{"id":2,"date":"2014-10-03T23:40:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T06:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenscaler.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2016-12-09T23:14:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T07:14:16","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to The N-Scaler, a blog about high-tech model railroading in the 21<sup><span style=\"font-size: small;\">st<\/span><\/sup> Century with limited space, tight budgets and the need for portability; impediments many of us with model railroading ambitions face. I know I\u2019m not the only one out there with modeling ambitions that never see the light of day because of real world constraints.<\/p>\n<p>Enough of that already, its time to make the constraints a virtue and get something done. First,I\u2019ll give credit where credit is due: <a title=\"Model Railroader Magazine\" href=\"http:\/\/mrr.trains.com\" target=\"_blank\">Model Railroader Magazine <\/a>has been pushing the concept of smaller layouts recently, including a new publication and articles about doable projects. For quite a few years now they have explored alternatives to traditional building methods. And they are all over DCC. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve been a subscriber for over 2 decades. Good job, guys.<\/p>\n<p>My project is to build a\u00a0modular, portable\u00a0N-scale layout that has a relatively small footprint, but supports multiple trains and continuous running, and is big on action, animation and modeling opportunities. The basic parameters are these:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It has to be built from materials readily available in a small city like Reno, Nevada, or via the Internet<\/strong>. If I can\u2019t get it within a week for a reasonable price, I\u2019ll try a different item or material. Struggling to obtain materials is a waste precious modeling time.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ease\/speed of building techniques is a high priority<\/strong>. The goal is to achieve continuing visible results with relatively small blocks of time in an otherwise busy life.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cost matters<\/strong>. One of the attractions of model railroading has always been that it can be done on a proverbial shoe string; a blade, a straight edge and some glue can get you a long way. Most of the cost of the hobby comes from manufactured goods, and technology only makes that worse. At each step along the way I\u2019ll be looking for ways to get the most out of my limited modeling dollars.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The layout will be modular, but it will not be built for use in a modular system<\/strong> (such as <a title=\"NTRAK Modular Railroading Society, Inc\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ntrak.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">N-Trak<\/a>).\u00a0 For me, modularity is about breaking a layout down into manageable sections for reliable portability and ease of construction; I\u2019m not worried about interfacing with other modeler\u2019s work right now. Maybe next layout.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The layout has to be lightweight, structurally strong, and really portable<\/strong>. It should be easy to set up and take down, and its components should easily fit in the back of a Subaru (I\u2019ll concede the rear seats may have to be down so we\u2019re not too constrained here).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Modules have to interconnect securely and reliably, physically and electronically, every time the layout is assembled<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>This will be a high tech layout<\/strong>. DCC cab control, block detection and signaling and animation. Lots of lights and animation. And sound wherever possible.\u00a0Who knows where that will take me.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong>I intend to create a layout with brains; essentially an autonomous environment within which to operate trains.<\/strong> No lack of ambition here! The availability of inexpensive, single board open-source microcomputers and microcontrollers(<a title=\"Raspberry Pi Foundation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.raspberrypi.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Raspberry Pi <\/a>and <a title=\"The Arduino Project\" href=\"http:\/\/www.arduino.cc\" target=\"_blank\">Arduino<\/a>, are well known examples) and the explosion of inexpensive\u00a0robotics equipment got me thinking &#8230;. Follow along as I try a somewhat different approach to layout control.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s the plan. It probably won\u2019t go exactly as I expect but that is part of the point. If I\u2019m not running into trouble, I\u2019m probably not pushing the boundaries in the ways that I want to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to The N-Scaler, a blog about high-tech model railroading in the 21st Century with limited space, tight budgets and the need for portability; impediments many of us with model railroading ambitions face. I know I\u2019m not the only one out there with modeling ambitions that never see the light of day because of real [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11,"href":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenscaler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}