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It sure is a niche market, especially because there is the 1/32 scale aproach, however the feeling I get, from reading forums and such (not only this one) is that the 1/32 scale comunity has risen to the chalenge and is beggining to speak out for itself, which I feel is positive. After all most 1/29 scale afficionados mix it generously with 1/24 scale narrow gauge, so I guess it doesn't bother them too much to mix in some 1/32 scale wereas my opinion is that 1/32 scale modelers are much more discerning. The fact that we are now making that scale more present in the garden railway forums, is making the position of 1/29 scale much more on the defensive side, even though they are probably still a majority. I find the fact that neither USA trains nor Aristo craft have announced much new products, seems to reflect the fact that a lot of potential modelers out there are thinking that since 1/29 isn't the right scale, they have been misled and that the superior quality products that MTH is offering makes them think twice about scale. For my generation (born in 1950) which saw the general acceptance of RP25 wheel sets, scale rail height and kadee couplers, being adopted by the industry against their precedent mistakes (coarse scale wheel standards, code 100 rail and X2F couplers) this nonsense about 1/29th scale seems absolutely ridiculous. It ought to be phased out in about five years... Keep up flying the flag fellow scale modelers people need to know we exist. Like I said to many of my friends who bought a lot of 1/29 scale stuff twenty years ago, there is E bay, you can sell it and get correct scale stuff now that it is becoming available. In any case it is heart warming to see MTH turn out a new G scale catalogue before the last two names mentioned. And that gentelmen proves that we just might not be such a niche market after all. Just the quality of MTH stuff in regards to the price seems a very favourable ratio. Long live MTH Gauge one!

About using scale or near scale wheelsets out of doors, I have found that I had the most problems [on a continental Two axle 4 wheels freight car(sprung)] with the transverse level of the track: On my pike there is a deep cut something important main lines have to contend with to traverse rugged scenery and somewhere in the midle of it I had a bad transverse twist in the track, that is where it always derailed. It seems that my american stock mounted on trucks doesn't seem as affected (both on sprung or unsprung like MDC trucks) As the spot is really quite an unpleasant place to reach at my age between two rock sides 2' deep I didn't do much about it, but I have in other parts of the layout. Many years ago I built a track cleaning car that never really worked as a track cleaner and have since rebuilt it as an angle indicator. It has a support on one end made of plywood on which I attached a pendulum from a central hole under this pendulum I made a scale with a few marks with a pencil. I just roll the car over a rough spot of transverse leveling and observe the pendulums indication. it immediately tells me where to jack up or lower one rail in relation to the other and lets me cure these little problems. This may not be necessary with floating track, however my track (code 215 rail) is laid on a concrete base and screwed down to rawlplugs every foot or as needed. This has helped a lot get the track geometry better, it was indispensible when I did some sections with glued scale ballast as I describe in another thread of this forum (the one on the announced MTH 2013 catalogue which somehow slipped to trackwork). This sort of helps do what Lynn Westcott of the Model railroader used to call bonded ballast, but out of doors. However one must be very quick with moss setting in. With live steam being my reason to go to gauge one in the garden, I am quite a freak with trackwork. Live steam can be radio controled but many such as I don't like radio control and prefer a hands on approach. Ok if your track is table top but I wanted mine tofollow the flow of the garden and to be integrated into it, so it is mostly at ground level though much of it is at at least on a one foot fill on the inner side. That means that much of the line is unaccessible to correct a badly set throtle oppening, and those steamers can easely transform themselves into rockets! If one is not carefull. Keeping them tamed is the name of the game and a consist apropriate to the power of the loco is the sollution (just like on the prototype). However with continental hook and chain couplings and buffers, sometimes a train can uncouple it self from the loco, which again tends to becom a missile. That is were very good, safe, reliable trackwork is paramount. Many a bad accidents have been prevented through this on my line. I tend to keep points or turnouts at N° 8 minimum on mainline and a radius of 11 feet on one curve 14 feet on the other. The short radius was descided on the provision that nearly all locos were designed to negociate these radiuses in loco depots or yards at very restricted speeds, so that on our lines with very much reduced centrifugal forces on the one hand and about as much side play between the flanges and the rails as the prototype (in one to one scale, not scaled down) Our engines tend to negociate these radiusses at high speed without problems. I actually had a few nightmares before taking delivery of my T1 on account of its extremly long rigid wheelbase (there is a cylinder block between two sets of 80" drivers), but to my surprise and relief it happens to negociate this minimum radius very nicely. However on purely esthetic grounds I plan to redo this curve to 16' radius when I retire.

