For the new layout, I've been looking for some prototype rail/street crossings where the road goes under a rail bridge. I found a few near me by using Google-Earth. Things were slow at work today, so I took a long lunch and went off in search of them.

One of the bridges islocated in a mixed area of small businesses and neighborhoods, so I parked in a lot which served several retail businesses (fish market, laundramat, etc) and walked down the sidewalk to get a view and take some photos. I took several photos and was walking down the sidewalk towards the bridge when a police car stops beside me. A very young officer gets out of the car and asks what I am doing. Mind you, I am on a public sidewalk. I tell him that I am a model railroader and that I am considering building a model of this bridge for my layout, so I am taking some photos of it. I don't think he understood what I meant. Next, he asks me for ID so I give him my driver's license. Then he asks me where I work so I tell him that. He asks if I have proof of where I work. Well, I have a company credit card with the company name on it, so I offer him that.

He tells me to just stand there while he gets back in his car to run the ID. He gets back out of the car and asks me again what I am doing. I tell him again, he still looks confused, then it finally dawns on him and he says "You mean toy trains?" I say "Yes, I have a layout for toy trains and I am thinking about building a model of this bridge for my layout."

At that point, another police car pulls up and an older officer gets out. He walks up to us and starts chastising the young officer for stopping right in the road - telling him that he chose a really bad place to stop and question someone. The road coming to the underpass is a curve, so he had stopped in a sort of blind spot. The older officer said "if someone was speeding around the curve, they would have smashed into the back of you." Then he says "what you should have done is put him in your car and driven to a safer place to question him." At that point, they bid me good day, got back in their cars, and drove off.

Man, can you imagine if the policeman had put me in his car for taking photos? How embarassing! And it seems rather strange that I could be hauled off in a police car for taking photos of a railroad bridge yet the Houston Police aren't even allowed to ask anyone for proof of citizenship.

Still, I guess I understand that we all need to be cautious in this era of terrorism, so I don't hold it against the officer for questioning me. I am a strong supporter of the police and fully understand they have a very tough job and that they are here to protect us all. It was just sort of surreal, ya know.

Again, I wasn't trespassing (I was on a public sidewalk), there weren't any chemical tanks or refineries or other promising terrorist targets in the area. Here's a couple photos to show where I was.

Last week, I was at George's Trains, one of the LHS's I frequent. George's Trains is now located next to the Canadian National York Sub -- you can get a great view of the line from the shop's windows.

A train was going through and one of the store staff called out for us to come and see this Czechoslovakian diesel that was slowly passing by. I've posted a picture of it here, courtesy of George's. It was being used as some sort of maintenance train. It was hauling a series of flat cars and a large crane was mounted on one of them. Apparently, the crane was picking up pieces of discarded track, etc.

It reminded me of some of the freight diesels that I often see on visits to the UK. I'm not sure how CN managed to to acquire this but it was quite unusual and interesting to see!

Has anyone else seen any locos like this on North American rails?

Cheers,
Rob

   

I have been excited for this challenge, as the last one was so darn fun!

Being a firefighter in our Nation's Capital, I have a desire to have an urban firehouse on my layout. While on a weekend getaway with my wife in Gettysburg, Pa. for the bluegrass festival, my wife suggested we go to Strasburg and ride the wine train. (Yes, you heard right, SHE suggested it!) Never one to turn down a train ride I agreed. While there she bought me a Life-Like fire station kit. Goals for this build:

1. Build a believable rendition of a 2 bay firehouse to house a 2 piece Engine Company and a Hook & Ladder Company
2. give the firehouse an "urban" feel. Many of the firehouses in cities were built in Horse & carriage days or at least when apparatus was much smaller. This makes the quarters pretty cramped for larger, motorized apparatus. I wanna capture that cramped feel. Also I want the building to appear aged, remodeled by the city once or twice, and eventually will be surrounded on all sides by high rise buildings so will have a small, limited parking lot out back.
3. build a firehouse that doesn't scream Life-Like Firehouse
4. detailed interior, not sure about lighting.

I look forward to the challenge, and I'm glad we have 3 months to do it. That might not even be enough time for me!

Dave

With the weekday curfew on the Toledo Subdivision I've been hitting Deshler pretty hard of late, trying to get some rare evening action on the line. A few friends from southern and south-central Ohio came up to Deshler on Wednesday and I headed down with a local friend again to see what we could turn up:

















More photos from May 26 in Deshler are on flickr.

I am looking for dump trucks for a strip mine. It is in the 1940s and HO scale. Here is a pic of what I am looking for



I found one in N scale but not HO

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/623-2111

I have looked every where I can think of. These pics are just to give the Idea not to be exactly what the pic is.

Man..I've been so busy...I forgot about the EMag deadline!
May 8th has come and gone........I totally forgot!

OK......Since I'm an idiot...I guess I'm gonna have to extend the deadline for article to June 15th. That gives me...and you ....more time to put something together.
But!...This is it! Absolutely the only one....After that.....I'll probably extend it again.
Sooooo...June 15th, with hopefully a release first or second week of July.

I've often found that adding extra weight to locos greatly improves their performance. I've bought a few 1/4 and 1/2 oz. weights from my LHS over the years. The only problem, though, is that most of my locos don't have enough room (inside their plastic bodies) for this extra weight. One of my older locos runs much better with about 2.25 to 2.5 oz. of extra weight added, but I'm having to place some of this weight inside its cab!

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions here. I have heard that lead weight is good to add (the most weight for the least amount of space, and not too expensive) -- but could you buy this at an LHS or hardware store?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

As requested I retook the photos and in better quality , I ended up forgetting about retaking them until someone told me the old pics are missing (I've been revamping my phtobucket)

The majority of the machine shop tools are from Greenway Products <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.greenwayproducts.com/a_machine.shtml">http://www.greenwayproducts.com/a_machine.shtml</a><!-- m --> found at the local hobby shops around me.



If you copy the image location and post it in a new window it can be enlarged to actual size

I think there's another company but I don't remember them off hand, I'll edit when I remember.

this would make a great walkway bridge (from the LoC site HAER 292) called a Hadley Papabolic Bow ( leaticular truss) only three bridges were built in this comfigureation its 136" long and too wide for a foot bridge bur narrow it up to 6 or 8" and walla a master piece. And your just the guy to do and i dont think there will be too many on other layouts.
jim

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