This Saturday

My intent this weekend is to do a classic "South Florida Four Pack" Outing. I will and boy do I mean will post my findings and likely copy a trip report to this fine blog for the enjoyment of the community. This includes a classic trip to the Hobby Store, IKEA Fort Lauderdale, Aventura Mall, and more. This as a fun fact will be my first visit to Ready to Roll Trains AND Warrick's since January. Hope they have Miami Sub layout friendly assets. This layout is still on for a go!

Lufthansa 462-10

On June 10th and from there LH's flight 462 from Frankfurt, Germany to Miami, FL will be chartered by an A380. Of course, this enhances filming ops along the Homestead Subdivision and is definitely encouraging for the Trainz creation thereof. Here is a what-if look from Flight Simulator X of an A380 tapping Runway 9, the presumably choice runway for the big monster jet.

You can follow an unofficial "event" on Facebook until June 10, when the flight arrives. By trade, it's a "Public Event" and anyone can join in. Look for my video on YouTube from June 11.

Rail Line Informational Videos

Look for a series of kinda Danny Harmon style, narrated, videos of the Miami and Homestead Subdivisions to surface on my YouTube this summer. Except, though that it is more of a general overview and not a "current events trackside" video. My main summer project is to embark on these runs and combine footage attained this summer with previous High Definition footage.

Airports

The Miami Sub passes by KFLL off the west tip and the Homestead Sub, which is also part of this blog, the east. To a layout builder this can be a challenge well taken as these jumbos are huge in 1:87. I have a selection of videos from KFLL and one more in the making from KMIA (Miami International) which will be a look back at Lufthansa's Boeing 747 service before the conversion to A380-800 which is impending.

My layout in the making has parts of South Dania. I guess what I can do is have a plane model "landing" but more significantly I would need to pull a photoshop on the airport as the table will not have a back drop from what I have arranged.

The Homestead Sub Part 2

The Homestead Sub is presently my alternate choice. Now, there are so many industrial options there as well, and trains caught on Monday, May 9, 2011 stress this.

• On Monday Morning V157, the Corbin, KY-Miami, FL coal train arrived.
• O721 left for CYDX with empty hoppers and loaded cement tubs
• Y220 left for the Lehigh Spur with loaded coal hoppers, empty coal ash hoppers, and three boxcars.
• O721 returned with 2 presumably loaded rock hoppers for local distribution and two empty Covered Hoppers from Orr Water Treatmeny
• Y220 returned with those three boxcars since they go to a Hialeah industry.

You can see the last three bullet points with this video.









Unlike the current strategy for the Miami Sub which would have limited provisions, this idea also seems a bit attractive because of the variety. I can start from that West Rail industry, model the Lehigh a short bit, and model the Homestead's four industries. This also shows the first time there were two simultaneous jobs since January.

Alternates are good to explore in the event the Miami Sub may be a slightly overrated project. Hell, I didn't bench yet and will soon in one month.

Model Representation of Close Calls

South Florida, with its reckless drivers and immense number of grade crossings, is prone to a lot of accidents on the tracks. Ted Marshall had the lucky privilege of catching Q453 ALMOST and I mean by centimeters hit a car who got trapped by the quadrant gates. Though I thought that quad gates are supposed to detect a car and open up, they actually kept the driver and passenger stuck between the enter and exit gates. Unfortunately for them, Q453-07 the Waycross to Miami manifest train was on the east track (Track 2).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywnfYQ8iZ10

This for me is a model opportunity. NW 15 St. I believe is protected by quad gates and I just might put a car barely making it on the exit gate, and its direction can be changed based on what track the train is using. This can be a useful tip for all model railroaders who want to represent something as crazy as this. :P

Amtrak P42DC Coincidence

Walthers's new run of Amtrak Genesis P42DCs are numbered 1 and 67, which imply a "coincidence or not" situation based on the FEC special last year. Those two led the charge on that train.

Functions of Benchwork

So benchwork is coming soon for this fine layout, which will be modular. There is one thing that can be innovated, and this is space for storage underneath the layout. People do it and people don't do it. The place of choice I'm setting this up in has a lot of items being stored there. I feel as though the new Homasote based setup can afford decent storage beneath it using the supports to hold up shelves or just retain bigger boxes (ie. Sterlite 110Qt bins). A contrasting feature is the wiring, which has to be troubleshooted. I'd give a few inches of space where there isn't shelves and if there are shelves, just have them removable. Though, you could limit joints to an open area or just have the joints of the wires occur in a open space while the continuations of the wire don't have to be removable. As I bench I will do the experimentation with such options.