The track that has the glued ballast is the outer one where the loco is running the inner track which is hanbdmade track is with unglued out of scale ballast. you can see the difference in the photo quite clearly

On one curve that is exposed to the sun, I have put some scale ballast which I glued with outdoor quality white glue + varnish in the same way used to ballast in HO: You put a drop of dishwasshing liquid in some water spray bottle and dilute the white glue 50% with water. You spread out the ballast dry and when it is OK (take the opportunity to check the radius of the curve and the angle of superelevation at this point). You spray the water, that holds things down; then with a drip bottle you place carefully drops of the glue mix everywhere needed. I then let this dry and repeat the process with a white spirit spray and trickle the varnish more or less the same way I did the white glue. Somehow this section has remained pristine for around ten years. All my other attempts since have had moss grow into the balast ruining everything (unless you model a short line, which isn't my case). This was done with scale size ballast purchased in a gardening store in the pet section, it is sold in large bags of varying colour for aquariums. Unfortunatly this size (around 2-3 mm. size chunks of ballast) Does not stand up in the rain especially during summer thunderstorms and has to be glued down. Elsewhere I use a grit that is from 5mm to 10mm. in size, not to scale but stays prety much where it is during a storm. We get a lot of water in my erea which is only a hundred and fifty miles from the English channel. I will try and post a photo, this was with made at my GTG in 2009 I think it features a Nord railway of France Du-Bousquet 4-6-0 built by my friend John Van Riemsdijk of Aster fame. but at that time it had been sold to my friend John Butler who had extensively rebuilt and redetailed it. John was one of the three English fellows who had restored the real engine on the Nene Valley railway in England 30 years ago, and thanks to whom we now have it back in France where it is being restored to exhibition standards and under a roof in Longueville. There is a move to restore the engine for the centenary of the armistice as it was one of these that hauled the famous train. I added my very typical Nord aproach signal.

I am sorry all the repeats got in on the photo of the GG1, I don't know what happened all I wanted to do was to post a picture of the GG1 so it would illustrate what I said in the prior thread??? Sorry but not too good with computers.

for information to the guys modeling in 1/32 they have announced a PRR E6 in live steam with meth firing wich should be a beauty.

Thank you Larry this is really good stuff, with the adress to order the bushes. I use an old hand cranked drill press as an axle press it has a screw feed, I bought it at a flea market years ago dirt cheap (when I didn't have a cheapo drill press) and now that is its main use great for flywheels and putting on or removing wheelsets on axles.

