Just finished the last of these 3 Z scale cars (the boxcar) for a client today.







and this one for me



I have 3 more of these to finish up.

Hi guys, i just spent the day building this structure for a member on another forum, Scale Rails Online. His name is Dustin and he asked me to build a HUGE grain elevator for him. So he sent me the kits (3 Walthers N Scale ADM Grain Elevators) and i spent today building this HUGE structure.

The main Structure measures about 2-3/4" long x 3-1/4" wide (4-3/4" long x 3-1/4" wide with the large hopper car shed), and the silo structure measures about 29-1/2" long x 2-3/4" wide. All together it measures about 34-1/4" long x 3-1/4" wide. The Silo structure has 2 rows of 23 silos, making a total of 46 silos!

The entire structure is made to be set against a wall, so the back side has been left open. There are a total of 4 Cargill Signs on the structure. One of them is located on the front of the silo structure, 2 more along the side of the silo structure, and 1 more on the side of the main structure. It was painted white with Gray Conveyor Housing, Hopper Car Shed, Doors, and Roof Top Machinery.

Here are some overall pictures of this MASSIVE structure


















Just thought i would snap some pics off and share with you guys before i box this up and send it off to Dustin

I guess I haven't posted any pictures of what I've been up to lately. My previous layout was built on a smooth door, but due an to upper level management decision, that layout was abandoned and a new one started on the top of shelving units. The layout's base is 1.5 inch foam board on .5 inch plywood, and all resting on the shelving unit tops, and split into roughly two equal 8 foot sections for an overall length of almost 16 feet and only 16 inches wide. The basic design is a simple dogbone layout where the plywood expands to 22.5 inches to accommodate the 11 inch radius curves at the ends of the layout, and supported by wall mounted decorator shelving unit braces. Code 80 flex track was used to minimize joints, and all turnouts are Peco Insul-Frog and manually thrown. There can be no drilling into the shelving unit tops, so all the wiring had to be hid within the foam board. I cut trenches into the foam to place the wiring, and ran 18 gauge wire to the Digitrax Zephyr unit.

There's a yard in the center that has tracks that move freight cars to the eastern town's industries and allow for passenger service to the western town (that's not done yet). There's passing tracks parallel to the mainline located at the north and south middle sections of the layout. There's a fueling station at the northern end of the yard area that will service diesels on both tracks it rests between. An engine service building is also just east of the yard. The tracks the Amtrak is on connects to the western mainline loop. The buildings generally follow the design and function of those between my two key cities of Salsbury and Pineville, NC. The yard was inspired by what I saw when visiting the Norfolk Southern Charlotte Yard just north of the city.

We're set up for continuous 4-train operation, with switching and spur service to the various industries/plants around the layout. A train leaves the yard and travels in either direction around the layout, taking an inside passing siding as needed to allow the faster Amtrak service to pass and make a stop at either the western station or eastern station as necessary. Smaller local freights are built up from the yard and have access to either the eastern town from the spur from the yard, or around part of the mainline and off the passing siding as a backing operation into the western industry area. My only problem is there's no way to get vehicles from one end of the layout to the other. I might try several Rix overpasses strung together located above the yard area and parallel to the mainlines (which somewhat resembles the traffic conditions in and around the yard in Charlotte). But it's not that important to me that all the roadways connect from one end of the layout to the other.

Well...here it is. I'd appreciate all the critiques and ideas you might have. I know there's a tremendous amount of scenery to add, roadways to build, buildings to paint etc. Since the track is down but not affixed, I can still move things around a bit. I know these aren't the best pictures possible, but with 16 narrow feet to capture, it poses a slight camera angle problem.

