This Rock Island layout is the most fantastic model railroad I have ever seen. I would love to see it in person. i enjoyed seeing Engine 4798 on the head end of the train featured in this video. I actually ran the real ex-RI 4798 on the Santa Fe. It had become EMDX 6048 and dynamic brakes had been installed on it. Thank you for a great show.
Hi David - I greatly appreciate your kind comments. It's interesting to learn that you operated the 4798 in it's altered state ......... that's pretty neat. Thank you for watching! Mike
Mike, my God what an awesome video, The UP 20 cylinder was a nice treat but having it mated with a pair of Rock SD40-2s was a great surprise. I used to model UP when I was in college in the mid-80s and did a lot of custom painting of brass models. However I gave it all up to concentrate on my first love which is slide shooting and collecting. I love my slides and I have enjoyed seeing them in magazines and books. I never second guessed that decision, but watching your videos of this wonderful layout, definitely gets me thinking again. I was very focused about how I thought a model railroad scene should look, and you do it perfectly. I used to cringe as I would look through a copy of Model Railroader and I would see a beautifully scenic layout, but nothing was weathered, or a layout where everything was perfect until you noticed the the 1980s ford pickup at a grade crossing on an 1950s era Pennsy layout. Please keep the videos coming and please stay safe in the mist of COVID-19 thing. God Bless you.
Hi Dave - I truly appreciate your very nice comments and thank you for watching. I shot some slides in the early to mid-1970s ...... mostly C&NW, IC, BN, Milwaukee Road and a little Rock Island which wasn't near where I lived in the mid-70s. Take care and stay healthy! Mike
As a guy who appreciates well done trackwork, I have to compliment the smoothness of the curves and turnouts, and the neat ballasting. This is among the best looking trackwork I have seen. kudos.
Unbelievable! Thanks for sharing your layout with us! Like the huge autoparts cars mixed in & I think 2 of the cars were the custom Chevy Vega carriers that carried 30 carss chained to the doors and tilted up on their noses!
Hi Mark - You are correct, the two high-profile cars carried Chevy Vegas in the vertical position. I appreciate your comments and thank you for watching. Mike
Hi Matt - Thank you for your nice comments and for watching. I checked out your channel, liked what I saw and have subscribed. I really like the C&O and the N&W. Mike
Nice tour of the layout. I like that era of piggyback flats when the railroads had their own trailers. My favorites are the trailers that were painted in the railroad's passenger scheme. This may have been because some of the roads, like the Illinois Central, used the trailers to carry mail and ran them on their passenger trains.
Going end to end with that piggyback train was great Mike, it's a shame the Rock wasn't around when stack trains became so popular, that would be awesome to see a long string of those cruising the layout!!!!!
your layout is mind blowing the vast size. One almost has to pack a lunch to get over the road without getting the growllies. nice camera work also. Thank you.
Mike, WOW! Fun ride along with this high priority train on the railroad. Everyone else heads into a siding when this train comes through. Great job! Tony
I really enjoyed the trip around your amazing layout. The cab view certainly highlights your beautiful track work and super elevated curves. I also liked seeing the behind the scenes view of the staging area and helix. I can't believe how fast 50 scale MPH looks from the cab. Great job on the camera work and editing.-Tom
Thank you, Tom. My position on scale operating speeds is to operate slower than faster. Scale speeds on the higher end (i.e. 50 MPH or greater) often don't look right due to the sharp curves that typically aren't correct compared to the prototype. I appreciate you watching and commenting! Mike
Amazing! I do love your train pulling a heavy load of cargo. Your railroad is fantastic! I hope you make more videos about these! And I wish you to stay safe and do ops sessions of your model railroad
I like how the trains travel through long stretches of the nice countryside, gives a real impression of, "going somewhere" and that there aren't layers and layers of track in each scene. The SD40-2s are in Rock Island's best paint scheme, IMHO, - a very lively one, at that.
@@rimodeler7963 Love the super elevation on the curves, and the fact you have speed limits that you adhere and the signal system, all good stuff. I love seeing prototype operations, rather than someone running their train at ramming speed. I’ve been watching your work over the years, thanks for sharing, I am starting my layout in Feb/Mar after years of false starts and uncompleted attempts, this time I’m in a good spot to start and settled on a nice plan, a what-if of a once original route, but I’m confident I can pull it off. I should have learned something after being in this hobby 36yrs and counting, lol.