Forums du-bousquetaire Sign Out View New Content G-Scale Train Forum Forums Members Gallery Blogs Chat G-Scale Train Forum → G-Scale Forums → Locomotives → MTH Kit bashed Southern Pacific FP-7A Post Preview Attached Thumbnails Replying to MTH Kit bashed Southern Pacific FP-7A Post Options Enable emoticons? Enable signature? Follow this topic? Error No file was selected for upload broadway.JPG 321.61 KB Add to Post | Delete Attach Files You can upload up to 4.57MB of files (Max. single file size: 4.57MB) Try our advanced uploader (requires Flash 9) or Cancel Topic Summary du-bousquetaire Posted Today, 06:13 PM I have also tried to redo the bolster on one of my MDC trucks so as to shorten it and thus reduce the slack between my wheelsets ant the journal (This by the way also increasses the bearing surface inside the plastic journal box too) I use some thick styreen to make up a square block that fils up the end of the truck bolster, I then glue this in, using cyanoacrylate glue and redrill at the tighter width. then I run a metal bolt to hold everything together. So far I have done one truck and am letting it run a while to see if it stands up in time. I use Comstock rail wheel sets, I may change to Garry Raymond just because he does so much for 1/32 scale, keep it in the family. (However the comstock rails wheels are perfect for me) I chemically blacken them, then rince them in water, which makes a rusty film once dried out in the sun, I put a coat of matt varnish to stop the rusting they are naturally weathered. When I retire in a couple of years I may make cars on comission like the diner, as we say in France "that would put some butter in the spinach" and with this technique I can make custom orders or small batches. I would also like to develop some castings of basic stuff: Trucks, brake cylinders and triple valves brake wheels and such. More as an aid to scratchbuilders than as a way to make money. But that's still in the futur. This bushing idea is very good, Do describe it for us so we can do some on our cars also. The FP7 is really a very good job especially since those zig zag cutsaren't easy to do right. On my GG1 I turned down the wheel flanges on my lathe it was quite easy to do, I havent done it on the F3 yet. Ialso lowered the body as much as I could (I would have liked to lower it a couple of mm. more but the flywheels would scratch the shell) and hand filed down the pantographs to prototype size although they are not tubular. I will send a photo. My test outdoors without the pick up shoes was hopeless so I had to put them on again. I use brass soles on them so that I don't have to buy a new set every year... I just bend some shet brass over the MTH one and lock it in with a drop of cyanoacrylate glue. I will try and post a photo. Grant-Kerr Posted Today, 04:01 PM xl_special, on 06 Jul 2013 - 04:34 AM, said: Larry, could you go into some further detail with this please. I have a lot of MDC rolling stock and I am intrigued. It looks like you might be using MDC truck frames on your freight equiptment. If you are, I've found a way to add an oil-lite brass bushing in them. It costs about $.80 cents per axle, they roll better and are very quiet. Larry xl_special Posted Yesterday, 04:34 AM Our internet (CenturyLink) is off more than its on, so I need to catch up a bit. The FP-7A was cut using several cuts to the body to preserve the rivet detail. It was more difficult that way, but provided a better body to work with. The PRR diner is totally incredible. You could sell all you could make, but I know how much work it is to build something like that. You'd have to sell them for about $1000.00 each just to break even for all your time. Its really too bad that someone doesn't see how beautiful these scale cars are and produce them so we could all own one. I'm currently building a Union Pacific dome coach, cutting up three MTH cars in the process. I finally got the window arrangement right, but the dome itself is proving to be a real problem. It looks like you might be using MDC truck frames on your freight equiptment. If you are, I've found a way to add an oil-lite brass bushing in them. It costs about $.80 cents per axle, they roll better and are very quiet. Again, your models are incedible and you've really got me going again. Larry du-bousquetaire Posted 04 July 2013 - 04:06 PM du-bousquetaire Posted 04 July 2013 - 04:02 PM Hey it worked! This site is really great! Now I can show what I am up to at the present: A PRR D 78 diner. My method of construction is folded aluminium sheet metal with rivets embossed where appropriate and plates made of old offset sheets for joints under the belt rail (these still remain to be added, at this point). This belt rail was the hardest work to do: making two bands one 1,5 mm. wide and the other around 3mm. wide the full length of the car with a nibling tool and a lot of work to straighten out the result and file it to be as geometrically perfect as possible. folded ends are of two diferent type one angled the other straight, like on the B 60 baggage, floor is 1/43 plywood and the roof is some ex J & M roofs I got from the present owner of J & M. I think I bought his last few ones. Trucks are David Leech it is of course to 1/32 scale. The fun part of all this is that for old timers like me it reminds me of a good old Walthers kit I used to build when I was a teen ager in the USA. I use araldite and small bolts to hold things together the araldite on the ends will be used only at the end of construction. the roof is screwed with mertal screws to strechers inside the body just like in J & M cars there is a fold at the top and bottom of the sides for added rigidity. An aluminum angle is araldited to the inside and the floor is metal screwed to this. The whole is very sturdy yet lightweight, an important feature for the live steamer. This is the fifth car I built using this technique. So far: a French OCEM baggage, a Nord railway of France C11 third class coach, a PRR N5 cabin car a B60 baggage and this. The French baggage fell out of its box from under my arm, survived the crash on a loco depot's concrete floor, was fixed in about a half an hour and is still going strong. du-bousquetaire Posted 04 July 2013 - 03:16 PM Well it didn't work! I will try the second way... du-bousquetaire Posted 04 July 2013 - 03:07 PM Hi: I am trying to attach a photo of my line. It's of the Accucraft T1 and my train, made up mostly of David Leech PRR diagram cars + one B60 baggage that is scratch built of aluminum and a Railway express reefer. there is also one J & M 12-1 pullman. a real Pennsy consist reasonably mixed and un matched as compared to some streamliner consists. You are one hundred percent correct about moving inside, with the kind of weather we have had in the last three years I was seriously considering moving to the sunny south to enjoy my garden railway at least 9 months of the year when I retire. Moving inside is a bit simpler. However with live steam being part of the game it is quite a problem for both safety and ventilation reasons. I am interested in doing a pair of FP7 in Pennsylvania, this would help me wait for a 1/32 scale E unit. I wanted to know if you just sliced in a rectangular part of an F unit body then redid the riveted joint strips (covers) or did a staggered joint like on the prototype but quite difficult to do properly. I guess just splicing in a straight joint then carefully filling of what is unnecessary and adding what is, is the simpler (and neater option) though. Well I hope this works posting this photo, lets see what happens... xl_special Posted 30 June 2013 - 04:45 AM The FP-7A was made from plans in the Summer issue of SP Trainline, page 31. The plans are done in H.O. scale but it was very easy to convert to #1 gauge. If you don't have a copy of this issue, send me an email ltrumbull1@gmail.com and I'll scan the article and send it as an attachment. Let's see some pictures of what you're doing. Its good to see that someone else is modeling in scale. My previous outdoor railroad was also built using a concrete base under the track. The layout I'm building now is all inside, this is because it either rains or snows here about 350 days a year. du-bousquetaire Posted 27 June 2013 - 07:21 PM Hi xl_special: Congratulation, you did a beautiful job. I am thinking of doing the same thing on my PRR F3 converting them to FP7 so that they would be correct for the livery (all other Pennsy F3-F7 where brunswick loco enamel + one buff stripe). And am very interested in seeing how it is done could you show us a few work in progress photos to see where to cut and splice, primarily as I have already done this type of work succesfully. I agree the modular nature of the shell is a great aid in doing this. I am using some Comstock Rail wheelsets on some of my cars since a year and they haven't derailed at all, the newer ones are near finescale with 5MM thread and wheel width and less than 1,5mm flanges. One of my track is homemade on individual wood ties and the other is Tenmille flat bottom. I use 3,35 meter minimum radius and N°8 pointwork nearly everywhere on the pike. Never had a derailment. On my MTH GG1 I have turned down the flanges to 0.9mm and regaged the wheels to 40mm back to back and ditto, no derailments ever. This is on a garden pike with scale rail (on concrete base). My cars are MDC and they have no added weights. This is one of the wonderfull advantages that wide radius brings, and out in the great outdoors why use small radius? I would like to see the Aristo Evans box car converted to 1/32 scale. Take care enginear joe

