If you’re a garden railroader you already know that Gauge 1, our most standard gauge for outdoor use, only refers to the distance between the rails, not to the scale of trains running on them. For honest-to-Pete standard prototype trains, the accurate scale can be between 1/32 and 1/29. Narrow gauge trains range from 1/24 through 1/20.3.

That is, of course, unless you’re Dr. Rocket Scientist, here, who blithely decides to convert HIS railway to 1/18th scale. Why 1/18th? Well, because my little girl likes Polly Pockets, and she’s roughly 1/18th (Polly Pockets, not my little girl). And there are those older GI Joe guys that scale out to that size…I’ve got a bunch of them. And there are Burago and Maisto die cast cars that are both affordable and 1/18th in scale. Shall we make a list of model railroad structures and/or rolling stock manufactured in 1/18th? Go ahead, I’ll wait. You may as well make a list of Latvian astronauts, or species of coconut trees endemic to Norway. The answer is the same.

I decided I would start with the Bachmann Big Hauler 1/22.5 scale 4-6-0 locomotive. I planned to just bump that fellow up to a nifty 1/18 scale 4-4-0. While I was at it, I figured I would make a nice spacious cab for the GI Joe guys. Actually, my little guys are CORPS! Fellows – they are civilian guys that are fully posable, although I ‘m not certain they’re still in production. If you saw Thursday’s post, you’ll know that I wisely failed to consider clearance when I built my station platform. My 1/18th conversion project is in severe jeopardy.

The Paris to Peking Railway Company holds a meeting of the board Saturday afternoon.

“What is all this balderdash about?” asks the CEO.

“I canna build ye yer rolling stock and meet either your timetable or yer budget,” the Chief Engineer whines.

“What???” The CFO chokes on his cigar.

“’tis true! Wee bonnie lass will be graduatin’ from college ere I can get just that locomotive done!”

“It’s a disaster,” sobs the PR guy.

“Well,” blusters the CEO, “what scale CAN you do?”

“There’s plenty of struc-yures in 1/20.3,” the Chief Engineer pulls at his red beard pensively.

“Oh, dash it all,” the CEO thunders, “go ahead with 1/20.3. Where’s my brandy?”

So, there it is. It turns out 1/20.3 is about 90% of 1/18, which means a six foot man in 1/18 stands around 5’4” in 1/20.3. A seven foot doorway scales down to 6’3” or so. That’s acceptable, isn’t it?

What it means for the Details Department is no placing figures right next to doorways. It means lopping off the legs of locomotive engineers …

“What???” gargles the Chief Engineer. “Ye’re doin’ what to mah men?”

But it also means that rolling stock, particularly the Bachmann Spectrum series, is now available.

The only problem I’m seeing is that the Paris to Peking Railway is European, while most of the 1/20.3 stock I’ve seen is American prototype. That’s going to be an issue.

The board meeting is adjourned, and the air, now quiet, still smells of cigars and spilt brandy. It’s been a big day on the P-to-P Ry. Oddly enough, the decision to go to 1/20.3 makes the garden railway about 10% smaller…go figure!

Another area of apologies, as long as we’re on a roll, is for the failure to remove the stump. It remains an obstacle for the Paris to Peking Railway, and well, a stump!

My wife and I decided to take our youngest daughter and the dogs to Mt. Pinos, here in Southern California. If you haven’t been, and you most likely haven’t, you will be amazed. The Chumash, the Native American tribe that used to inhabit this area, thought that the 8,835 foot high promontory was the very center of the universe. If you ever get the chance to go up there, you won’t disagree.

Anyway, that took up Saturday. And Sunday was taken up with doing the stuff I should have been doing on Saturday, and, hey, suddenly it was Monday. And I do mean suddenly!
So, we’re putting the Stump Remoal program on hold for a little bit.

“Bully,” roars the Chairman of the Board of Directors. “Let’s put it off for a decade!”

“Have ye gone daft?” grumbles the Chief Engineer.

We’ve been working on clearing the rails, or at least the roadbed, around the Paris Loop, north of the Parisian Turnout. Part of the reason for the dilapidation of the Paris Loop, it turns out, is that the area was overrun by Creeping Charlie…the plant, not the fellow. Unchecked, the plant buried the existing railroad foundations and accessories under dirt and plant detritus. Amazing what these plants can do, I tell you. Amazing!

One of the items to emerge from what now seems like more of an archaeological dig than a model railroad is what appears to be a lamppost. It has a base about an inch and a half in diameter, through which is stuck a whale of a screw, itself still attached to a plank of an old scale deck. A round pole, G-scale, of course, rises out of the base, and terminates in the remains of a broken light bulb. There appears to be no facility for a shade, although I’m certain there was one at some point.

Two other items of a more electrical nature rose from the wreckage as well. One was a junction box, with outlets in it! Broken off of its conduit but still attached by wires, I have yet to test its connectivity. If it works, this could be a new way to provide electricity to the entire railway from a very convenient location.

Accompanying the outlet is a tag strip – you can see it in the picture. I rifled through my 1996 LGB catalog (you mean there’s a newer one?!?), but could find nothing like it. I think this device will be of great service in figuring out the wiring of the Parisian Loop, if I can ever get it cleaned up!

As you’ll recall, I had a stroke about six years ago. Certain details have been completely erased from my memory. Digging through this Creeping Charlie detritus and retrieving bits of the railroads history is like pulling back cobwebs. On one hand it’s fascinating to find this stuff. On the other hand it’s kind of creepy…what did happen?