I designed and printed this HOn20 porter to fit on Zscale track!  It's a static model designed for background scenes.  It came out quite well!!!

Wishing everyone the best for Easter...

   

Yes, we had a terrible oversight and we didn't catch it until a few days ago. We were wondering why we weren't getting any new donations lately, when someone asked us how to donate to Big blue, and we thought, "well, just use the Donate button at the bottom of the page".... but wait, it wasn't there anymore.  It seems as when we changed over to the new software, the code wasn't compatible and we lost our means for members to donate as they most generously have over the years, ...and no one noticed.
 
Well, it's been rectified; our illustrious Webmaster, Duffy, added the needed code and our Donate button is now in its regular place at the bottom of the page.  So, for any of you that want to catch up on your donations, you can just go ahead and click on the button, and that goes for anyone else who feels the urge. We appreciate you for all your support over the years.
 
Remember, we are free of ads, our promise to you, no ads and no sponsors, just lots of friends with the same interests in model trains. We started Big Blue (formerly, The Gauge) on that premise. Our only means of support is through donations and other fund-raising activities such as auctions. If worse comes to worst, we dig into our own pockets, but we never will allow ads to sully our fine forums. We are now in our 10th year as Big Blue, and so we are asking you to use the new Donate button if you have the means. We greatly appreciate your support. As you can see, doctorwayne is offering an array of HO couplers dirt-cheap here with all the proceeds going to Big Blue. That is a kickoff to a few more things to come soon, so hang on, we need you whether you donate or not, it's just good to have you around.
 
Thanks,
Don (ezdays) & Mikey (ngauger)
Co-caretakers of Big Blue Trains

one week from today I'll be heading to Tucson VA  for a aortic valve replacement , so the race is one to see if I can finish three or four of my hanging project' by then.

Cleaning up a bit in my shop today, I came across some couplers, the majority of them never used, and a few others which have been used, but are in very good condition.

Not sure who made these dummy couplers...



...but you can have all 5 pairs for a $2.00 donation to Big Blue. (See the "DONATE" click-on at the bottom of the page.)


More dummy couplers, mostly either brass or zinc castings, although the two black/brown ones and the orange one, at top left, are plastic...



....and the whole fifteen-piece-shebang is yours for donating $5.00 to Big Blue. 

If you buy both lots of dummy couplers, I'll pay the postage.


Also available are 12 pairs of standard McHenry couplers - these are the plastic ones with metal coil springs for the knuckles...



...and they're yours for a $1.00/pair donation to Big Blue.  If you buy all 12 pair, I'll throw in an extra coupler and some spare knuckle springs, too....and I'll pay the postage.


I also found a few Accumate couplers, and have 43 pair, with the trip pins already installed....  



...you can own two pair of these for $1.00, also to be donated to help sustain Big Blue for us all to enjoy....

BUT....if you buy the entire lot, you can have 'em all for $20.00, and I'll pay the postage.

Wayne

has anyone used a gauntlet as a operation challenge one end of current layout being built will be serviced by the astf and the dgr&w both having separate yards. my road the pb&l has trackage rights on the sf , there is only space for one track between buildings  going into town . my question would  joining both roads before bridge with a turnout then separating them  after bridge and town access  or run a gauntlet over bridge and town access  ?

Heres a few photos of one of my ECO Locomotives side views right and Left and the Roof Line. Yes this was built from a bn  BACHMANN GP40 SHELL and other scraps of various locomotives, my eco Loco rides on a ATLAS GP35 CHASSIS. Anyone else creating their own ECO Locomotives? 

ERIE RR aka Tom


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Since I have a few stalled projects on my workbench, a few more on the layout, and a whole pile of them in temporary storage, I thought that it might be a good idea to start another one.

Some time ago, can't recall if it was at the now-defunct LHS or perhaps a train show, I picked up an Athearn kit for their rotary snowplow.  Lettered for Great Northern, it was painted boxcar red, and looked pretty bland.  I had, at that time, intended to make it into an EG&E plow, (I owned one previously, but sold it - pretty-much "stock" - when I back-dated my layout. 
I needed a tender to go with the plow (the original one never had one) and since I had most of a Monogram UP Big Boy in my supply of "stuff", I thought that the tender from it would be a good one for the plow.

However, it was a centipede type, and looked a bit too long for this new role, so I chopped it down to a more reasonable size.

Well, some other stuff came up, and this project, too, was set aside. 

While looking for something else, I came across the box containing the plow kit and the butchered tender, and for some reason, it seemed to be a good idea to get back to working on it. 

I neglected to take any photos at the beginning, so the shortened tender is as I recently found it...



....I'll tidy-up the cistern deck, and fabricate an oil tank to fill-in the coal bunker area.  I'll also re-work the underbody to accept Athearn 6-wheel trucks, and add handrails and other details.

Here's the underbody for the plow...



As you can see, I had to cut away some areas of the sidesills to allow room for handrails beside the plow's access doors, so the underbody is a bit too flexible.  I cured that issue by constructing a couple of bulkheads inside the bodyshell, adding .125"x.188" styrene strip to the bottom of each, then drilled and tapped them for 1-72 screws, which will secure the body and underbody together....



Detail work on the plow itself has begun, with piano wire handrails alongside all access doors, and Tichy phosphor-bronze drop-style grabirons in place of the original cast-in-place ones.....





The back end looks a bit too high to me, and the underbody a bit scrawny, too, so I'll have to see what can be done. 
The underbody of the tender needs to be modified or replaced in order to get the trucks in their proper positions, too, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue....



Supposedly, the Athearn plow is a fairly good representation of four snowplows, built by LIMA in 1949-50 - 1 for the Rock Island, 1 for Soo Line, and two for U.P. 
From the photos I've seen of the U.P. ones, they do look similar to the Athearn model, while mine will be almost identical, but built in the late '30s - the EG&E was always in the forefront of technological advances...well, that's my story of things, anyway.


While pretty-well all of my MoW equipment is boxcar red and lettered rather plainly... 





....I think that the plow and tender will be predominantly black, and with the bolder lettering style of more modern equipment, perhaps like this...
 


...or maybe this...



...or maybe even this...



For now, yet to be decided.

Wayne

I would like to model a small diorama using a diesel switcher and a single boxcar.   I am looking for an HO scale NRE 1GS7B or, as close as I can get.  I've looked on the Athearn site as well as Atlas with no luck.  Any ideas?  Locomotive was manufactured from  2008 to current I believe.

Found a cool vid of some FT's, FM's, and Baldwins on the ATSF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtm7SQfNppM