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Here are a few photos from Dale's visit to the Denver Garden Railway Society back in August. He and his son, Jeff Rood, worked as a team to film the visit for Model-Railroad.TV. Click here to watch.
Kevin Strong
Dale behind the scenes
Jeff and Dale Rood, father and son team
Jeff behind the camera
When we filmed at the Denver Garden Railway Society’s trackage at the Colorado Railroad Museum in August, I learned that that “G-scale” is an incorrect term. Why? G-gauge is the large scale gauge track used by most garden railroaders, consisting of track that is 1.75” wide.
The problem is there are a number of scales that use that same width track. The day we were there, there were three different scales operating there: 1:22.5, 1:29, and 1:32.
Kevin Strong’s live steam mikado is 1:22.5 and is a model of a narrow gauge East Broad Top locomotive. With the G-gauge being narrow gauge for this loco, it meant the size of the model is actually larger than a model of a standard gauge similar piece of equipment. The live steam equipment there was in all three scales.
Most of the electrically operated equipment is 1:32 scale. I understand from what they said that the 1:29 scale is actually a more accurate scale with G-gauge than 1:32. They said that 1:29 and 1:32 scale equipment is somewhat interchangeable and they do occasionally run the two scales together.
HO scale and OO scale have a similar compatibility. They both run on HO gauge track. OO scale is much more common in Europe than it is in the United States.
Also like 1:29 and 1:32 G-gauge, I understand that OO scale is actually truer to standard gauge prototype equipment than is HO scale.
--Dale
Click here to view the film on our visit to the Denver Garden Railway Society. Special thanks to Jeff Rood, Dale's son, for filming this footage.
You may have heard about ModelRailway.TV, our sister site in the United Kingdom. Just like your Model-Railroad.TV, MRW.TV releases great new films every week about scenery projects, technology and track projects, as well as interesting layout and full-scale visits.
Every now and then, we like to share films created for MRW.TV with the viewers of MRR.TV for a taste of what is happening in our offices "across the pond." It is difficult to share some projects as scales and terminology are different in the UK hobby, but for certain topics it is very appropriate to share.
As such, we at MRR.TV are bringing you three new project series from our friends at MRW.TV: Making Trees, Building Bridges, and Airbrushing Techniques. All are multi-part series that have been filmed in our UK offices with MRW.TV producer, Nick Duxfield, and the late Nigel Overington.
Check back at www.model-railroad.tv often as we will be releasing the films in these series each week. Look also for great new content from our very own US studios.
Airbrushing Techniques with Nigel Overington
Building Bridges with Nick Duxfield
Making Trees with Nick Duxfield
North Platte, Nebraska, is a railroad town through and through.
It’s main feature and major employer is the Union Pacific Railroad which has its Bailey Yard there. Bailey Yard is the crosshairs of the Union Pacific system through which the vast majority of its east-west rail traffic is funneled.
One of the interesting and often overlooked features of this railroad town is the small but significant rail exhibit in Cody Park.
It contains the 3977, one of only two UP Challenger steam locomotives still in existence. The other, of course, is the 3985, one of UP’s two operational steam locomotives.
It also contains a DD40A, one of UP’s double motor super diesels rated at 6000 horsepower while it was operational.
As you can see from the pictures there is other rail equipment on display, along with the station building for Hershey, NE. Hershey is the next town west of North Platte and the last town before the coal line into Wyoming splits from UP’s east-west main line.
Admission to this museum is free though there is opportunity for donations to support the exhibit. It is well worth going out of your way to visit if you are ever traveling through Nebraska.
Cody Park is located on US Highway 83 just north of the US 83/US 30 intersection in North Platte. You’ll have to go deep into the park, bearing to your right, to find the train display.
--Dale
