My layout is based on a freelance railroad operating in northern Minnesota. It's going to have two locomotives so far, a GP38-2, and an SW1500 both ex southern Pacific units. I'm new with the whole airbrushing thing and figured this could be my chance to try my hand at some painting as well as detailing. The SW1500 only has sunshades thus far. The geep got a plow, mu hoses, a new bell and sunshades as well. The geep is partly in primer but hopefully in paint soon. Got a few more parts I'd like to add but so far it's been really fun! I always find posting photos motivates me to keep making progress.

Yup, tomorrow, once again we celebrate St. Patrick. For one day, everyone can claim to have a bit of the Irish in them. I've got Irish in my family, but by marriage since my wife comes from the Grogan clan. She and our two sons are part Irish, so I'm one of those that always pretends.

Up until now, I always thought that we could say, "St. Patty's Day", but I find that is not correct. I also thought that the four-leaf clover was a symbol of Irish luck, but again, I was wrong. Here's a except from what I found that changed my thinking:

Quote:Paddy is derived from the Irish, Pádraig: the source of those mysterious, emerald double-Ds. Patty is the diminutive of Patricia, or a burger, and just not something you call a fella. There isn’t a sinner in Ireland that would refer to a Patrick as “Patty”. It’s as simple as that.

Shamrock isn’t just any old piece of clover: it’s three-leafed. Tradition holds that Saint Patrick used the trefoil to teach the Trinity. He’d have no luck with the four-leaf clover on your leprechaun hat.

When I was around 8 years old in 1956 my Dad and I went to the large Kroger bakery to watch the N&W switch cars there and to follow it to another industry..The engine that day was 4-8-0 #444 after the crew finished their work the engineer yelled down "Hey boy care to take a look in the cab?" I naturally said yes..The brakeman and fireman help me into the cab and to my young eyes it was a maze of controls and valves which the engineer explained to me..I was allowed to blow the whistle and before leaving the cab the fireman yelled down to my dad asking him if it was ok for him to throw me in the firebox. :o My dad reply Naw best not,he would just cause a large clinker.I have several fond memories watching #444 switch cars at Kroger and other industries.

I consider myself lucky I got to witness the last days of steam instead of playing little league baseball or other normal childhood activities.I also got to see shiny new GP9s and RS11s.

Life was good.

Caught this little train running along the Ohio River just below Powhatan Point, Ohio on its way to the Hannibal Industrial Park. The locomotive is from the Camp Chase Railroad, running on track belonging to the relatively new "Ohio Terminal Railway" <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hannibalre.com/services.html">http://www.hannibalre.com/services.html</a><!-- m --> The parent company has the Allegheny Valley, Southwest Pennsylvania, and the Camp Chase Railroad.    
Charlie

For all of the railfans in the US
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://petapixel.com/2015/03/07/la-to-pay-50k-to-detained-photographers-and-teach-deputies-that-photography-is-not-a-crime/">http://petapixel.com/2015/03/07/la-to-p ... t-a-crime/</a><!-- m -->
Charlie

*** Sunday, March, 15,2015. ***
** The Jersey Central Railway Historical brings to you its annual spring train show. Location is as always.
** Mother Seaton High School, 1 Valley Road, Clark, New Jersey.

   

** It is real easy to get to from the GSP, Garden State Parkway. Just exit the GSP on exit 135. There are always train show signs posted at the exit. Follow the signs ! Mother Seaton High is on the east side of the GSP. You exit onto a road that is a circle. If coming from the south, once exited, the first building you see to your right is Mother Seaton High School. Get to the right side of the circle and pass the high school for you will be taking the first right turn past the school, Valley Road. Then take the first driveway to the right as the High School is 1 Valley Road. You are there. The driveway extends up the north side of the school to the parking lot in the rear. If you come from the north going south once you exit stay to the left and the circular road will pass under the parkway, and you can follow the previous info as if coming from the south.

