EnviroTex
Manufacturer:
Environmental Technology Inc.
Fields landing, CA 95537
707 442-9323
This section contains additional information on terms and products mentioned elsewhere in this site.
Accu-paint
SMP Industries
63 Hudson Road
P.O. Box 72
Bolton, MA 01740
BOOMER
A transient RR worker. At one time, there were more jobs than skilled railroaders, especially in times of "boom"ing traffic (wheat harvest, etc) or a local boom, say due to a mine opening. Some men travelled, habitually, from road to road. They were a figure of some romance, and figured popularly in RR fiction. One could have boomer operators, boomer conductors, boomer anythings.
Consist
The cars which make up a train; also a list of those cars.
CRAFTSMAN KITS
A craftsman kit implies that more time (and perhaps skill/experience) is needed to assemble the kit. They often include parts made of wood, metal, plaster, and paper/cardstock in addition to plastic, requiring knowledge of what adhesives should be used for different materials. The benefit of this extra work is that the model typically looks much more realistic and detailed if properly assembled; such kits are often made in small runs and correspond to a specific prototype rather than simply giving a general impression. Many structures are available as craftsman kits in addition to models of rolling stock, with Westerfield being probably the best known supplier of cars in HO scale.
CURVATURE CLASSES
The following is the suggested turn radii for various types of curves, in the most popular model scales. This is taken without permission from John Armstrong's classic book Track Planning for Realistic Operation:
N HO S O Broad Curves 17" 30" 41" 58" Conventional Curves 14" 24" 32" 46" Sharp Curves 11" 18" 24" 35"
EnviroTex
Environmental Technology Inc.
Fields landing, CA 95537
707 442-9323
Floquil
Floquil-Polly S Corp.
206 Milvan Dr.
Weston, Ont., Canada M9L 1Z9
FROG
The frog is the part of a turnout where the curved rail for the diverging line crosses the straight rail for the straight ahead move. In Australia (and the UK) it is more usually referred to as the 'crossing'. The frog number simply refers to how sharply the diverging line is diverging. For all practical purposes, you can consider it as the number of inches it takes for the diverging rail (at the frog) to diverge one inch from the straight rail. So a #4 frog takes 4 inches to diverge 1 inch, and is sharper than a #6 frog which takes 6 inches.
GAUGE
Gauge is the distance between the inside faces of the two rails of a railroad. In the US, most of Europe, the normal or standard gauge is 4'8.5" (1.435 meter). Common smaller gauges in the US are 3' and 2', while in Europe one finds 1.0 meter as well as 0.75 meter. The Indian standard is 5'6" although called Broad Gauge to differentiate from the substantial amounts of 1.0 metre. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Ghana and Nigeria all use 3'6" called the African standard, or Cape gauge. Other major railways are those of the former USSR using 5'0", China using 4'8.5" and Japan and Taiwan using 3'6".
HYDROCAL
This a plaster product commonly used for creating terrain. The easiest sources seem to be model railroad stores, since I've yet to find a building supply store that has any idea what I want. The advantage of hydrocal is that it is very strong once it sets up, as opposed to plaster which needs something underneath it to support it even after it dries. Hydrocal needs support while setting but cardboard strips do just fine. Regular plaster requires chicken wire and wood supports for shaping -- it's a lot more work, and a lot more weight.
KITBASH
Kitbashing refers to starting with one or more commercial kits but assembling the pieces in a different fashion, often adding other material or recutting the original pieces.
Modelflex
Badger Air-Brush Co.
9128 Belmont Ave.
Franklin Park, IL 60131
MODEL SCALE
To specify a model railroad's scale, one uses "designations". Unfortunately, these designations do not have a universal meaning (and some even changed over time). The most common ones and their most accepted meanings are given in the following table:
Scale Name
Proportion
One actual foot measures
Track guage
Length of scale mile
Z 1:220 1.4 mm 6.5 mm 24'-0" N 1:160 1.9 mm 9.0 mm 33'-0" HO 1:87 3.5 mm 16.5 mm 60'-7 1/2" S 1:64 3/16" 7/8" 82'-6" O 1:48 1/4" 1 1/4" 110'-0" Gn3 1:22.5 12.5 mm 1 3/4" (No. 1) 234'-8"
MAINTENANCE OF WAY (MOW) CAR
These are "non-revenue" cars (so-called because they are not used to service paying customers) used by the railroad for upkeep on the track, roadbed, and surrounding infrastructure. These are typically older or damaged cars no longer suitable for high-speed work. They include things such as cranes, ballast cars (converted hoppers used to spread gravel between the ties), tie cars, rail cars, etc. Since they are usually fabricated by the shop crew out of whatever is available they come in a wider range of styles than ordinary cars.
Pactra Acrylic Enamels
Pactra Hobby
1000 Lake Rd.
Medina, OH 44256
Polly S
Polly Scale
Floquil-Polly S Corp.
206 Milvan Dr.
Weston, Ont., Canada M9L 1Z9
PROTOTYPE
Prototype has several meanings, but typically refers to real-world trains (in contrast to scale models of them) and equipment. Also called 12"-to-the-foot. However, it can also mean the first item in a series, which meaning is often applied to equipment built as tests by real railroads.
RERAIL FROG
A rerail-frog is a kind of a metal ramp thing that is used to help re-rail a car or engine that has gone off the track but not wandered too far away or overturned. It is temporarily spiked, wedged or clamped next to the rail at the wheel that needs to be lifted back over the rail and then the car is pushed or pulled by the engine to get the wheel to ride up over the ramp and back onto the track. Typically in branch line service you would see these dangling from the sides of the tender along with some chains or cables. More tools including jacks, levers, wrenches for splice bolts and so on might be kept in the caboose or stashed on the engine.
SCALE
Scale is the proportion which the model bears to the prototype. For example, an 87 feet platform will be represented by a 1 foot long model platform in 1/87 scale. See Model Scale
Scalecoat
Quality Craft Models
177 Wheatley Ave.
Northumberland, PA 17857
SCRATCHBUILT
Scratchbuilt usually means starting with wood, cardboard, plastic, or other basic materials and then designing and cutting all of the necessary pieces.
SHAKE THE BOX
"Shake the box" is a slightly derogatory term describing a kit so simple to assemble that all you need to do is shake the box and it is finished. (Actual assembly usually takes 30-60 minutes and requires only a knife, plastic glue, tweezers and a small screwdriver.) This ease of assembly usually indicates that there is a lower level of detail, but also makes the kits less expensive and allow you to build up a large fleet in a reasonable amount of time. Athearn freight cars are an example of a good quality kit of this type.
TRACTION
The term as used in model railroading refers to streetcars, trolleys, and electric-powered interurban lines. They usually contain very tight curves and overhead wiring (functional in some cases) in an urban setting.
TURNOUT
From "Railway Track and Maintenance: A Manual of Maintenance-of-Way and Structures" by E.E.R. Tratman, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1926, p. 342 [formerly published under the title of "Railway Track and Track Work"], quoted here without permission: Turnouts -- Where a train is to be diverted from one track to another, a turnout is installed, which is essentially a curve connecting two parallel or diverging tracks. This curve, however, is composed of three principal parts: (1) a switch, consisting of two movable rails to direct the train onto one track or the other, as desired; (2) a frog to allow the wheel flanges to pass the intersection of the rails; and (3) rails, known as lead rails, connecting the frog with the switch rails.
WINTERIZATION HATCH
A hatch or cover used to cover up or close off the normal ventilation for oil-coolers, air-coolers or excess fan/radiator area for extreme cold weather.