<![CDATA[ - Forum Announcements]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/ Thu, 06 Aug 2026 20:27:52 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[Serurity Issue]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=10268 Sun, 07 Jun 2026 21:33:49 +0000 Duffy]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=10268
I'm sure you noticed when you tried to log in earlier Sunday morning, you got a security warning. The issue has been resolved and all should be good now.

apology for the scare.]]>
I'm sure you noticed when you tried to log in earlier Sunday morning, you got a security warning. The issue has been resolved and all should be good now.

apology for the scare.]]> <![CDATA[We were down, now were up!]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=10057 Fri, 22 Aug 2025 13:45:54 +0000 Duffy]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=10057
Obviously, we're back up.  Check your posts from the last few days to see if they are still there. If you are having issues or anomalies, let me know here or send a PM.]]>
Obviously, we're back up.  Check your posts from the last few days to see if they are still there. If you are having issues or anomalies, let me know here or send a PM.]]> <![CDATA[Our Fantasy Racin' League]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9697 Sun, 29 Jan 2023 20:51:03 +0000 ngauger]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9697 It's absolutely FREE to join in.  It's just for fun!!!!

https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9696]]> It's absolutely FREE to join in.  It's just for fun!!!!

https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9696]]> <![CDATA[2022 Big Blue Redneck Racin']]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9507 Tue, 08 Feb 2022 02:53:00 +0000 ngauger]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9507 It's February and it is time!!!!!  2285_ 2285_

It's time to open up the NASCAR Big Blue Redneck Racin' game!

dwight77 and I are looking for some friendly competition......

Reply here if you would like to join in!!!!]]> It's February and it is time!!!!!  2285_ 2285_

It's time to open up the NASCAR Big Blue Redneck Racin' game!

dwight77 and I are looking for some friendly competition......

Reply here if you would like to join in!!!!]]> <![CDATA[3D Printer Feedback Request]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9496 Wed, 02 Feb 2022 11:48:04 +0000 ngauger]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9496
I know I've read a few posts here on 3D Printing.

How many members have a 3D Printer?
Should we create a dedicated forum for 3D Printing?]]>
I know I've read a few posts here on 3D Printing.

How many members have a 3D Printer?
Should we create a dedicated forum for 3D Printing?]]> <![CDATA[Challenges and fundraisers]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9468 Fri, 07 Jan 2022 13:01:59 +0000 ezdays]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9468  
It’s a new year and it’s been a very long time since we’ve had any kind of fundraiser to support Big Blue and it’s time we thought about doing something along those lines too.
 
Let’s talk about the challenge first, does anyone have any suggestions as to what we can do? Usually a build challenge of some sort, we’ve had photo challenges in the past, kitbashs and scratchbuilds have also done well. The last couple of, “Do something” challenges went well to, gives everyone a choice of what they like to do best. Think about it and come up with some ideas and let’s talk about it in this thread.
 
Now for the fundraiser, It’s been a long time since we’ve had any kind of fundraiser, be it an auction, sale, or just plain asking for contributions, but it takes money to keep Big Blue going and we’ve been good at keeping things reasonable and within our means. We do get an occasional donation and we thank you all for that, but the treasury is getting low, we have things coming up, some repeat every year, some we manage to arrange for two and three years. Each time the costs go up and we haven’t a clue how much each time until we start to review our options with our service provider. We have our SSL certificate up for renewal soon, we have our domain name, our hosting service and a few other things that come up that and we want to be prepared for. So we need some suggestions on how to get things going so we don’t have to grovel the last minute, We have been successful from the first day we split from Zealot, Mikey and I started out digging into our own pockets and thanks to all of you, we’ve not had to do that since. We promised from the get-go that there would be no advertising or sponsors, and we’ve kept our word and will continue to do so regardless.
 
Now, how do we keep things going, do we want to ask for stuff that we can auction off? Do we want to maybe decorate boxcars and auction them? (That hasn’t been too successful in the past.) Do we just want to point to the “donate” button and say, “have at it”? We’ve always liked to give back something if we can, that’s why the auctions, but we’ll do anything that works. So, how about posting some ideas here for a Big Blue Fundraiser….

We both sincerely thank you all for your participation and support here on Big Blue, we are proud that you've kept us around for all these years.

Don (ezdays) and MIkey (ngauger)]]>  
It’s a new year and it’s been a very long time since we’ve had any kind of fundraiser to support Big Blue and it’s time we thought about doing something along those lines too.
 