It is always a interesting train show as it is also a memorabilia show. Though trains of all gauges will be there, Railroad Collectibles, Books, Antiques, photos, slides and videos will also be found. Also at least one table for printed info on Trolleys. Have a nice day.

Here is the flyer for the show.

Frank

I promise I'm not crazy the layout fits!
I have tried to start two layouts before this and with little to no luck, most times I got as far as laying the track and trying to wire DCC and that has been my failure. I can't seem to get pass wiring, everything I do seems to match everything I read and watch yet I can never get any power. This layout will most likely be DC but would love to try to make it DCC later. The layout is as small as it is because I would like to focus more on modeling than physical running (scenery, weathering, modeling, and scratch building) although I have laid test track (nothing set yet) and I can fit a engine and a car with ease. This layout will have a add-on a foot long that will allow the engine and car to fit on the "main-line."
As you can see in the picture below I will have a rail-to-road Walters kit up top with a siding that could house a oil transload area later on and a "team track" this can house two of the smaller hoppers I will be using or one of the larger boxcars. The warehouse on the bottom is High Liner Foods in Portsmouth, NH. It can fit larger reefer boxcars but I haven't decided if I will use those or the older blue box kits that have less detail but are smaller in size. I will be heavily detailing the warehouse with 5 dock doors for trailers. As I mentioned I know this is small in size but I think it will offer me plenty of pleasure and is my stepping stone to my future, larger layout!

Please excuse the cheap looking paint sketch

It has been a while since I did a build thread in the scratch-building forum so here goes:

I am using this for my inspiration:



I will be making this structure out of styrene with some plastic brick sheets over it.


Parts: (I just noticed that the top left piece is upside down :oops: )





The brick sheets are white so they won't really show in pics until I paint it. Just a test fit:




A wider view:



The plan is to paint the bricks a red color and then paint white over that...letting the natural brick color poke through here and there. That is the plan....but my plans usually don't go as planned...........I hope that makes sense


More as I progress

I decided to kitbash a doodlebug based on the model that Doctor Wayne built. I started the same, with a Rivarossi Combine:



But not this one! I found a junker at a swap meet a few years ago that someone had spray-bombed quite heavily. I soaked the shell down wit easy-off oven cleaner and the paint fell right off.


I studied Wayne's photos and determined where to make my cuts so that the baggage area would be moved back to make room for the mail door, engine room and the engineer cab.


After cutting the center section out I cut the walls off the frame so that I could glue the frame back the right way and then flip the walls to the opposite sides to move the baggage doors back. I glued the floor back into place first, using a piece of pine that I cut on a table saw to act as a former to keep things straight and level, then I braced the floor joint with 3/16 styrene angle.



Next I cut out the RPO doors. the doors will form part of the splice between the front and middle sections. The side wall isn't glued in yet, hence the mis-alignment.


After that I cut out the RPO windows, and two extra passenger windows on the sides. First I marked them out with masking tape.


To cut the windows out I first drilled a hole in the center, then used a small router bit in my dremel to remove most of the plastic, finishing up with a jeweler's file.

Here is how the project stands now. I have to add the engineer's windows and doors and then start the finishing work on the windows and doors.

I came across this video on Youtube <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyYSovIQl4U">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyYSovIQl4U</a><!-- m --> Basically it is a train simulator game called Trainz 12 and it has a Virtual modell railroad element to it to where you can design your own model railroad.I personally haven't used this program yet,but it appears to possibly be used as a tool to create plans for your layout.kinda like a virtuall 3D representation of what your layout would look like when completed. I used to run Microsoft train simulator when it first came out in 2001 and remember messing around with the Route editor,and figuring out how to create my own route,this is kinda the same thing,but on a much smaller scale.What do ya think?
and this link is for you "Steam" guys <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqTEuV1bp-M">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqTEuV1bp-M</a><!-- m --> and another one i think is really cool <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Fp3Ac8E0E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Fp3Ac8E0E</a><!-- m --> and this one is my favorite <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IzuEm8e8Is">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IzuEm8e8Is</a><!-- m -->