The Great Train Expo

I spent most of this weekend (and a bit of money) at the Great Train Expo. I started rebuilding my collection of rolling stock and motive power--and came to a few decisions regarding the layout.

While I might want a more prototypical layout, the fact that I have only 6 feet in width pretty much limits me to a basic loop. Even in N scale, the blobs required for reversing loops simply take up too much room. But if I take my cues from the modular movement, I can have 3 mainlines running around the perimeter of my layout area. I've also decided to break my prototype completely by putting a tunnel under the Cetronia/Dorneyville area. This will let my have continuous runs without completely cramping Alfundo Park. It also gives me the opportunity to model the 8th Street (now the Alburtis Meyers) Bridge. This bridge allowed Lehigh Valley Transit to access its Fairview car barns on the south side of Allentown.

One of my new toys is a DCC Lehigh Valley F7. I also got the NCE ProCab for my DCC solution. So now, it's just a matter of getting lumber and starting to lay the first mainline so we can begin operating as soon as possible. However, since it may be a few weeks before we afford a major lumber & tool purchase, I may settle for a spot where I can have a basic test track.

I've posted 2 new layout designs to my Picasa album.

The Railroad Project begins...

When we were house hunting, one of the desirable traits was a location for a train room. Christine has been fairly adamant about having a layout in the house. She claims it's for purely selfish purposes: if I have a layout, then she knows exactly what to get me for Christmas and birthdays, etc. are taken care of for the rest of our lives.

While the space we can allocate isn't large, it's larger by far than any space I've ever been able to dedicate to model railroading. So for the past few weeks, I've been doing some imagineering.

I realize I hadn't blogged anything in months, but I thought this would be an ideal tool to track my progress into the ranks of rail barony.

So let's start with the "wish list":

• I want to work in HO scale. I'm getting older and N is a bit tiny for my eyes and fingers. (My dad went back to O exclusively as he got older.)
• The model will be a freelance prototype. I want to base the layout in reality, but not be bound by it. I love steam and trolleys (I am my father's son, after all...) but I don't want to be stuck strictly modeling the 1940s. So we're going to pretend that the Conrail merger never happened and that trolleys are still a essential part of transportation.
• Point-to-point operation is prototypical and cool, but sometimes I just want to run trains, so at least one (and maybe 2) continuous loops will be desirable.
• My prototype roads are the Lehigh Valley and Lehigh Valley Transit. (It will be difficult to find equipment here in the Midwest. The local shop caters to Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific.)
• I want to include a model of Dorney Park as it was in the 60's and 70's. This would include the Zephyr (as an N scale model). I'd also like to include the Coaster and Skooters, Zoorama, the Show Boat, the Whip, the Merry-Go-Round and the traffic cop on Dorney Park Road. My model will be called "Alfundo Park" after the clown mascot of Dorney Park.
• I'd love to have a model of the Lehigh Valley's streamliner, the John Wilkes.
• I want to include several landmarks like Air Products and Yocco's. I'd also like to include scenes that have personal significance (even if I have to relocate them a bit to fit them in the model). For example, the church I served in Mertztown was next to the Reading right of way. Every Sunday, the train would come through in the middle of the sermon. Also, the church still had outdoor "plumbing" at the time. (Whit Towers would be so proud!)

Now for the good, the bad, and the ugly...

The Good:

•  I can include rolling stock and interchanges with several other lines:
• Reading
• Lehigh and New England
• Central Railroad of New Jersey
• Lehigh and Lackawana
• Ironton
• Bethlehem Steel (if I extend that far to the east)
• The Pennsylvania doesn't come directly into the area I want to model, but it won't be too far-fetched to see some Pennsy equipment.
• Although Lehigh Valley Transit didn't go to Cetronia and Dorney Park, the Allentown-Kutztown Traction company did. In fact, at one point, this trolley line owned and operated Dorney Park!