@@straightto8 - Thanks very much for your nice comments. Good luck with your layout and always remember that it's your model railroad, so enjoy every minute of the journey. Mike
An Amazing video of an Amazing railroad. The train really goes somewhere. I love watching your railroad in action. I do have to ask if there are any blooper videos, I hope nothing to bad, your trains run so smooth. Stay safe and well.
Hi Rob - Well, I'd be less than honest if I told you everything operated flawlessly all the time. I've had my issues, but fortunately, nothing too serious. I've been lucky to have others operate with me to eliminate bugs and derailments so that operations are more reliable. Thank you for your nice comments and for watching. Mike
There are many parts of my experience as a locomotive engineer that are unique, but one that is hard to see is the way the train bounces, bobs, and weaves as it goes down the railroad at speeds above 40MPH. It's not scary. It's just unique. Particularly from the lead locomotive. Sometimes it can be seen at main line switches. Your video captures some of that. Maybe if the camera car is placed at certain points to capture a train approaching and passing, you might be able to see this phenomenon.
Thank you for your comments. My locomotive trucks don't have operating springs, so I don't believe you'd be able to notice much bounce at a turnout; however, sometimes you can see the lateral movement. You'd probably have to create a slow motion video to witness any of the movements you're referring to ......... but I don't think it would be that noticeable. I appreciate you watching and thanks again! Mike
Hi Drake - I would very much enjoy having you visit the layout ........ sorry it didn't work out earlier this year. Thank you for your comment and for watching. Stay healthy! Mike
Truly spectacular layout. What a nice long run and I’m glad you posted the layout plan video, it really helped to understand the overall track plan. I believe I saw that you were using Digitrax and was wondering what you thought of it after having used it for this long and do you run the signals on the same bus line or do you run a separate accessory bus? Thanks for sharing.
Hi Derek - I appreciate you watching and thank you for your comments. I am satisfied with the Digitrax system, but I would seriously consider the NCE system if I was starting with a clean slate. The wayside signals are operated with Logic Rail Technologies circuitry utilizing photo cells. Mike
Hi Greg - Yes, I spent my working career with BN and BNSF and have been a rail enthusiast my whole life. Thanks so much for watching and for your comments! Mike
That was a fun ride! Was that a Scale-Trains C&NW SD45 I caught a glimpse of in UP's Armstrong yard? I watched a review and was very impressed with the level of detail and accuracy they put into the CNW specific units.
Hi J. Lewis - No, the C&NW SD45 is an Ajin Brass Model I acquired about 20 years ago. However, I just recently pre-ordered a Scale-Trains C&NW SD45 as I have heard so many good things about Scale-Train locomotives. It should make a good mate for the brass model. Thank you very much for your comments and for watching! Mike
Mike, upon watching the full run of the railroad in this video, it is reminiscent of what I am trying to create/plan (Q branch line), would you consider sharing your track plan? I like that it can be both continuous and point to point.
Hi Robert - The following link [ th-cam.com/video/ZzyqaoF6fsw/w-d-xo.html ] will direct you to a video I did about my track plan a while back. Also, there is a track plan of my layout in the March 2019 issue of Model Railroader magazine. Finally, I can send you a copy of the plan if you'd like to provide me with your email address. Thank you for your interest. Mike
Love your content RImodeler! I’m sort of inspired to build my own midwestern layout now. Any advice? Mostly in regards of tracklaying, I want to capture some rough riding, poor ballasting, etc.
For any layout, you first need to decide what scale you'd like to model in. I would then recommend choosing a location or area to model along with a time period (for example, my time period is essentially 1964 to 1970). You can then decide if you want to model a specific railroad or prototype or maybe you want to model your own railroad (free lance prototype). My experience with creating rough riding track in model scale is that it usually doesn't result in very realistic looking operations ......... the model equipment is too light and it doesn't respond like a prototype rail car does. Of course, at very low speeds on a yard track or industry track it doesn't look too bad. For decent performance on a layout you really want your track to be good. You can always add mud and weeds to the track to make it appear poor. I hope this is helpful and thank you for your comments! Mike
RImodeler79 Thanks! I’m thinking about either the Rock, the Milwaukee Road, the IC, or a mix of all three. If push comes to shove *maybe* the FEC, all of these ideas would be set in the 1970s. It’s a real bummer rough riding track can’t be replicated. Is it possible to try and shave down rails to give them a bouncy look? Thank you for the advice though!