Let’s talk about the challenge first, does anyone have any suggestions as to what we can do? Usually a build challenge of some sort, we’ve had photo challenges in the past, kitbashs and scratchbuilds have also done well. The last couple of, “Do something” challenges went well to, gives everyone a choice of what they like to do best. Think about it and come up with some ideas and let’s talk about it in this thread.
 
Now for the fundraiser, It’s been a long time since we’ve had any kind of fundraiser, be it an auction, sale, or just plain asking for contributions, but it takes money to keep Big Blue going and we’ve been good at keeping things reasonable and within our means. We do get an occasional donation and we thank you all for that, but the treasury is getting low, we have things coming up, some repeat every year, some we manage to arrange for two and three years. Each time the costs go up and we haven’t a clue how much each time until we start to review our options with our service provider. We have our SSL certificate up for renewal soon, we have our domain name, our hosting service and a few other things that come up that and we want to be prepared for. So we need some suggestions on how to get things going so we don’t have to grovel the last minute, We have been successful from the first day we split from Zealot, Mikey and I started out digging into our own pockets and thanks to all of you, we’ve not had to do that since. We promised from the get-go that there would be no advertising or sponsors, and we’ve kept our word and will continue to do so regardless.
 
Now, how do we keep things going, do we want to ask for stuff that we can auction off? Do we want to maybe decorate boxcars and auction them? (That hasn’t been too successful in the past.) Do we just want to point to the “donate” button and say, “have at it”? We’ve always liked to give back something if we can, that’s why the auctions, but we’ll do anything that works. So, how about posting some ideas here for a Big Blue Fundraiser….

We both sincerely thank you all for your participation and support here on Big Blue, we are proud that you've kept us around for all these years.

Don (ezdays) and MIkey (ngauger)]]> <![CDATA[Uploading photos en mass]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9467 Tue, 04 Jan 2022 12:23:25 +0000 ezdays]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9467
Thank you, thank you Pat
2285_ 2285_ 2285_

These three I group uploaded:

.jpg   APRIL - dessertFlux (April 2013).jpg (Size: 76.92 KB / Downloads: 809)

.jpg   DECEMBER - GernIndust (December 2013).jpg (Size: 70.03 KB / Downloads: 883)

.jpg   dieselWeasel72.jpg (Size: 71.59 KB / Downloads: 797)

This is one that I dragged and dropped:

.jpg   Hante side.jpg (Size: 179.36 KB / Downloads: 859) ]]>
Thank you, thank you Pat
2285_ 2285_ 2285_

These three I group uploaded:

.jpg   APRIL - dessertFlux (April 2013).jpg (Size: 76.92 KB / Downloads: 809)

.jpg   DECEMBER - GernIndust (December 2013).jpg (Size: 70.03 KB / Downloads: 883)

.jpg   dieselWeasel72.jpg (Size: 71.59 KB / Downloads: 797)

This is one that I dragged and dropped:

.jpg   Hante side.jpg (Size: 179.36 KB / Downloads: 859) ]]> <![CDATA[2022 Railroad Graffiti Calendar]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9458 Mon, 20 Dec 2021 03:41:08 +0000 ngauger]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9458 I'll donate all proceeds to Big Blue that were bought through this link:

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/mike-piz...pageSize=4]]> I'll donate all proceeds to Big Blue that were bought through this link:

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/mike-piz...pageSize=4]]> <![CDATA[Attention all spammers:]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9368 Sun, 04 Jul 2021 18:56:58 +0000 ezdays]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9368 I’m guessing most spammers (especially bots), won’t read this, or even care, but I just want everyone to know what we’re dealing with behind the scenes, plus it relieves my aggressions just a bit.

An open letter to spammers

You don’t see any spam here do you? We are proud of how quick our members and staff respond to anything unusual and we are ready to take it down quickly. Why take the time and effort to register here just so you can go through the motions and get thwarted a few minutes later and be banned from further posting as well. Sometimes, you may even get banned before you have a chance to post. We frequently alert others about you so they’ll be ready when you show up somewhere else, so why bother with us?

And for those spammers that don’t register, but email your trash to our, “stationmaster”, think again. As recipient of this trash, it gets filtered and deleted most times without being read no matter how polite or deceiving your email is. No, we are not interested in selling or taking on partners or sponsors, and no we don’t need to increase our sales since we’re not selling anything and it’s hard for us to care less about investments or converting to bitcoins. And a big NO, to looking at your porn, hooking up, finding a foreign bride, linking with other sites, or allowing you to place ads.

I hope you are able to read and understand all this and that you don’t post here, hoping to snag someone willing to part with some cash, or to read whatever drivel you are spewing at the time.

If this isn’t clear enough, then you could ask someone to read it to you slowly, and in your own language, so that you will understand.

