I'll start us off this week with an older photo which I happened upon a few days ago. It was taken with the camera on the layout, and while most of the background is rather incongruous with the scene, I was struck by the depth of field offered by the low-cost point-and-shoot camera. The scene is in Lowbanks, almost at the farthest point, by rail, from Dunnville. However, the taller structures visible in the background are in Dunnville's industrial district:



Wayne

Back in the day before autos and roads were king, did they transport horses in stock cars? the reason I ask - I've got a solitary HOn3 stock car kit that came as part of a lot, and am trying to justify its use on my railroad. Since it is mostly a mining related short line, I don't think livestock movements of cattle or sheep make a whole lot of sense. But, my town and the mining operations could make use of many horses and mules. Would it be plausible for a railroad to ship horses and mules in a stock car, or would it be more likely for horses and mules to be brought in via their own legs? I figure the length of the short line would be about 20 miles from the standard-gauge connection.

Hi, all-

Through the generosity of a board member, I was given a Rix throttle to use on my shelf layout. I have a few questions about it that he couldn't answer: Can these throttles be unplugged when the train is running and the throttle moved to another location/plugin without the train stopping? Is this a true memory throttle? If it is not, can I modify it in some way to make it a memory throttle? I really want to use this throttle, as I am not ready to use/try/buy/afford a DCC system at this time. Thanks for any input you can give me on this system.
Al

A pair of Shore River switchers pull out of Mannheim Yard with a consist of sand cars

Bruce

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A while ago I was reading through a forum thread about the Trent Valley North American Modellers exhibition, a UK event for people who model the US prototype, and thought "I could do that." So I asked the event organizer if he had space for another layout. As it stands I have 6ft of allocated space at the event to exhibit a layout.

Now, with TVNAM looming on the horizon, I thought it wise to get my layout build thread up on the forum to encourage me to crack on and get it ready in time - plenty of time to go, and I am currently part of the way through the wiring.

Whilst the wiring is ongoing I've been cracking on with other aspects of the project, including getting the buildings ready to be planted.

The idea for the layout is as a slowly growing project along a similar vein to the popular Sweet Home Alabama - start with a single switching layout and expand it further and further as time goes on. Whilst working on the wiring for Cane River I decided to convert over to DCC, then realised I'd need a testing a programming track, which eventually expanded into an idea for a stand alone micro-layout, which became Winnfield Rock - which can be used as an extension to Cane River should I so choose.

To start with I wanted to build something a little different to what I am used to seeing when out and about over here - we have plenty of cities and rolling hills out here just as they do in the States, so I wanted to go for a stark contrast to that. Arid desert or Bayou kind of immediately jumped out in my mind.

Inspired by Nantahala Midland and the southern beauty it depicts, I decided on a Bayou setting, so opened up Google and started looking at images and maps of Louisiana. The more I looked the more interesting the state appeared, and as a bonus my two favourite railroads, both BNSF and CSX have trackage in the state.

I like the look of Louisiana so much I've decided that when Cane River is finished to scrap my WIP home layout and have designed another one based around my new favourite state!

Looking around the Shreveport area I found the town of Mansfield, which drew my eye as I live not far from Mansfield, England - and after a little further snooping around I found Cane River - name chosen!

Though the area around Cane River has no actual railroad in reality, that doesn't stop me from coming up with a fictional shortline to base around there.

So far, the basic track layout has been decided, the baseboards constructed and the trackbed raised up to allow for more flowing scenery. I've made a start on wiring in the power feeds and will go from there. This coming weekend should see the wiring complete and the scenery begin. I originally included a 3 way point before realising that I don't actually need one, and so ditched it to make things less electrically complex. All turnouts are all live frog and it needs to be DCC friendly - two things I've not worked with before - so this caused me pause whilst I investigated how to wire them up.

So whilst doing so I started on Winnfield Rock - which was designed as an extension and yet is further along than Cane River itself is!

Between jobs on each layout I've been busying myself at work on my lunch breaks making a start on the structures - starting with a small factory/warehouse design taken from a set of drawings in Model Railroader. I've also made preparation for the large amount of trees the layout will inevitably need and raided my local Hobbycraft which was having a sale on Woodland Scenics products. I came away with some dark green foam and 50-odd armatures for making trees. I've since bought 100+ more armatures and more foam products, which should be enough to outfit my home layout as well.

Once the wiring is complete and tested, progress should rocket along as scenery is my favourite aspect of this hobby of ours!

Below are pictures of my progress so far. Cane River first, Winnfield Rock after.

Cane River track plan:


Current progress:




Winnfield Rock track plan:


Current progress:








Let me know what you think.

In last days a have done last small changes at my recent car projects and now I must wait for help or next steps which should done by friends, painting or help for construction for 3D-printing. So I can change to my long time planed rebuilding project - the Virginian 2-10-10-2 class AE. I know I have postet a few pictures of my model already and now it must get a reworking! So far, the model is a bad runner that I want to change necessarily.









Here yet a picture of one of originals - a free usable picture after rules of Wikimedia Commons.

Again a few highlights because I love this engine.
The AE was built in 1918 by ALCO and it was at this time and also until to end of this loco type in 1952 an absolute giant!
- Pulling power 147,200 lbs (working as compound engine) and 176,600 lbs (as simple working engine with high pressure steam to all four cylinders).
- The biggest cylinders ever used to a steam engine (30” high power and 48” low power, both 32” stroke) – for readers in metric dimensions: dia 762 mm and 1219 mm by 813 mm way.
- The biggest ever used boiler diameter 118” (outer dia.) or 2997 mm.
- Biggest wide at front cylinders 144” or 3658 mm.
- Weight on drivers in working orders 617,000 lbs.
The engines were so large that the must moved from the erecting shops to the VGN with removed front cylinders and without the cab.
What for an engine and built in 1918 already. See also the long living time – until 1952.
Their only problem was the extreme slow max. speed, only 15 mph or 25 km/h because the small driver diameter, the big piston stroke and the extreme high masses of pistons, crossheads and rods – however it was good enough for pulling extreme heavy coal trains over steep grades while 35 years of life! Can you discover my enthusiasm for this engine?

Now I will start to give the model a new life and I would like to add a few better features as that what mass produced models have.





In last year already I repaired a missing knee at one of steam exhaust pipes, but this was only a beauty repair without many work.
What I mus do these are these very bad realized solutions.



The picture shows an extreme bad working power transfer from motor to rear driver group by a hard and heavily bent hose ...



... and a too short and hard connection from rear to front frame.



In result all the front drivers are hinging over the rails if the rear drivers run about a small bump on tracks. The mobility of the front frame is severely limited by the extremely inflexible gear connection to front-frame, so the entire weight of the locomotive is focused on the rear engine - and this must be changed! Basically!
Now I startet with a scetch of loco and I compared it with a drawing of original. So I hope to get a good base for all the changes which I would like to realize.



To be continued.

Hi!

I'm actually wondering what was a typical clay slurry (kaolin) tank car in Canada during the 70s and 80s. I've found a lot of infos about the 90s and 00s and I remember seeing many JM Huber and Omya cars back then, however, my childhood memories of train in the 80s are devoid of any tank cars.

What was common company offering that service back then. Were funnel-type cars already that popular in that service to paper mills? I'm curious.

Matt