Went to Colorado Springs today, and on the way out of town decided to stop at the two railroad hobby shops in town.

The first one is going out of business. The owner is retiring, there are no buyers for the business and he is closing out.

At the next one, I was shocked to discover it just wasn't there at all. Went next door to a small restaurant and learned that a family death had been followed by a bunch of trucks that loaded everything and left. The shop is empty, the sign is gone and so is the business...the major N-scale supplier and sole Marklin dealership in this entire region.

The only model shop left is a two hundred mile round trip to Denver and back.

I fear for the future of this hobby in my area.

Besides that, rain, snow hail, sunshine and flood warnings. :?

I'm looking for ideas for industries that might use the round containers that come with the N scale Atlas 42-foot gondolas. The containers are easily removed, but I thought it would be fun to discuss because they are ubiquitous in the hobby.

The first thing that comes to mind is cement, which was hauled in small containers before the widespread use of covered hoppers, but that seems difficult to justify in a Postwar setting. Any other suggestions?

Hi all. I'm currently renovating a room for my layout.
It's 22' x 16' and will have coved corners.
My layout will be a freelancer Colorado narrow gauge in HOn3.
I've drawn the track plans for it, and I can't wait to start building it.
To prepare, I've been doing some city planning for one of the towns, called Twin Peaks (work name, yet to be decided)
IMG_20170518_110214 by Michael Graff, on Flickr
Main Street, the town will be 8' long.
The station will be regauged to HOn3.

IMG_20170518_110240 by Michael Graff, on Flickr

IMG_20170518_104830 by Michael Graff, on Flickr

IMG_20170518_110137 by Michael Graff, on Flickr
The street will go upwards in the back and turn into suburbs.

This was just posted at RR-Line by jimdad1. He will be missed.





"Friends - I was informed this evening that Terry Jolliffe, Teejay as he was known here, passed away Thursday May 11 after a brief illness.

Per Terry's request, there was no local announcement nor funeral service.

I had been aware he was ill with a prognosis of only 6-8 weeks (!) - unfortunately, he made 5.

While I have no further information at this time, should that situation change, I'll be sure to post an update.

My deepest condolences to Terry's wife Bonnie along with the other members of their family."

Just completing a couple large curved trestles and was wondering what you's have used to sit the trestle bent footings to the scenery? I'm thinking of using 3/16 x3/16 basswood painted concrete colour attached to the bent base then to the scenery base.

You can see what I mean in the photo where the 3/16 square is under the bottom of one of the bents


and the second

Hello!

Recently, I have been developing a business based around producing replacement diesel shells in HO scale. These shells would be used to allow the modeling of a different prototype on an existing chassis. I have been in contact with a manufacturer and am now gauging market interest for my first product: a Baldwin DR4-4-1500 'Babyface' cab unit. Please note that this is only an interest survey. It is not intended to be a request for funding or anything of that sort; it is simply to gauge how much interest the market has for this product.

Here is an image of one:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/ori...0ad262.jpg

This diesel has only been offered in brass and a very short-lived Anthracite Railroad Historical Society resin kit, which is practically unavailable today. The DR4-4-1500 'Babyface' was used extensively by the Central of New Jersey railroad, as well as a handful of units to Missouri Pacific and New York Central.

This shell would fit over a Bachmann RF-16 chassis, but could be modified to fit other chassis. Initially, only an A-unit would be offered, but a B-unit would be offered later if there is sufficient interest. More particulars are explained in the form below.

If you have interest in this kit, please fill out the form below. Feedback from this form will be hugely important to the future of the kit.

Form:
https://goo.gl/forms/Ehbyco7yuq1G89ez2


Thank you for your time,

Dreadnought

No one here has ever missed a NASCAR announcement, but you all missed Mother's Day.

Hi All,

It's been a while since I've posted here but i've not been idle. Aside from redesigning part of my layout , redoing the track work etc. I've also finally given in to my weakness and taken my first careful steps in owning steam locomotive models. The first commercial plastic one I've bought is a Bachmann Spectrum 4-8-2 light Mountain. While I've already learned these were released a few times, with some technical differences/improvements in each. I think I might have one from the first or second release, and the PCB in the original tender almost appears as a non DCC version, but it does have a plug. In any case, I've swapped the tender for a long Vanderbilt type with two 3 axle trucks to more accurately represent the way they would have looked in service with the SP prior to them receiving the skyline casings.

I still have work to do on the detailing to make it a little more SP. Yes I know I could have tried to get an Athearn Genesis, but part of the fun for me is kit bashing/detailing, and it being my first steamer, I decided to go careful with the expenses and buying a loco for 50 USD is a lot better than 200+ USD. I've already rewired the tender and replaced the original bulbs for warm white LED's, and installed a Loksound V4 decoder with speaker in the tender.

However, to make a long story short. The loco isn't the smoothest runner I've seen. This may be because the engine has been sat in a box for years (allegedly it was brand new, but discovered during a clearcut) and all grease has dried up. So the first thing I did is to open up the cover for the axles and removed old grease and re lubricated it. This hasn't really made an improvement and I'm getting the impression that the drive is binding a little bit. Not enough to stall it, but just enough to make it move in a somewhat jerking/ irregular fashion at low speeds. I've also checked pickup wipers are free and not jamming in the spokes etc..

So anyone with experience with these engines (DCC or DC), what have you done to improve running characteristics?

Many thanks for your further tips and tricks in taming this otherwise nice model.

Koos

Hello,

at the end of this month there will be the annual meeting of the Fremo Southwest Division and therefor was need for a D&RGW steam aera caboose. And to make things worse, i model Rio Grande in standard gauge, not in narrow gauge. Purchasing NG is no problem, a widespread choice of D&RGW NG cabooses in all formats, style and lettering. And there will be no modules with dual gauge, so there will be no possiblties to use a NG caboose behind SG locos an rolling stock: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/81569/rec/5">http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/si ... 1569/rec/5</a><!-- m -->
So Standard Gauge is a problem. Here in Germany was nothing to purchase in this orientation. So i purchased a secondhand D&RGW Walthers wood caboose in the States via ebay.












That was i got. The previous owner has done some modifications, as Intermountain wheelsets, new number and Royal Gorge herald and some other imorovements. I was satisfied with this deal.

But ...(censored) Walthers has done here with this model lettered for D&RGW?
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/51886/rec/41">http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/si ... 886/rec/41</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/file.php?1,file=7577,filename=cabooses-1191-1157-leadville.jpg">http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/file.php ... dville.jpg</a><!-- m -->
Tell me about why the Walters wood caboose was done as it is. :? The end platforms differ completely in nearly all details from the prototype.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/file.php?1,file=7576,filename=drgw-01157-leadville.jpg">http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/file.php ... dville.jpg</a><!-- m -->
And as this photo shows, these old wooden caboose made it into the Diesel aera.
For me it is a sort of challenge to get this caboose ready for the meeting.





First step for the word was demounting all parts. Here plastic profiles were put out and 1mm sheet was cut ready for new end platforms, also splices were scribed with rather butt cutter.





Second step was searching for suitable materials and make preliminary work.





Glueing "C"-shaped profiles under the body to make outer sills.





New platforms mounted by glueing.





End sills were glued onto. For lack of time i decided to use parts of the old underframe again. The wrong platform steps were removed.





Kadee coupler boxes were mounted too in this early stage to became fully integrated.
And a 3-point suspension was created. Left, washers were piled to get the right height. Right, on each side a pile of tiny plastic profiles and sheets were glued onto the traverse member. The air reservoir was monted by shimming a little downwards according to prototype photos. The AB brake will retained.



Cheers Lutz