I have also tried to redo the bolster on one of my MDC trucks so as to shorten it and thus reduce the slack between my wheelsets ant the journal (This by the way also increasses the bearing surface inside the plastic journal box too) I use some thick styreen to make up a square block that fils up the end of the truck bolster, I then glue this in, using cyanoacrylate glue and redrill at the tighter width. then I run a metal bolt to hold everything together. So far I have done one truck and am letting it run a while to see if it stands up in time. I use Comstock rail wheel sets, I may change to Garry Raymond just because he does so much for 1/32 scale, keep it in the family. (However the comstock rails wheels are perfect for me) I chemically blacken them, then rince them in water, which makes a rusty film once dried out in the sun, I put a coat of matt varnish to stop the rusting they are naturally weathered. When I retire in a couple of years I may make cars on comission like the diner, as we say in France "that would put some butter in the spinach" and with this technique I can make custom orders or small batches. I would also like to develop some castings of basic stuff: Trucks, brake cylinders and triple valves brake wheels and such. More as an aid to scratchbuilders than as a way to make money. But that's still in the futur. This bushing idea is very good, Do describe it for us so we can do some on our cars also. The FP7 is really a very good job especially since those zig zag cutsaren't easy to do right. On my GG1 I turned down the wheel flanges on my lathe it was quite easy to do, I havent done it on the F3 yet. Ialso lowered the body as much as I could (I would have liked to lower it a couple of mm. more but the flywheels would scratch the shell) and hand filed down the pantographs to prototype size although they are not tubular. I will send a photo. My test outdoors without the pick up shoes was hopeless so I had to put them on again. I use brass soles on them so that I don't have to buy a new set every year... I just bend some shet brass over the MTH one and lock it in with a drop of cyanoacrylate glue. I will try and post a photo.