@@mikeytrains1 You don't want to file down or shave down the rails as that wouldn't look realistic. If I was going to create rough track, I'd remove (or shift around) ties and force the rail down slightly by carefully bending it or (if you're laying track on a hard surface such as wood) spiking the rail down forcing it to bend down slightly. Good luck with your layout! Mike
Main line turnouts to sidings and main yard entrance are #8s while main line turnouts to industry tracks are #6s. The train order signals and wayside signals are Tomar products. Thanks for watching. Mike
hi friend i enjoy ypur videos and more passenger trains i want to contact to you via e mail be cause i am working in big layout and your modeling style i liked and can be possible you give me a tips from modeling a big layout i am in monterrey mexico best regards to you
This Rock Island layout is the most fantastic model railroad I have ever seen. I would love to see it in person. i enjoyed seeing Engine 4798 on the head end of the train featured in this video. I actually ran the real ex-RI 4798 on the Santa Fe. It had become EMDX 6048 and dynamic brakes had been installed on it. Thank you for a great show.
Hi David - I greatly appreciate your kind comments. It's interesting to learn that you operated the 4798 in it's altered state ......... that's pretty neat. Thank you for watching! Mike
Mike, my God what an awesome video, The UP 20 cylinder was a nice treat but having it mated with a pair of Rock SD40-2s was a great surprise. I used to model UP when I was in college in the mid-80s and did a lot of custom painting of brass models. However I gave it all up to concentrate on my first love which is slide shooting and collecting. I love my slides and I have enjoyed seeing them in magazines and books. I never second guessed that decision, but watching your videos of this wonderful layout, definitely gets me thinking again. I was very focused about how I thought a model railroad scene should look, and you do it perfectly. I used to cringe as I would look through a copy of Model Railroader and I would see a beautifully scenic layout, but nothing was weathered, or a layout where everything was perfect until you noticed the the 1980s ford pickup at a grade crossing on an 1950s era Pennsy layout.
Please keep the videos coming and please stay safe in the mist of COVID-19 thing. God Bless you.
Hi Dave - I truly appreciate your very nice comments and thank you for watching. I shot some slides in the early to mid-1970s ...... mostly C&NW, IC, BN, Milwaukee Road and a little Rock Island which wasn't near where I lived in the mid-70s. Take care and stay healthy! Mike
THANK YOU...for sharing. Great ride Mike and so glad the train went threw Albert Lea, and yes she is still looking good!!!! LOL
Yes sir, Gary, she's still there waiting on a train to Ohio! As always, thanks for commenting and watching. Mike
As a guy who appreciates well done trackwork, I have to compliment the smoothness of the curves and turnouts, and the neat ballasting. This is among the best looking trackwork I have seen. kudos.
Hi Joseph - I very much appreciate your kind words about the trackwork. Thank you for watching. Mike
Unbelievable! Thanks for sharing your layout with us! Like the huge autoparts cars mixed in & I think 2 of the cars were the custom Chevy Vega carriers that carried 30 carss chained to the doors and tilted up on their noses!
Hi Mark - You are correct, the two high-profile cars carried Chevy Vegas in the vertical position. I appreciate your comments and thank you for watching. Mike
Fantastic Layout, Love the attention to detail especially on your track work!
Hi Matt - Thank you for your nice comments and for watching. I checked out your channel, liked what I saw and have subscribed. I really like the C&O and the N&W. Mike
Nice tour of the layout. I like that era of piggyback flats when the railroads had their own trailers. My favorites are the trailers that were painted in the railroad's passenger scheme. This may have been because some of the roads, like the Illinois Central, used the trailers to carry mail and ran them on their passenger trains.
Thank you, Bill, I appreciate it! Mike
Going end to end with that piggyback train was great Mike,
it's a shame the Rock wasn't around
when stack trains became so
popular, that would be awesome to
see a long string of those cruising
the layout!!!!!
Thank you very much for watching and I appreciate your comments! Mike
your layout is mind blowing the vast size. One almost has to pack a lunch to get over the road without getting the growllies. nice camera work also. Thank you.
