...there's a poll HERE regarding a new "Challenge" on Big Blue. If you have a project which you've been putting off, or one that needs finishing, or even an entirely new one, you may wish to cast a vote so that you can "Get off yer duff" along with those of us who are planning to participate.

Wayne

Hi everyone, I haven't posted anything here in awhile, so I thought I'd share with you my Magoun pier project. This is the beginning of my future home layout, the only problem is, my current home does not have room for a large layout.
This is where Magoun pier comes in, I built it as a portable layout that I can take to shows. With the idea that it can be connected & disconnected from a permanent home layout that I have not built yet.
Magoun pier measures 41 inches wide by six feet 5 inches long, designed to fit in the back of my pick-up truck for transportation purposes. It's taken me 2 years to build this large urban pier.
I recently took it all outside to photograph at dusk, and I got some really nice photos. So here they are I hope you will enjoy them.

   

   

   

   

   

Greg Shinnie

Hey guys,

Not much done, but I DID customize this Metroliner. #820 was the test car for the Amtrak "Billboard" front. While it would eventually become "standard" on the "Phase II" painted cars, #820 wore this billboard a few years prior to the widespread adoption of the Phase II paint scheme.

It was shaping up to be a difficult project until I found a spare Phase II cab I could repaint. I also discovered that the Tru-Color paint and thinner cleanly removes the Walthers lettering while leaving the paint intact. While this was a pleasant surprise for cleanly removing the Amtrak striping from the cab sides, this could have melted the Billboard face! I ended up using Polly Scale Reefer White instead. Fortunately, my masking held and I put on a clean coat of paint!

Once the end was repainted, I just swapped the ends on a regular PC coach. It only has 4 "pins" and a lighting harness holding it in, so it was relatively easy to swap the faces of the car.

It definitely adds some color to these cars. The more I study them, the more I realize few even had Amtrak patches. Most literally ran blank with no markings at all after the end of the Penn Central era.

Forgive the poor cell phone pictures. I have a few other repaint/alterations of a few other models on the way too.

Hey folks,

I've been working on a home layout plan for many years now. Over the years many things have influenced the layout and caused me to make many changes. Like I had to give up part of the room because we needed it when we had our son. And speaking of my son, I've lost many years of time on this layout. Now, he is 4 and very interested in trains so I get to have some focus on the layout. I even have a helper now (hehehe boy, a real help).
Anyway, I'm building the bench work now and about done with that part. I'm just about done with the final plan for the layout so I thought I would share it here and get any feedback I could on what I'm planning. This image is not very detailed but you can see the track and get an idea of the location of the main items going into the layout.

Please give me any feedback you can as I would love to hear what you think.

Dave

After I dropped my boys off at school this morning, I was heading back home and came up behind these three...



Hmmm, The Indiana RR must be replacing some ties.

A LOT of ties... these guys had evidently been parked there since 6.a.m. on a state highway. The crane showed up to unload at 9.





Where should we put 'em all?



It''s quite the commotion in this little town and the ol' timers came out to watch.

I've noticed some annoying changes with eBay during the past 1-2 years.

From about 2005 to 2013, I used to buy a lot of my MRR items from the UK (I model British steam railways). I would often get good deals and pay only a few dollars for overseas shipping by air (a small parcel rate). And I never once paid for customs or duty.

Recently, however, eBay seems to be using a "Global" mailing or shipping system where the shipping price costs almost as much as the item I'm purchasing. The shipping, for example, is often around $20-30 instead of around $8.00 (a small parcel air rate).

Also, customs & duty is apparently charged in this Global tracking system as well. This appears when you click on info about shipping. In the past, I never once had to pay customs & duty but now it seems that eBay is dinging the customer with this as you check out & pay.

This extra shipping and import charges make it almost pointless trying to get an eBay deal these days.

Because of this, I've been "spooked" from using eBay recently but I do miss the good deals I used to get.

Please see the attached image FYI. Has anyone else noticed this & have any comments?

Thanks, Rob
   

I am building the station that was in Mauston Wisconsin in the 1950'sHere is a picture of it from 1912.



The only difference from the 1912 version to the 1950's version is the right side door on the end was changed to a window. The structure will be a basswood box with Rusty Stumps brick sheet added to the outside. I also will shorten the length of the building by 12 feet so it will fit the area I have for it. Here are the end and side walls cut from 1/16 thick basswood sheet.

This is my second take on the Kensington sub. The first was removed due to our house be put up for sale but due to some health issues that my wife is dealing with we took it off of the market until things settle down. So, take two will be 12' long by 8' long. Benchwork will be 16" wide so I can get all my benchwork from one sheet of plywood. Height will be around 52" high as I'm limited by the door of my electrical panel. On the right are two staging tracks. I'm not sure on what the dimensions will be yet.

The era will be 1980 on Prince Edward Island and with CN being the Railway. The 40' boxcar was the dominant freight car so I am looking at potato loading, LCL with a team track for boxcars, flats and gondolas. Power will be a single MLW RSC-14. This class of diesel was a creation of CN's motive power department. A standard 1800hp BB trucked RS18 was retrucked with A1A six axle trucks with the centre axle being an idler for the lighter branchline trackage.

Hey everyone! Sorry about the late notice, but Michigan's biggest and best train show is Sunday the 13th! We have 540+ vendor tables, operating layouts in various scales, Division 5 of the NMRA doing clinics, Steam Railroading Institute (PM 1225) is back again, and more. The show runs from 10-5 at Michigan State University in the Pavilion on Farm Lane Road. Go to lmrc.org for more information. Make sure you stop by the club tables for some awesome deals in O and HO!

Chuck