I feel better already.... 2285_ ]]> I’m guessing most spammers (especially bots), won’t read this, or even care, but I just want everyone to know what we’re dealing with behind the scenes, plus it relieves my aggressions just a bit.

An open letter to spammers

You don’t see any spam here do you? We are proud of how quick our members and staff respond to anything unusual and we are ready to take it down quickly. Why take the time and effort to register here just so you can go through the motions and get thwarted a few minutes later and be banned from further posting as well. Sometimes, you may even get banned before you have a chance to post. We frequently alert others about you so they’ll be ready when you show up somewhere else, so why bother with us?

And for those spammers that don’t register, but email your trash to our, “stationmaster”, think again. As recipient of this trash, it gets filtered and deleted most times without being read no matter how polite or deceiving your email is. No, we are not interested in selling or taking on partners or sponsors, and no we don’t need to increase our sales since we’re not selling anything and it’s hard for us to care less about investments or converting to bitcoins. And a big NO, to looking at your porn, hooking up, finding a foreign bride, linking with other sites, or allowing you to place ads.

I hope you are able to read and understand all this and that you don’t post here, hoping to snag someone willing to part with some cash, or to read whatever drivel you are spewing at the time.

If this isn’t clear enough, then you could ask someone to read it to you slowly, and in your own language, so that you will understand.

I feel better already.... 2285_ ]]> <![CDATA[Just a teaser]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9144 Fri, 19 Jun 2020 16:14:24 +0000 ezdays]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9144 <![CDATA[Registering]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9106 Sun, 05 Apr 2020 20:00:30 +0000 ezdays]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9106
Just so you have a feeling for how that's working, we've had 189,028 attempts to register, 87 of them got the right answer to our security question (railroad related), 93,437 tried but failed, the rest just didn't even try. That's why you don't see much spam here, and when you do, it's gone in a flash...]]>
Just so you have a feeling for how that's working, we've had 189,028 attempts to register, 87 of them got the right answer to our security question (railroad related), 93,437 tried but failed, the rest just didn't even try. That's why you don't see much spam here, and when you do, it's gone in a flash...]]> <![CDATA[The new Big Blue Facebook page]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9071 Tue, 21 Jan 2020 20:43:17 +0000 Duffy]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=9071
The address for the page can be found here at  https://www.facebook.com/groups/BigBlueTrains/ . It's currently setup as a closed group, which means you'll have to request permission to join. This is to keep out spammers but mostly Russian spies. You do need to have a Facebook account in order to join, so if you don't have one, that should be your first step. Once you locate the page, there will be a button located just below the header graphic titled "Join Group." This will send out a notification to one of the admins who will accept the request.

If you are familiar with how Facebook works, this should be and easy navigation, if you aren't, there is a bit of a learning curve to find you're way around. This is in no way designed to replace the forum. I know there are some who don't like the Facebook platform, and that's fine.

Any questions can be posted in this thread and we'll try to answer them as best we can.

Thanks!]]>
The address for the page can be found here at  https://www.facebook.com/groups/BigBlueTrains/ . It's currently setup as a closed group, which means you'll have to request permission to join. This is to keep out spammers but mostly Russian spies. You do need to have a Facebook account in order to join, so if you don't have one, that should be your first step. Once you locate the page, there will be a button located just below the header graphic titled "Join Group." This will send out a notification to one of the admins who will accept the request.

If you are familiar with how Facebook works, this should be and easy navigation, if you aren't, there is a bit of a learning curve to find you're way around. This is in no way designed to replace the forum. I know there are some who don't like the Facebook platform, and that's fine.

Any questions can be posted in this thread and we'll try to answer them as best we can.

Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[Where The Heck Did You Get That!?]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=8993 Fri, 30 Aug 2019 02:14:46 +0000 ngauger]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=8993
http://cs.trains.com/ctr/b/mileposts/arc...VnsBIO5gCM


It's about what Don, The other Moderators and I have been preaching since The Gauge began 19 years ago.

Interesting thing; a few weeks ago, I was perusing Facebook in our local history page and I see a photo I Took years ago on the local history site and the caption read: 
Does anyone remember the Baldwin locomotive Works in Eddystone?

i posted - Yeah - I DO, since I took this picture, Please give credit when you can!!!
I then attached the link to my website.

It was the picture below...  The "dark blob" to the left was a lens issue with the camera.
The car and clouds can not possibly appear in the same positions in any picture other then this one, so i know it was and is mine.

All the person had to do was include the link to my site.

...... The person never replied, or commented....  Oh well......... 

So, everyone, please be courteous on Big Blue and any other site you visit...
~ Thank You!!

