State of N-Scale: Does it Say Something that VRE is So Easy to Model?

[jmlaboda]

"They are called, across the board, 'Gallery Bi-Level Railcars."

I stand corrected... see the PM I sent you...

[cjjd6901]

Could someone please call Atlas and request a GP40 in VRE and another in MARC.  It could be the MK rebuild into the gp39 so a pretty scheme on the 40 body would be great.  I would really, really like one of each 

I can dream-

   Chris

[packers#1]

On a few weekend stops in Atlanta, we've taken advantage of MARTA (Atlanta's rail service) and have enjoyed it. You can park the car at the hotel, a station was just a few blocks walk, $9.00 for a day ticket, and along with getting you pretty much wherever you want to go in the Atlanta area, it passes a lot of rail traffic (switching, yards, etc)  in the Atlanta area.

Yeup, it's a pretty great concept; on a later trip we just drove and it was much more annoying to find parking, although some of the places we visited I'm not sure had a MARTA stop.

I will say a heavy rail commuter system would probably be beneficial to Atlanta, but honestly, just expanding MARTA would probably suffice, as it's a decently spread out city but is basically the only major place there, save for Athens and Kennessaw

[lordscarlet]

Good points all up.

I'll add this, it's 100% impossible to model the modern era of any big U.S. city today without including Commuter Rail.

Small "cities" maybe, but none of the big boys.  They'll all got it (or soon will).

I'm sometimes suprised a place like Alexandria VA/AF Interlocking doesn't get modeled more often.

-Main CSX line including every type of frieght they run.
-NS trains serving the powr plant(s) and interchange with CSX.
-Amtrak through trains (Genesis Units)
-VRE service (dozens of trains a day)
-Spaghetti bowl of AF Interlocking
-Interesting local scenery, Histroic Alexandria Station and the City itself, towering Washington Memorial, DASH Bus depot/mainoffice, WMATA/Metrorail line runnig next to AF Interlocking, with a maint. facillity and more.

You couldn't ask for a more varied and interesting modern protoype to model, freight (from old dirty switchers to ultra-modern units), passenger in two flavors, light-rail, busses, it literally has everything you could want in transportation today outher than rickshaws!

Washinton Union Station is another example, it has everything above plus MARC rail as well!

This is my first post here, and I am a new modeler, but I am hoping to do a layout that includes Washington Union Station. If I succeed, I would love to include VRE, although no VRE passenger services comes out of the above ground side of Union Station, just cars going to the yard. But I rode VRE from almost it's inception (when I was 18) until I moved into the city.

[Virginia Atlantic]

This is my first post here, and I am a new modeler, but I am hoping to do a layout that includes Washington Union Station.

Welcome to The Railwire, and to the Hobby. 

If I succeed, I would love to include VRE, although no VRE passenger services comes out of the above ground side of Union Station, just cars going to the yard.

Correct, VRE operates from the station south  through the tunnel till just by the CSX freight bypass near L'Enfant, as you surely know from your riding time.  With some compression you could probably model it ok, just shortening the distance from Station Front to the south end of the tunnel.

But I rode VRE from almost it's inception (when I was 18) until I moved into the city.

Hope you liked it.  Sorry to lose you as a rider, but "City=No Commute" is hard to beat

[lordscarlet]

Welcome to The Railwire, and to the Hobby. 

Correct, VRE operates from the station south  through the tunnel till just by the CSX freight bypass near L'Enfant, as you surely know from your riding time.  With some compression you could probably model it ok, just shortening the distance from Station Front to the south end of the tunnel.

Hope you liked it.  Sorry to lose you as a rider, but "City=No Commute" is hard to beat

Obviously I'm all new to this, but if I want to do the north side of Union Station there would certainly be some compression to squeeze in above ground tracks over the Potomac, but I would certainly love it. Would have to cut out the Capitol and singificantly reduce the size of Union Station, but it certainly is a tempting thought. I'm dealing with a rather small space, though.. Probably about 9' at one side of an L and 5' on the other.

I did enjoy it. I road from Woodbridge to Union Station during summers in college, and then bought a house in Fredericksburg when I.. was no longer in college (). Road end-to-end from Fredericksburg to DC for a couple years after that. So off and on from 1997-2004. (I just googled -- VRE started in 1992?! Maybe not close to inception!) It is part of what cemented my love for trains and causes me to do a lot of my east coast travel via train rather than plane (and I was THIS CLOSE to a cross country trip last fall, but it just didn't happen).

(Sorry for thread jacking this into a discussion here as well as the introducitons thread)