OK folks; let me give it to you straight up. We started Big Blue over 14 years ago when we broke free of what was once The Gauge, and eventually, Zealot which quickly became riddled with ads. We did so with the promise that we would never allow advertising nor take on a sponsor, and so far, we’ve lived up to those promises. There is nothing that will ever make that change, so keep that in mind.
 
We’ve supported Big Blue all these years from out-of-pocket when necessary, donations, sales of contributed train gear and by holding auctions. We’ve been successful enough to keep things running and so Mikey and I kind of let things ride as they were, not that we were flush with cash, but because we don’t like leaning on our members when we could get by with what we had. Well, our renewal just came up and we had to empty the treasury to keep us going, literally. Our costs went up a good 10% and so we are at best, broke. We have reached the bottom of the cookie jar, only a few crumbs left!
 
Membership has dwindled over the years as it has throughout most forums, but there are still enough people here interested in what Big Blue has to offer to continue running. We have a lot of wonderful information here and some very talented modelers eager to help, no membership fees for anyone, but it’s no surprise, GoDaddy and the Internet folks just won’t give us a free ride regardless.
 
Where are we going with this? I’m sure you can guess; we have a year to get our treasury back up so when the bills come due, we can pay them. If we can’t make the rent, we’re going to be thrown out on the street without delay. Big Blue will cease to exist and all this valuable information will be lost, and we don’t want that to happen.
 
Out-and-out donations are super, and are always very much appreciated, but we like to give back too when we can, so we’re going to try to open a fund drive all through this year and do our best to make it a fun fund drive. That might include:

• Holding auctions
  
• Holding sales of donated items
  
• Just regular cash donations
  
• Holding someone hostage for ransom (won’t happen)
  
• Buying lottery tickets with the last remaining few bucks we do have (can’t happen)
  
• And lastly, some bright ideas coming from our loyal members (needs to happen!)
  

• Got some duplicate pieces of gear that you’d like to donate that we can either sell or auction off?
  
• Have any memorabilia lying around that it’s time to let go of?
  
• Would you be interested in decorating a car with the Big Blue logo so we can auction it off?
  
• Would you be interested in bidding on this or anything else if we were to hold auctions?
  
• Can you suggest what we could auction, such as prototype (collectable) items, or books?
  
• Want to buy in as a partner? (Just kidding)
  

Been a while since I did any woodworking worth posting, but I bought a gun a while back that needed a new stock added. I could buy many different ones starting at around $50 up to several hundred, then another $50 would get me the required adapter ring to fit it to my gun. I've been wanting a new bandsaw since I sold mine during a move years ago, so this was my chance. Bought one for $160 and I had some scrap maple and everything else I needed so what a delight to get something practical done. Here's the whole project in one post:

Cut the blank on the bandsaw, note the pencil line. I cut the blank in two so I could cut the tapers and basic shape with the saw.

   

After cutting the basic shape on the bandsaw, I glued the parts back together, then sanded it smooth with a belt sander. I used a circle cutter and a Dremel tool to cut the groove that fit on the end of the gun in place of the adapter.

   
   

I spray painted the wood stock black to match the gun

   

Here it is attached to the end of the gun. Added a rubber butt pad to cushion any recoil.

   

So, for a little bit over the cost of the stock and adapter, I wound up with that plus a bandsaw, and had fun building it.

Hostlers are bringing the power for the transfer run to Camden around to the departure track at Mannheim Yard.

Bruce

   

Hi everyone---last week there were some great contributions to WPF---hopefully this week will be even better.To start the week I found this photo taken from Barney Secord's plane as the daily Niagara Peninsula RR passenger train approaches Christophers Landing. 

   

New to the Forum, so hi there everybody!

So, I got to this forum through a YouTube video from The Pixel Depot that took inspiration from a layout here: 59th and Rust
Now I would like to document and discuss my journey into making my own layout.
I am living in Germany and my "play" layout will be modeling a fictional place here, but still decided to post here for the reasons above.
Hoping it could be interesting and would love to get any feedback.

As a kid, I inherited a simple analog layout with one siding that I ended up passing on to my nephew.
Back then, I did barely have the skills to build together a simple plastic kit without modifications.
Frankly, only driving in circles started to bore me to tears.

This time around I have the following:
- a 2m * 60cm baseplate (6,56 foot * 1,97 foot / 78,74 inch * 23,6 inch, what do you use?)
- a V60 small Diesel Shunting locomotive
- Some freight wagons (6 running, 3 needing DC wheels, 5 bought)
- Too many tools, but no clue


  Scarm.bmp (Size: 489.01 KB / Downloads: 1311)

The idea for my layout is a small shunting yard a little off the main line.
Once having only a small woodworking shop in the basement of a house, it grew.
Now holding a larger woodworking shop, a brewery, a small good shed and a team track.
Easy to see that this yard is too small for the amount of traffic.

Hoping the pictures want to attach, and happy to no longer be lurking only
Kitty

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Don't know if anyone here has assembled one of these, but it's a challenge. There is a step-by-step with parts identified, but no tips on how to keep some sub-assemblies together while waiting to use them in a further step. Looking at the Internet, there are many makers, some look like an hour's assembly time for a five-year old, to hours and hours like with the one I have. This one had 290 parts all wood except for the motor spring, some rods and a bell. No glue, just one suggestion, "if part broke, bring glue". So far I've only broken one part, did not bring glue, just made a new one out of scraps.

This is a sketch of the finished engine, I'm assuming that the wheel on one side of the cab allows you to wind the motor, not sure if there's an on/off switch or what, but I'll find out sooner or later. So far I think I've got about six hours into it, that includes about three hours repeating step 1 about 42 times because there's no way to hold 11 tiny pieces of wood together until you figure out a place for a rubber band that won't get in the way.   No estimate time to get it finished, if one part goes in wrong, it has to be disassembled back down to that part . I'm just hoping I get it finished in time to put under the Christmas tree this year....

   

Here are shots of a typical sheet of laser-cut plywood. Some sheets are thicker than others. I found that out when I made the new part.

   

Here I am at step 9, only 38 to go. some steps require at least four hands to complete, others, four hands and two feet, like step 10 where I need to mate the two sides, both sides attach to each other with gears and rods.

   

Also, a pile left to put together steps 10-47

   

While checking on a package arriving from overseas I discovered the following.  I really hope it's just a translation issue and not a plane crash.

   

Tom

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, after seeing how awesome Bruce's pics look every week, I took a page from his book, and updated my photoshop, its amazing how much better a pic can look just by putting a sky in it...

Various HO buildings and structures. Most are kits. Three are already constructed and painted. Prices as noted plus exact postage. Payment by PayPal only.

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Sending my season's greetings and hope for peace,happiness and good health to the Big Blue family.It certainly looks like it's going to be a white Christmas here in the Great White North---fortunately the Leetown Division always seems to have fair weather.