I purchased a bunch of plastic sheet products from you a a couple of months ago, & I'm glad I took your recommendation to go up a scale. The HO will look just fine for my N-scale builds. Great Video, DJ! -Mike
Really appreciate your background info in these videos, the drone shots and the history along with real world railroad operations and then modeling advice. Doesn’t get much better. Thank you.
DJ - love your channel since I found it, I have got to say this, in my opinion, this is your best video to date! From intro to some incredible tunnel/portal tips I had not seen before, I took notes! Loved the Nascar comment at end! Thanks for sharing!
I absolutely agree with you on your comments about amazing drone footage! I'm a grand trunk guy but I loved them shots from the Bessemer a while back top notch man cheers DJ take care
I would like to suggest a different way to cut your tunnel portal. Cut up the center line from bottom to the curve. Then cut along the curve in both directions to the line marking your widest point. Turn the plastic over and score along the lines marking the widest point. Turn it back over and fold the center pieces down ward on a sharp edge to a 90 degree angle . Slide the tunnel portal into the tunnel .You now have a tunnel portal with a liner for the first couple of inches. Love your videos.
Hi ya DJ. Nice magic trick with the laptop. And another great tip on how to make a proper tunnel portal. Inexpensively. Thanks. I look forward to your next update. Take care.
This will play well with a T-Trak module I am planning on building later this spring. I used to use paper towel rolls cut to about 2 inches, slit open and painted flat black inside. That was actually quite successful for single track tunnel portals. Never considered using brick sheet stock for the liner. Will be trying that for this upcoming project. Guess it is time to get my order in.
Always a great video DJ !!! I just really enjoyed all the time , effort , knowledge and positivity you put into all your work!! I am going to revisit my tunnels later on!
Nice video. It sometimes amazes me how many modelers will add curves and tunnels without thinking about "Why the railroad would have done that". The railroad always wants the straitest, flattest rouge they can make for the cheapest price. PS love the drone footage at the end.
Back in the day, the early 1950's, the B&O's Howard Street Tunnel was double track for passenger trains and nominally single track for freights. The passenger tracks were in the normal location for a double track tunnel - the freight track was a gauntlet track that was in the middle of the tunnel and took advantage of the higher clearance of the arch in the center of the tunnel. Shortly after the B&O stopped their passenger service between Washington and New York the passenger tracks were removed and only the freight track remained. Over the subsequent years the clearance has be raised, when I worked in Baltimore 17'3" open top auto racks could operate at track speed (25 MPH) 17'5" racks were restricted to 10 MPH. In the 2000's the tunnel can handle 19'2" auto racks and double stacks - a project is now being undertaken to permit the movement of 20'2" auto racks and double stacks. I don't know when the projects expected completion is.
Great details - thanks. I was waiting for the tunnel to disappear at the end. ;-) ... Ditto on the running speed of trains. Here's a quick way I use to calculate speeds. My SW9 is 45 ft. long (for round numbers). If it goes past a point on the rails in 1 second, it's travelling 45 fps (feet/sec). Using a calculator (iphone or online) that converts to 30 mph. So - if I want to go at 10 mph, (15 fps) it should take 3 seconds to move past a point. That's actually challenging for a lot of models to run that slowly and still be smooth.
Learned a couple things on this video. I made a tunnel as a visual exit/entry point on my layout (videos are on my page) that I can add to things learned from this video to make it better. And I believe i was in your area the other day. I was running sourh on hwy 28 by Pittsburgh and I swear I saw familiar track lol
Great video as always -- I used some of the "HO block" that I grabbed from you back at the Monroeville show for inside my N-Scale tunnel !! :-D Looked great! (and that footage at the end of AVR -- pretty sure that was over the Mon, not the Allegheny ... Isn't that the sandcastle parking lot ? )
LOL!! I didnt even realize I said that! HAHAHA. I was thinking AVR, so naturally my unscripted brain has a brain fart moment. I am doing the N Scale show in Sept. Hope to see you there.
@@djstrains I'm thinking that diorama you used for demo purpose is pretty close to perfect to turn into a T-TRAK module :-D Then you can join in on the fun with us IronCity N-Scale guys next time around :-D
I just found this video, and lucky for me I want to build a HO scale tunnel diorama.. just to do something different in my collection of buildings and have been wondering how I should go along doing this
Burke,Idaho,a ghost town in the Idaho panhandle,sat in a valley so narrow that the rail line had to be run through a hotel lobby. Now I know that’s not a tunnel as such,but this video reminded me of it,and I thought something like that might make a good modeling project. Are you familiar with any such structures in your area?
Nice modeling tips and engineering and period details, thanks. About those slow speeds: Which scale does the slow speed the best, or does it depend mainly on the quality of the electronic controls?
On new years I made the decision to close my website and most social media and change my focus. I have other goals for 2024, but maybe in 2025 I might return to the hobby
So I could leave the single track on one side and a rail to trail on the other side like Harper`s Ferry and thow some boulders in the river like a rock slide?