The Bad:

• This will be the most complex layout I've ever built. There are many things I've seen and understand in theory that I've never done myself. There will be a steep learning curve.
• I want to install live overhead wiring for the trolley lines.
• The Alfundo Park Zephyr will have to be scratch built. My prototype is an amusement park train which was an inexact copy of the Burlington Zephyr. (Besides, I have no intention of buying an expensive Burlington Zephyr model only to reduce its value by cutting and repainting it.
• This will be an expensive, long-term project. I'm starting practically from ground 0 in terms of tools and equipment.
• I'm really liking the idea of DCC control to simplify wiring and provide all the bells and whistles (literally). But that will add to the expense. It's also a major change from the type of wiring I'm accustomed to doing.

The Ugly:

• I have to leave clearance for all of the entries on the west wall of the basement: storage, laundry, and workshop (as well as the craft room on the west end of the north wall.
• I lose a chunk of real estate to the games closet in the southeast corner of the basement, directly across from the stairs.
• I have to provide access to the water main on the east wall--which is covered by a ceiling-to-floor door. (An access hatch, although less aesthetic, would be easier to accommodate.
• I also have to provide extra clearance to get between the layout and the network shelf on the way to the laundry room.

So where do things stand today?

First of all, I've (finally) joined the NMRA. (For years, I sort of piggy-backed on my dad's membership, reading every issue of the Bulletin.)

Secondly, I've measured the available space and provided clearance for all the obstacles noted above.

Using a map of the basement, I've begun playing with basic layout ideas to maximize the available space. I'm currently leaning toward a "3" shaped layout which will model the area from Trexlertown east to Allentown, then north to Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe).

I've also grabbed a 30' topographical map from the USGS and overlaid the approximate routes of most of the railroads in the area. This will help me to make reasonable decisions regarding the track plan and the industries along it. (One problem that's already neatly solved: a lift out bridge at Lehigh Gap will provide access to the water main. Kind of poetic actually--the source of water for our house models the Lehigh River... )

I've just posted both of these maps to a new Picasa album. If nothing else, this will increase my blogging activity and help provide documentation for the NMRA achievement program.

Wedding Bells

It's been pretty busy since my last blog post. Chris and I started house hunting in earnest. When we made an offer to close on July 30, we decided that the wedding (finally!) shouldn't be very far off. So we planned a quick, intimate, wedding for Friday August 13 (at 13:00, no less).

Pictures are now online at http://picasaweb.google.com/108227556419983569417/20100813Wedding?feat=directlink (although some have already shown up on Facebook, so I'm told...) All of these photos were taken by Chris' brother Steve.

Recently Read: The Sorrow of Empire

Star Trek Mirror Universe: The Sorrows of Empire by David Mack is an example of the best kind of Star Trek novel. It weaves a new story that is firmly anchored in the established mythos without contradicting it. Not only does it adhere to the "facts" established in the various TV series and movies (with the exception of last year's "reboot" film), but also it picks up details from several of the better novels.

There is, however, one source which isn't directly acknowledged by the author: Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels. Consider (Warning! Possible spoilers!):

• both deal with empires on the brink of decline
• one individual (Spock / Hari Seldon) has a plan to shorten the inevitable dark age following the empire's collapse (moreover both plans are based upon probability calculations, although Seldon calls it psychohistory)
• both Spock and Hari must make allowances for random elements which might adversely impact the predicted path of collapse and rebirth
• Hari Seldon creates a hidden Second Foundation to preserve the knowledge of psychohistory and to modify the plan; Spock creates Memory Omega to preserve the Terran empire's science and culture through the dark age
• the Foundation saga features the immortal robot Daneel Olivaw; Sorrows of Empire features the immortal Trill symbiont, Dax

How to account for these parallels? It may be that Mack drew (unconcious?) inspiration from Asimov's Foundation. However, given Asimov's statement that Foundation was based on Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, it's possible that Mack drew instead on this common source. Further, given that Asimov's plots were (dare I say it) eminently logical, it stands to reason that Mack might independently arrive at similar solutions to the plot points of an empire in decline.

Warning! Definite spoilers ahead!

One of the features of Mack's tale that I liked best was that the Mirror Universe seen in DS9 episodes was not a failure of Spock's vision, but a necessary part of it.

I also loved many of the character touches: characters that were essentially the same in both universes but still had telling differences. For example, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Kirk encounters Saavik in the turbolift with her hair down and she comments "It is still regulation, Admiral". In The Sorrows of Empire, Saavik has her hair sheared off in the masculine plebe style.