.jpg   IMG_7002.JPG (Size: 252.13 KB / Downloads: 684) ]]>
http://cs.trains.com/ctr/b/mileposts/arc...VnsBIO5gCM


It's about what Don, The other Moderators and I have been preaching since The Gauge began 19 years ago.

Interesting thing; a few weeks ago, I was perusing Facebook in our local history page and I see a photo I Took years ago on the local history site and the caption read: 
Does anyone remember the Baldwin locomotive Works in Eddystone?

i posted - Yeah - I DO, since I took this picture, Please give credit when you can!!!
I then attached the link to my website.

It was the picture below...  The "dark blob" to the left was a lens issue with the camera.
The car and clouds can not possibly appear in the same positions in any picture other then this one, so i know it was and is mine.

All the person had to do was include the link to my site.

...... The person never replied, or commented....  Oh well......... 

So, everyone, please be courteous on Big Blue and any other site you visit...
~ Thank You!!

.jpg   IMG_7002.JPG (Size: 252.13 KB / Downloads: 684) ]]> <![CDATA[Big Blue's 10th anniverary celebration]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=8948 Thu, 16 May 2019 12:29:56 +0000 ezdays]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=8948
We're starting our celebration with a auction of a special N scale car. It's our way of helping to support Big Blue and get something back in return. Our way of saying, "Thank You". Check out the auction right here.

There's more to come, but this is a start, so even if you're not into N scale, we hope it will be a treasured keepsake, enough for you to bid and take it home.]]>
We're starting our celebration with a auction of a special N scale car. It's our way of helping to support Big Blue and get something back in return. Our way of saying, "Thank You". Check out the auction right here.

There's more to come, but this is a start, so even if you're not into N scale, we hope it will be a treasured keepsake, enough for you to bid and take it home.]]> <![CDATA[Something's missing, our goof]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=8930 Wed, 17 Apr 2019 12:16:54 +0000 ezdays]]> https://bigbluetrains.com/showthread.php?tid=8930 Donate button at the bottom of the page".... but wait, it wasn't there anymore. Icon_e_surprised  It seems as when we changed over to the new software, the code wasn't compatible and we lost our means for members to donate as they most generously have over the years, ...and no one noticed.
 
Well, it's been rectified; our illustrious Webmaster, Duffy, added the needed code and our Donate button is now in its regular place at the bottom of the page. Applause  So, for any of you that want to catch up on your donations, you can just go ahead and click on the button, and that goes for anyone else who feels the urge. We appreciate you for all your support over the years.
 
Remember, we are free of ads, our promise to you, no ads and no sponsors, just lots of friends with the same interests in model trains. We started Big Blue (formerly, The Gauge) on that premise. Our only means of support is through donations and other fund-raising activities such as auctions. If worse comes to worst, we dig into our own pockets, but we never will allow ads to sully our fine forums. We are now in our 10th year as Big Blue, and so we are asking you to use the new Donate button if you have the means. We greatly appreciate your support. As you can see, doctorwayne is offering an array of HO couplers dirt-cheap here with all the proceeds going to Big Blue. That is a kickoff to a few more things to come soon, so hang on, we need you whether you donate or not, it's just good to have you around.
 
Thanks,
Don (ezdays) & Mikey (ngauger)
Co-caretakers of Big Blue Trains]]> Donate button at the bottom of the page".... but wait, it wasn't there anymore. Icon_e_surprised  It seems as when we changed over to the new software, the code wasn't compatible and we lost our means for members to donate as they most generously have over the years, ...and no one noticed.
 
Well, it's been rectified; our illustrious Webmaster, Duffy, added the needed code and our Donate button is now in its regular place at the bottom of the page. Applause  So, for any of you that want to catch up on your donations, you can just go ahead and click on the button, and that goes for anyone else who feels the urge. We appreciate you for all your support over the years.
 
Remember, we are free of ads, our promise to you, no ads and no sponsors, just lots of friends with the same interests in model trains. We started Big Blue (formerly, The Gauge) on that premise. Our only means of support is through donations and other fund-raising activities such as auctions. If worse comes to worst, we dig into our own pockets, but we never will allow ads to sully our fine forums. We are now in our 10th year as Big Blue, and so we are asking you to use the new Donate button if you have the means. We greatly appreciate your support. As you can see, doctorwayne is offering an array of HO couplers dirt-cheap here with all the proceeds going to Big Blue. That is a kickoff to a few more things to come soon, so hang on, we need you whether you donate or not, it's just good to have you around.
 
Thanks,
Don (ezdays) & Mikey (ngauger)
Co-caretakers of Big Blue Trains]]>