Ive seen many books full of trackplans, but I was wondering if anybody knows of any websites where you can view trackplans. Ive tried googleing it but always just wind up finding books to links. I am working in an area thats just under 12' by just under 11'.

Is anyone going to the Brampton, Ont show this weekend? I'll be there Saturday.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bramptonmodelrailroadshow.com/attractions.htm">http://www.bramptonmodelrailroadshow.co ... ctions.htm</a><!-- m -->

Hear ye....Hear ye

Let it be known, far and wide...From sea to shining sea......in the lowest of valleys, to the highest of peaks...from Earth to Alpha Centauri.......


The Emag is back!

Thats right! ......After a long hiatus......after a big move....and after a couple of beers(OK...maybe more than a couple).....the EMag is back!
You can view it here.......
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/magazine/oct09/Oct09.pdf">http://www.the-gauge.net/magazine/oct09/Oct09.pdf</a><!-- m -->
Enjoy!

Hear ye....Hear ye

Let it be known, far and wide...From sea to shining sea......in the lowest of valleys, to the highest of peaks...from Earth to Alpha Centauri.......


The Emag is back!

Thats right! ......After a long hiatus......after a big move....and after a couple of beers(OK...maybe more than a couple).....the EMag is back!
You can view it here..... <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/magazine/oct09/Oct09.pdf">http://www.the-gauge.net/magazine/oct09/Oct09.pdf</a><!-- m -->

Enjoy!

Hey guys,

i have some of the Walthers Cornerstone Steel Related kits on ebay right now if anyone is interested

I have:

2 Coke Retorts Kits
2 Electric Furnace Kits
3 Tri-State Power Kits
1 Ore Boat
2 Extension Kits for the Ore Boat,
2 Ore Dock Kits
And some engines from my personal collection that im selling off

All are brand new and have never been opened. Some great pricing on them as well.

Here is a link to the auctions:

http://shop.ebay.com/maderscustomtrains/m.html

Thanks for looking,

Hey guys, i thought i might pass this information on and share this with any of the steel modelers who are building the Walthers Ashland Iron & Steel Blower Engine House.

As you guys know, the Blower Engine House goes with the Blast Furnace, and sits to the left of the Stoves of the BF. There is some piping that connects the Stove Piping to the right end of the Blower House. Walthers does not provide any locating points as to where the pipes are supposed to go in on the back of the Blower House Wall, so they leave it up to you to place and cut the holes for the 3 pipes yourself. This is not exactly the easiest thing do do....

I struggled for about an hour in arranging the pipes and trying to mark where the holes needed to be drilled on the Blower House. What i ended up doing was putting a layer of supper glue on the end of the pipe, connecting the other end of the pipe to the Furnace Pipes, and then shoving the Blower House to butt up against the side of the pipe with the supper glue on it. I waited a second and then pulled the pipe away from the Blower wall and set it aside. This left a ring of glue where the pipe needed to go through. After the glue was dry, i would do the next pipe and did this three times so there was three different pipe locations on the wall (small, medium, and large pipes). The tricky thing was to keep everything lined up properly lol. This was done by tracing footprint lines on my workbench of both the Blower House and the Stove Structure, and double checking that each structure was still lined up with the lines on the work bench to keep it all square and in order.

After all 3 pipes were "glued" to the Blower House wall and left the rings of where the pipes needed to go through, i did a rough sketch with a Sharpie marker around the glue line. Then i got the Pipe Connectors and glued them to the Blower Wall so the traced pipe marks lined up with the inside rim of the Pipe Connectors.

Now it was time for the drilling. My grandfather and i spent about an hour drilling the holes out on the Blower wall for each size of pipe. Starting from a small pilot hole in the center of each proposed hole, and using a SLOW drill speed, we gradually worked are way up increasing the bit size by a 1/16"-1/8" at a time. This kept the bit from tearing into too much of the plastic. 5/16" drill bit did it for the small hole, and then filed it slightly to remove some flash. The small pipe fit perfect. We kept going up all the way to half inch on the medium and small holes. The medium hole was roughly 9/16", but we had to stop at 1/2" and file the rest of the medium hole because my granfather didnt have a larger bit then 1/2" in the drills we were using. it wasnt long before the medium hole was opened up and the pipe fit. The exact size we opened it up to was 35/64" and the pipe fit like a glove. Now it was on to the large pipe. The hole had been opened up to 1/2" but needed to go to roughly 5/8" in diameter to accept the large pipe. So my grandfather busted out another set of bits called Fortsner Bits, in this set he had a 5/8". After we used the 5/8" Fortsner bit, the hole was still slightly too small to accept the painted large pipe, so we used the file to open the hole up to 41/64" and now the large Pipe fit like a glove as well.

That was the hard part, and we did this while the Blower House was assembled, which was no easy task. Next time ill be doing the holes before i get it assembled.

Now you may ask, Josh how would you drill the holes in the wall if you dont have it assembled and line up the pipes again???? Well thats where my grandfather showed me another useful thing i can use whenever i build the Blower House (which ill be doing at least 4-5 more times in the near future) and any other structure that needs to have pipe holes drilled out in the walls. Now im not good at math, but i learned pretty quickly and it was pretty easy to take the measurements of exactly where the hole were drilled on the wall for next time. I did a drawling of the actual size of the wall in my trackplanning program, and i listed all the measurements i will need to know next time i build the Blower House. My grandfather has a Milling Machine, so all we will have to do next time is plop in the points and measurements i just took, and sit back and let the machine do the work and drill the three holes for us. Piece of cake letting a machine do all the work and it will result in perfect circle holes in exactly the right locations to accept the pipes!

Im attaching a picture of the drawling i did with the measurements in case you guys would like to see it and use it for your Blower House. Now unless you guys also have a Milling Machine, you wont be able to have a machine drill the holes for you, but at least you will know exactly where to plot and drill the holes without having to assemble the Blower House, then line up the pipes, then mark them, and then drill them lol.

I would like to note that i did my pipe arrangement slightly different then what Walthers did. On the medium pipe, the right side where it connects to the Furnace Pipe, i put 2 elbows in there to push the pipe over a little farther on the Blower Wall to spread all 3 pipes out a little more. I think the Elbows add some character as well, and make it that much more eye catching.

If anyone is interested in having my grandfathers Milling Machine drill the holes in there Blower House wall, you can send it in a letter size envelope to me and we can drill it for you. Drop me a PM and we can work something out if your interested.

So here are the drawling and some pics of the pipes in the holes on the Blower House (NOTE! The Blower House & the Piping have not been weathered yet). If you would like a PDF version of the drawling please let me know and i can email it to you.

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I have developed a problem in my wrists which is problem for me in laying track and other hoppy related fun. I could use some help, is there any one in the South Jersey area who might be interested? I live in Sicklerville.

I built my previous layout with 2x4 frame, in little sections, and attached them together with carriage bolts. I found that that might be a little overkill, and want to use 1x4 this time, but still build in sections, and bolt together. just wondering if anybody else does this similarly or has any advice, I dont want to have my benchwork weigh as much as a sherman tank like it did last time. Thanks

This sounds like a great new forum / section!

I'm still struggling with the whole operations area on my British 00 (similar to HO) layout. I've tried running my passenger trains to a make-shift time table as well as shunting the layout's freight cars around the layout. I'll try to post more details in the next day or so but am interested in feedback & suggestions here. Looking for inspiration, etc., for a small layout.

Rob