I was thrilled to read Spock confessing himself as despot, tyrant, and murderer. For Spock, the ends do not justify the means. We even see Sarek acknowledge the necessity of Spock's matricide without absolving Spock of the crime. The ethical quandries of this tale are not easily set aside. Mack has given us a tale of the ultimate benevolent dictator who is ultimately nothing more than a dictator.

Once I get past my tendency to admire the mirror Spock, I find questions lingering in my thoughts:

• Can free will truly exist when one's choices have been guided by another?
• If accurate foreknowledge of the most desirable outcome were possible, would it be ethical to guide a person or persons to that outcome?
• At what point does acting on behalf of the welfare of others become inappropriate interference in their freedom to choose?

If you haven't already done so, I strongly suggest reading Asimov's Foundation series: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, Foundation and Earth, Prelude to Foundation, and Forward the Foundation (listed in order of publication).

You might also be interested in the Foundation books written by other authors after Asimov's death:  Foundation's Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov, Foundation's Fear, Foundation and Chaos, and Foundation's Triumph.

As always, Wikipedia is your friend: Wikipedia: Foundation series.

I also heartily recommend a Trek fan video: Starship Farragut: For Want of a Nail in which the mirror universe is spawned  by alien technology. (I know many devout Trekkies/Trekkers suggest that the time travelling Borg of Star Trek VIII: First Contact spawned the mirror universe. I disagree. It's not the alteration of the first contact between Vulcan and Earth that causes the rift--it's the extreme xenophobia of Earthers that alters the terms of that first contact. This fan video offers a suitable explanation for that xenophobia.)

Press Release: Discovery of the Snackyon

Breaking news from Pennswald Labs, where history is made tomorrow by creating the future yesterday.

Our team of dedicated researchers has discovered the elementary particle of fast food. Dubbed the "snackyon", this particle always travels faster than light (but slower than heavy). This property of the snackyon accounts for several observed results in its interactions with human body tissues:

• A snackyon is absorbed so quickly that it adds mass to several areas of the body simultaneously. This results in disproportionate weight gain in comparison to the actual number of snackyons consumed.
• The snackyon's quick absorption rate increases the appetite for more snackyons. Snackyons leave the digestive tract so quickly that the body's normal satitation mechanisms aren't triggered.
• The snackyon can actually be absorbed by the body prior to the consumption of snackyon-laden foods. Simply looking at (or smelling) snackyon-laden foods may result in weight gain. (c.f. I. Asimov, "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline", 1948.) 

In summary, the snackyon is the particle that makes fast food fast.

Recently Read: Unspoken Truth

In the new Star Trek novel Unspoken Truth, there is a wonderful little nod to Galaxy Quest. In chapter 17 (p. 333) we read:

"That didn't take long," she remarked, stepping daintily over a Thermian's tentacles and settling in beside Mikal, elbows on the bar. "Single malt, neat," she told the bartender. "Jameson, if you've got it."

Aside from Mironova's good taste in beverages, this little gem stood out in my mind because it is, AFAIK, the first appearance of Galaxy Quest characters in Star Trek licensed media.

[In case I have to spell it out for you, at the Galaxy Quest convention, Malthesar approaches Jason Nesmith saying, "We are Thermians from the Klaatu Nebula. We need your help." When Jason's co-stars transport to the space dock, the Thermians who greet them have forgotten to activate their appearance generators and are shown as to be squid-like creatures with tentacles.]

Stupid Corporate Websites

For a lark, I decided to head over to DEWmocracy.com to vote on the new Moutain Dew flavor. And I can't. Why? Because the stupid corporate website (which is Flash "disabled"--but that's yet another rant) doesn't work. There's no entry field for birthdate and the submit button fails.

Obviously, no one tested this site. At least not completely. Maybe they tested their "connect via Facebook" option. I wouldn't know because I won't do Facebook.

The world wide web became a publicly available resource in 1991; the dot com boom has gone bust. It's about time that corporate web designers do basic sanity tests on their websites.

Ah who am I kidding? Websites are seen as part of a company's marketing presence. Which means corporate websites are all about image, not substance. Who cares if it works as long as it looks good.

Feh.