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I have been meaning to photograph this for some time but can never remember to take my camera with me.
Although it's not a train,it's train related especially for those of you the model coal or stone hauling roads.
I know nothing about it's history other than it was made by Autocar and it's for sale.
Enjoy-Bob

Every so often on the radio, I hear the morning DJ's talking about a national day of... such and such. Today (May 6th) was the Great American Grump Out, tomorrow (May 7th) is the National day of prayer, and May 8th is World Red Cross day. About now you're probably thinking... interesting but so what? Well, it just so turns out that Saturday, May 9th is

hi all


i have for sale 5 ho scale CSX 100 ton Bowser hopper kits id like to get rid of. the kits are sealed in their original boxes. the car numbers are all differant too. im not sure what they are worth so if you are interested let me know and im sure we can arrange something. theres nothing wrong with these kits, i just have way to many hoppers than i need.



todd

Hi Guys,
A buddy over here took this picture and would like to know what it is .... i think it may be GM from what i can fine out about it on the net but no positive identification.

Hi guys,

After trying a loco over a newly laid section of track all went well until this my usual loco i use for testing started acting erratically the display on the cab showed its speed at 11 slow and then when i increased it it dropped lower and then all of a sudden a lot higher the loco did respond to the read out but i cant get the read out to settle to a reasonable speed, i tried another loco which did the same .... the programme track is working fine readback ok, seems the wheel encoder has gone as the other buttons work fine has anyone else had this happen ?

So at the moment i am using the powercab cab for it while its away for repair.

I'm still wondering, where are the loggers from the old forum...or just - "where are the loggers?", period.

Im facing a pretty tough decision right now with my model railroading stuff, mainly with my rolling stock.

My family has a resale license in the State of California (my grandfather owns a jewelery store and has owned for 40+ years now) and he has suggested that i contact Walthers and so we could set up a resale account with them. As many of you may know, im out of a job right now, and im currently building and selling structures, both to private people who have contacted me and on ebay, and im not making much of anything on them. My grandfather and i were talking about this yesterday, and how i could make a little more if i could order wholesale direct from Walthers. So he and I put together an email and sent it off to Walthers to inquire about ordering from them at a wholesale or "dealer" discount. This would certainly help me alot right now and make it so i can at least get by right now and pay my bills and such, as well as support my girlfriend (which tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary lol)

Im waiting on a response from Walthers and keeping my fingers crossed that i will be able to order from them at the wholesale prices with my grandfathers re-sale license. I know there is going to be at least some kinda minimum first order, and probably a minimum additional order, thats okay with me, i just need to find the money to make my first order from them if i can infact order from them. This is where my tough decision comes into play here.

Im 19 years old, still live at home, no car, no job, and no money. I KNOW ITS SAD, but hey, i got a girlfriend that loves me and a loving family, plus a SWEET hobby, so what more can i ask for right now right? hehe So this means i cannot get even a small loan without any sort of collateral right?

To make the minimum order from Walthers, i have proposed to sell every single piece of rolling stock and possibly all my engines to raise money for this first order from them. I have a feeling there first minimum order is going to be at least $1500-$2000 but im not sure, im getting really anxious to hear back from them and hopefully set up an account with them for resale. This is going to be extremely tough for me to do, this is all my rolling stock that i have collected over the past 4 years, and i have ALOT of favorites in there. Its literally killing me inside, the thought of selling every thing i got so far. But on the other hand, if i do sell all my rolling stock and engines, i can slowly built up my fleet again (both rolling stock and engines) by ordering them from Walthers, and i can pretty much start over clean, get all nice new shinny rolling stock with metal wheels, start fresh and replace all couplers and wheel sets with Kadee #5's and Branchline code 80 metal wheels. This would mean no more rolling stock kits for me lol, and my engines would be all nice and new.

There is just something about this though, the though of selling everything i have gotten so far that is just holding me back. What is that called? lol. At first i was all over this idea and completely ready to start listing every single last thing i had to start over, but then i started thinking and looking at the stuff i have and it hit me, im really going to miss this stuff, so i just dont know what to do, i guess i really need to think this one over.

Id like to hear your guys opinions on selling everything and starting over slowly, good idea or bad? The whole reason i want to order wholesale from Walthers is to put a little extra money in my pocket, and i would also be willing to take orders from forum members on anything Walthers carries, and offer items at a discount over normal retail.

Comments, questions, suggestions are welcomed