Thanks, William, for commenting and watching ....... I appreciate it. Mike
Mike, WOW! Fun ride along with this high priority train on the railroad. Everyone else heads into a siding when this train comes through. Great job! Tony
Thanks for commenting, Tony. Yes sir, this train is a hotshot! I appreciate you watching. Mike
I really enjoyed the trip around your amazing layout. The cab view certainly highlights your beautiful track work and super elevated curves. I also liked seeing the behind the scenes view of the staging area and helix. I can't believe how fast 50 scale MPH looks from the cab. Great job on the camera work and editing.-Tom
Thank you, Tom. My position on scale operating speeds is to operate slower than faster. Scale speeds on the higher end (i.e. 50 MPH or greater) often don't look right due to the sharp curves that typically aren't correct compared to the prototype. I appreciate you watching and commenting! Mike
Amazing! I do love your train pulling a heavy load of cargo. Your railroad is fantastic! I hope you make more videos about these! And I wish you to stay safe and do ops sessions of your model railroad
I like how the trains travel through long stretches of the nice countryside, gives a real impression of, "going somewhere" and that there aren't layers and layers of track in each scene. The SD40-2s are in Rock Island's best paint scheme, IMHO, - a very lively one, at that.
Thanks much, Tommy, for watching. I always appreciate your comments. Mike
@@rimodeler7963 Love the super elevation on the curves, and the fact you have speed limits that you adhere and the signal system, all good stuff. I love seeing prototype operations, rather than someone running their train at ramming speed. I’ve been watching your work over the years, thanks for sharing, I am starting my layout in Feb/Mar after years of false starts and uncompleted attempts, this time I’m in a good spot to start and settled on a nice plan, a what-if of a once original route, but I’m confident I can pull it off. I should have learned something after being in this hobby 36yrs and counting, lol.
@@straightto8 - Thanks very much for your nice comments. Good luck with your layout and always remember that it's your model railroad, so enjoy every minute of the journey. Mike
Nice! But you need a cornfield or two if you have a Iowa layout!
An Amazing video of an Amazing railroad. The train really goes somewhere. I love watching your railroad in action. I do have to ask if there are any blooper videos, I hope nothing to bad, your trains run so smooth. Stay safe and well.
Hi Rob - Well, I'd be less than honest if I told you everything operated flawlessly all the time. I've had my issues, but fortunately, nothing too serious. I've been lucky to have others operate with me to eliminate bugs and derailments so that operations are more reliable. Thank you for your nice comments and for watching. Mike
There are many parts of my experience as a locomotive engineer that are unique, but one that is hard to see is the way the train bounces, bobs, and weaves as it goes down the railroad at speeds above 40MPH. It's not scary. It's just unique. Particularly from the lead locomotive. Sometimes it can be seen at main line switches. Your video captures some of that. Maybe if the camera car is placed at certain points to capture a train approaching and passing, you might be able to see this phenomenon.
Thank you for your comments. My locomotive trucks don't have operating springs, so I don't believe you'd be able to notice much bounce at a turnout; however, sometimes you can see the lateral movement. You'd probably have to create a slow motion video to witness any of the movements you're referring to ......... but I don't think it would be that noticeable. I appreciate you watching and thanks again! Mike
Great video, great run. I hope to get there in person one of these days.
Hi Drake - I would very much enjoy having you visit the layout ........ sorry it didn't work out earlier this year. Thank you for your comment and for watching. Stay healthy! Mike
Wonderful train.
Thank you for watching and I appreciate your comment! Mike
Great fantasy cab ride Mike! "Caboose just cleared Clear Lake Jct."
Me: "Throw her into run 8, HIGHBALL!!!" LOL
Hi Robert - Yup, I agree ......... let those diesels earn their keep! Thank you for your comment and for watching. Mike
Great video!
Thanks so much!! Mike
Great layout! Great video! Stay well. 👍
Thank you, William ...... I appreciate your comments! Mike
VERY COOL 😎😎 I'm sure you've been asked many times but what is the length of the mainline run on this vid ???
Hi Steven - The length of main line run is 777 feet which includes the two helixes. Thank you very much for your comment and for watching. Mike
Truly spectacular layout. What a nice long run and I’m glad you posted the layout plan video, it really helped to understand the overall track plan. I believe I saw that you were using Digitrax and was wondering what you thought of it after having used it for this long and do you run the signals on the same bus line or do you run a separate accessory bus? Thanks for sharing.
