded by even better stuff, so I would attend the Great Scale Train Show in Balt and sell off older stuff and try to upgrade to the better stuff coming out. I would visit John Glabb's Peach Creek brass shop in Laural, Md, and droll over the brass locos which I considered beyond my reach, but then look what was coming out in plastic a few months later. By this time I had collected quite a few steam engines of various lines, and principle a number of diesels from Santa Fe. So when it came to planning my new layout, how could I choose just one time frame, or location, .....if I wanted to collect and run all of those type trains? I wanted to run steam and diesel, and I wanted to run east coast and west coast lines.....on one layout?? I've decided my trains are going to run from the east coast to the west coast,...Balt to Calif. I'll call it the Continental Connector. Balt will be on the lower deck and Calif will be on the upper deck. Since I am not a stickler on time frames I'll be able to run both modern and older style freight and passenger cars on my layout, and of course steam and diesels. I'm going to have lots of staging that will present any number of variations,...including a few European trains I've collected. Yes it won't be prototypical, but it will be fun. And I hope to get a considerable amount of industry in this space as well.
...and challenging at times, particularly when one is designing a track plan,..a condensed one at that Lets see I need to figure out how to post images/photos on this site.
Just learning this forum. Question, in order to include a photo or dwg on this forum discussion do I need to first up load it to the 'railimages' portion, then select that url of the image? Or is there a more direct route to upload an image from one's computer? And is there an email notification available that lets one know that someone has replied to a discussion you are involved in??
Yes and no. Upload the image in 'Railimages'. Then when posting here, click the camera icon (bottom right of the menu) and your media will appear as another menu full of thumbnails you can click. Just above your first post you'll find the words, 'Watch thread'.
I can't figure out how to add a photo to railimages? Are photos referred to as 'media'? After you add a photo there does it have a 'url address' that can be referenced elsewhere on the internet?....such as when you right click on an image and get the option to 'copy image location' Is there a tutorial site to go to on how to use this forum??
I found this posting,..is it still applicable? https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/policy-image-uploading.46392/ At TrainBoard, we have three ways to upload images. RailImages TrainBoard Albums Attaching images directly to posts
Well It has been my experience that yes your right and no, sometimes it dont work. I will try to help if I can. As far as the Continental Connector model RR. This is a prototype RR image that was defunct by 1983, but I model as if it never went away, and still hosts many thousands of tons of traffic, my grandpa was an engineer for the QA&P RY. This may give you some ideas and perhaps help you in your endeavor. Please carry on.
Thanks Tom, I watched a couple of your MANY videos. Have to come back and watch a few more. I'll fool around with this photo upload question a bit later, as I believe I have solved a dilemma I had reached with a portion of my trackplan,...have to sketch it up and review it.