Hey it worked! This site is really great! Now I can show what I am up to at the present: A PRR D 78 diner. My method of construction is folded aluminium sheet metal with rivets embossed where appropriate and plates made of old offset sheets for joints under the belt rail (these still remain to be added, at this point). This belt rail was the hardest work to do: making two bands one 1,5 mm. wide and the other around 3mm. wide the full length of the car with a nibling tool and a lot of work to straighten out the result and file it to be as geometrically perfect as possible. folded ends are of two diferent type one angled the other straight, like on the B 60 baggage, floor is 1/43 plywood and the roof is some ex J & M roofs I got from the present owner of J & M. I think I bought his last few ones. Trucks are David Leech it is of course to 1/32 scale. The fun part of all this is that for old timers like me it reminds me of a good old Walthers kit I used to build when I was a teen ager in the USA. I use araldite and small bolts to hold things together the araldite on the ends will be used only at the end of construction. the roof is screwed with mertal screws to strechers inside the body just like in J & M cars there is a fold at the top and bottom of the sides for added rigidity. An aluminum angle is araldited to the inside and the floor is metal screwed to this. The whole is very sturdy yet lightweight, an important feature for the live steamer. This is the fifth car I built using this technique. So far: a French OCEM baggage, a Nord railway of France C11 third class coach, a PRR N5 cabin car a B60 baggage and this. The French baggage fell out of its box from under my arm, survived the crash on a loco depot's concrete floor, was fixed in about a half an hour and is still going strong.

Well it didn't work! I will try the second way...

Hi: I am trying to attach a photo of my line. It's of the Accucraft T1 and my train, made up mostly of David Leech PRR diagram cars + one B60 baggage that is scratch built of aluminum and a Railway express reefer. there is also one J & M 12-1 pullman. a real Pennsy consist reasonably mixed and un matched as compared to some streamliner consists. You are one hundred percent correct about moving inside, with the kind of weather we have had in the last three years I was seriously considering moving to the sunny south to enjoy my garden railway at least 9 months of the year when I retire. Moving inside is a bit simpler. However with live steam being part of the game it is quite a problem for both safety and ventilation reasons. I am interested in doing a pair of FP7 in Pennsylvania, this would help me wait for a 1/32 scale E unit. I wanted to know if you just sliced in a rectangular part of an F unit body then redid the riveted joint strips (covers) or did a staggered joint like on the prototype but quite difficult to do properly. I guess just splicing in a straight joint then carefully filling of what is unnecessary and adding what is, is the simpler (and neater option) though. Well I hope this works posting this photo, lets see what happens...

Hi xl_special: Congratulation, you did a beautiful job. I am thinking of doing the same thing on my PRR F3 converting them to FP7 so that they would be correct for the livery (all other Pennsy F3-F7 where brunswick loco enamel + one buff stripe). And am very interested in seeing how it is done could you show us a few work in progress photos to see where to cut and splice, primarily as I have already done this type of work succesfully. I agree the modular nature of the shell is a great aid in doing this. I am using some Comstock Rail wheelsets on some of my cars since a year and they haven't derailed at all, the newer ones are near finescale with 5MM thread and wheel width and less than 1,5mm flanges. One of my track is homemade on individual wood ties and the other is Tenmille flat bottom. I use 3,35 meter minimum radius and N°8 pointwork nearly everywhere on the pike. Never had a derailment. On my MTH GG1 I have turned down the flanges to 0.9mm and regaged the wheels to 40mm back to back and ditto, no derailments ever. This is on a garden pike with scale rail (on concrete base). My cars are MDC and they have no added weights. This is one of the wonderfull advantages that wide radius brings, and out in the great outdoors why use small radius? I would like to see the Aristo Evans box car converted to 1/32 scale. Take care

Hi Grant-Kerr: Funny you mentioned this, I started making switches and pointwork for a Paris Hobby shop way back in the late '70 too. All my pointwork but one is handmade and I get no derailments on them. They are mostly N° 8 some smaller in yards. I really dug the fotos you posted. If I figure out how to post photos on this forum (I 'm not too good with computers) I will do some of my line. The romance of Class one railroads is worth that extra effort of using good curves and large pointwork, it makes it very difficult to fit into small spaces but the challenge is a good one to master. Right now I am having quite a dilemna in my head because my layout was built and planned with French railways in mind. It is dimensionned OK for a moderatly busy French two track main, but going to US prototype changes everything: The Janey coupler permits 100 car freights, but I don't have the siding capacity (let alone the yard capacity) for that, my turntable is OK for my K4 but too short for my T 1, besides I need a wye to turn my passenger consists at the end of their run for the return... All very fascinating dilemnas to resolve.