Hi Derek - I appreciate you watching and thank you for your comments. I am satisfied with the Digitrax system, but I would seriously consider the NCE system if I was starting with a clean slate. The wayside signals are operated with Logic Rail Technologies circuitry utilizing photo cells. Mike
Once again simply awesome. I sense a professional railroader. When can I mark up to the list lol
Hi Greg - Yes, I spent my working career with BN and BNSF and have been a rail enthusiast my whole life. Thanks so much for watching and for your comments! Mike
Awesome. Video. Felt like I was there
I appreciate you taking the time to watch the video and thank you for your comments. Mike
That was a fun ride! Was that a Scale-Trains C&NW SD45 I caught a glimpse of in UP's Armstrong yard? I watched a review and was very impressed with the level of detail and accuracy they put into the CNW specific units.
Hi J. Lewis - No, the C&NW SD45 is an Ajin Brass Model I acquired about 20 years ago. However, I just recently pre-ordered a Scale-Trains C&NW SD45 as I have heard so many good things about Scale-Train locomotives. It should make a good mate for the brass model. Thank you very much for your comments and for watching! Mike
Post all your videos on the Grande Pacific Railroad FB page. They love them.
That's great, Arthur, glad to hear it. Thanks so much!! Mike
Beautiful work make's me want to go down stair's and get to it .
I appreciate your comment ....... thank you! Mike
Mike, upon watching the full run of the railroad in this video, it is reminiscent of what I am trying to create/plan (Q branch line), would you consider sharing your track plan? I like that it can be both continuous and point to point.
Hi Robert - The following link [ th-cam.com/video/ZzyqaoF6fsw/w-d-xo.html ] will direct you to a video I did about my track plan a while back. Also, there is a track plan of my layout in the March 2019 issue of Model Railroader magazine. Finally, I can send you a copy of the plan if you'd like to provide me with your email address. Thank you for your interest. Mike
Thank you Mike
Outstanding!
Thank you very much ...... I appreciate it! Mike
What is total Square feet of the room.
Hi Arthur - The room is 30' X 40' ....... 1,200 square feet. Thanks so much for watching! Mike
@@rimodeler7963 Amazing I am at 850 train room in a 20 x 50. It just looks a lot bigger.
Love your content RImodeler! I’m sort of inspired to build my own midwestern layout now. Any advice? Mostly in regards of tracklaying, I want to capture some rough riding, poor ballasting, etc.
For any layout, you first need to decide what scale you'd like to model in. I would then recommend choosing a location or area to model along with a time period (for example, my time period is essentially 1964 to 1970). You can then decide if you want to model a specific railroad or prototype or maybe you want to model your own railroad (free lance prototype). My experience with creating rough riding track in model scale is that it usually doesn't result in very realistic looking operations ......... the model equipment is too light and it doesn't respond like a prototype rail car does. Of course, at very low speeds on a yard track or industry track it doesn't look too bad. For decent performance on a layout you really want your track to be good. You can always add mud and weeds to the track to make it appear poor. I hope this is helpful and thank you for your comments! Mike
RImodeler79 Thanks! I’m thinking about either the Rock, the Milwaukee Road, the IC, or a mix of all three. If push comes to shove *maybe* the FEC, all of these ideas would be set in the 1970s. It’s a real bummer rough riding track can’t be replicated. Is it possible to try and shave down rails to give them a bouncy look? Thank you for the advice though!
@@mikeytrains1 You don't want to file down or shave down the rails as that wouldn't look realistic. If I was going to create rough track, I'd remove (or shift around) ties and force the rail down slightly by carefully bending it or (if you're laying track on a hard surface such as wood) spiking the rail down forcing it to bend down slightly. Good luck with your layout! Mike
Are those #8 turnouts ? Who makes those train order signals ?
Main line turnouts to sidings and main yard entrance are #8s while main line turnouts to industry tracks are #6s. The train order signals and wayside signals are Tomar products. Thanks for watching. Mike
What are you using to keep your track clean?
I use oder-less Mineral Spirits applied with a CMX Track Cleaning Car. Thank you for watching the video. Mike
hi friend i enjoy ypur videos and more passenger trains i want to contact to you via e mail be cause i am working in big layout and your modeling style i liked and can be possible you give me a tips from modeling a big layout i am in monterrey mexico best regards to you
Hello Fernando - My email address is marm3024@gmail.com Thank you for watching my video. Mike
A#1
Thank you very much for watching! Mike