Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society's magnificent spread
Wired's Raw File blog has a beautiful photo-gallery of the magnificent model railroad spread at the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society, under construction since 1974: "The society's control systems are a steampunk fantasy: a roomful of vintage 1930s magnetic relays once used to route phone calls, clacking like mechanical dominoes with every move the amateur engineers make. A full complement of 30 members can run 10 individual trains simultaneously on the layout, though only a dozen or so are required for basic operation."
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While I admire the detail put into the models, I've always wondered what exactly you do with it. The more complicated layouts are definitely more than just watching the train move around in the circle, but do you set them up and on collision courses and then try to stop them, or what? If you had some sort of computer controlled layout where the trains actually loaded and unloaded cargo, that would be cool.
Of course I have the "Why isn't this all just computer controlled?" question about real trains as well.
Holy God.
I remember going to this place with my dad as a kid. I haven't thought about it in ages.
I wasn't nearly as into trains as he was, but even to me it was mind-blowing. The sheer level of effort, artistry and bodged-together technology is just staggering.
In hindsight, it's pretty obvious that my dad was as big a geek as me, just about something else.
I need to cut myself off before I get seriously melancholy.
I belonged to a model railway club in the UK when I was about 12. It was smaller than that one (64m2), but still took several people to operate it.
The only circle on the layout was on the tram line in the city part, which was separate from the rest of it (that was a circle because it was boring to operate. I think there were magnets under the track to slow the train down at the stops).
The main railway was linear (actually, a U shape) with a large terminus station at one end, and a hidden (from public view) set of sidings at the other. Someone had worked out a full timetable for it, which was cyclic (i.e. after running all the trains to the timetable they were back where they started). It wasn't computer controlled, so each person had to set the points (switches) for the tracks they controlled before setting the "signal" to green to accept a train from whoever controlled the previous track. They also controlled the speed.
I went with the club to a massive model railway show in London, and ran part of the layout all day.
I stopped going to the club when I was about 13. I was interested in making a computer controlled layout, but the old men (so, 95% of the club) weren't. They were more interested in steam train models with actual steam.
Also, the technology for fully computer controlling them wasn't really around back then. You had to control the trains by isolating different bits of track, and making sure there was only one train on each live bit of track at once (otherwise both would move). Now, with better electronics, I think you can have all the track live and send signals to the trains telling them how fast to move.
(There are some computer-controlled railways, generally subway lines. One of the subway lines in Paris is, and so is the Docklands Light Railway in London. High speed trains are controlled partly by computer, in that computers restrict what the driver can do -- that's because the trains go too fast for a person to reliably see a trackside signal.)
Hurrah! I went to this place plenty of times as a little kid (it opened when I was four) and now I take my kids there at least twice a year.
They are only open to the public about 8-10 weekends a year, so if you want to check it out (and it's a bargain time-sponge, at $2 admission), check ahead: http://www.wcmrs.org/
Reminds me of the opening scene in Steven Levy's book Hackers, at the model railroad club at MIT; the club was divided between people who built and maintained the models themselves and those who built and maintained the relay system, which was essentially an electromechanical computer.
I love the Walnut Creek Model Railroad, I used to take my son there whenever they had an open house. Still manage to get there about once a year. The attention to detail is incredible. @Halloween Jack, thanks for reminding me about Levy's "Hackers." Great book; I need to read it again!
COAXIAL: asked what do you do with it?
Most models are about the building, doing / displaying, is just killing time until you start the next project.
Never mind the trains, lookit all them wires! Awesome.
I used to vist this layout in the mid-70's (we moved out of Walnut Creek in 1978, IIRC)... It was very impressive then, I'd love to go back and see it now.
I'd forgotten about it until Cory posted this story - thanks!
I now live near the World's Largest Model Railroad (no, not this one in Germany), and by comparison is SUX - they went for size over detail, there are huge swaths of landscape that are nothing more than cheesy green felt with a little fake grass glued on. Kids like it, but after about age 12, they pick up on the compromises...
Northlandz is built using a zillion "consumer-grade" power packs and the trains seem to just be on continuous loops...
Oh, and here's a link to one of the most famous Model Railroads - John Allen's Gore and Daphetid. Others have asked "Why do they do it"? Well, in John Allen's case a large part of it was for photography...
It was lost in a house fire a long, long time ago...
A bit late, but I see the link didn't make it - here's a link to the Gorre and Daphited RR Galleries.
Enjoy!