Hi folks: I know that there are quite a lot out there who do the incorrect 1/29 scale, but please don't ask for our practically only producer of 1/32 scale stuff to go 1/29 th scale, you fellows have already three major manufacturers working for you plus AML that makes four. We only have MTH and an occasional (but very nice Accucraft model to drewl over) If MTH went 1/29 scale I would probably stop modeling US prototype. I think we should let the scales compete in a liberal way and see who wins, this thread started with quite a few 1/29 affictionados admiring the quality of MTH stuff. Well they are very good performers mechanically and their detailing and proportions are way better than some other offerings I won't mention in that larger scale. And furthermore they are the correct scale - gauge ratio. Why with E bay, there is no excuse, even if you own a huge empire, you can sell it and buy 1/32. It is rather despairing to see that the same error that got 1/48 scale going in the late '30, is about to be replayed again (the correct scale for O gauge is 1/43 scale) . Same as the british with their OO gauge, and in gauge one the ten millimeter per foot scale( the correct is 3/8" per foot). Why have it wrong when you can have it right. The other nice aspect of it in 1/32 scale is you can combine MTH diesels electrics or steam models with Aster and Accucraft live steam (or electrics), and for a steam enthusiast that's priceless. I have been scrutinizing the US garden railway scene very seriously in the last three years ever since I started modeling US prototype again; what do I see: Most modelers working in 1/29 scale mix it indifferently with models of 1/22 or 1/24 scale narrow gauge equipment, which were very different, smaller in reality, and therefore never ran in the same consist with standard gauge stuff (even on three rail trackage there was a significant size difference). Is it the dictatoship of this huge market which is going to tell us how to model a railroad correctly? I hope not! There will hopefully be a lot of beginers who will want this, let them have it, but move on to better and incremently smaller things, that look right, you won't regret it. Just like large curves it will always look and operate better. We need to John Armstrong garden railways a bit. Simon

True, but the prototype only ran on one railroad Erie (the Virginian is a totally different engine with much smaller drivers for the Alleghenies grades) and one that was not very successful in service. It is also a period loco, it's life span was short, from 1914 to the mid twenties, not compatible with much else (the hudson wasn't around then much less the others) But it sure was an impressive beast. Yes MTH should look into the potential for 1/32 scale equipment for the European market. Gauge one is very big in England, in Germany and in Switzerland, it is slowly getting under way in France. For us europeans 1/32 is the scale, as I started modeling US prototypes only 4 years ago, it is the scale for me, not one 1/29 scale piece of equipment in sight or on site. It is very unfortunate that there is this scale problem in the US, it confuses many beginners, on most videos I see narrow gauge cars mixed with standard gauge ones... a thing which couldn't have hapened in real life (Although some narrow gauge cars did run on three rail tracks with standard gauge ones they were the same scale, not a different one). Although I enjoy watching a fine model of a narrow gauge operation, I really find this mixing very childish. It also greatly reduces the amount of things which are manufactured. Especially when one scale manufacturer reproduces all or nearly all of the MTH engines in another scale like USA train did with their Hudson, GG1 PA 1, F3 and big boy. This kind of commercial warfare has done a great deal of harm to European manufacturers in the past, and now they tend to keep to different prototypes, all the better. Well I do hope MTH keeps doing gauge one and 1/32 scale equipment, they are really good. Very good mechanisms, well proportioned. I wish they would offer a scale coupler along with the LGB one like Accucraft does. Also if they would produce some heavyweight cars. There is a great need for their stuff. for us who model electric and live steam. Another thing which I find surprising in garden railway videos is why people stick to short radius curves and pointwork in the great outdoors, where you usually have all the space available you want (which isn't the case indoors usually) It makes those big engines look ridiculous, when a chalenger or a big boy goes over small radius curve the boiler overhang is such that in real life the loco would probably tip over! I guess it's time some of the fabulous input great model railroaders of the '60 and '70 gave to us old timers like John Armstrong, and many others seep into the wonderfull world of garden railroading, to help bring the level of realism up to what ti is in indoor modeling. Not that I have anything against the naive or beggining modeler, if he gets fun and enjoyment that's fine with me. But for those who strive to improve their standards, if only to match the detailing of their models, it would be good to see more attempts at reproducing the real Mac Coy. and they hardly run standard gauge over curves of less than 360 scale feet (and at least twice that on mainlines) Thats about 4 yards radius in 1/32 scale. Try to put a curve like that in your garden and place such a big loco on it: Presto you will see that all of a sudden it starts looking realistic.