Rio Grande Dan's blog

Cardstock Model Builder Software

Rio Grande Dan — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 03:02:44 +0000

I bought the Model Builders Software Video for Windows. So far I haven't built anything and it does have a learning curve. Not a hard one but it does have it's steps and you need to learn them.

I'm not in the Model Building stage right now but I did a test of the soft ware and there are a few ready to build sample structures you can print out in your scale and then assemble.

HOn3 2010 Annual Arrived in my mail box today

Rio Grande Dan — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:30:49 +0000

Last year Carstens Publication started a new once a year magazine exclusively HOn3 and in April of 2009 I pre-ordered their new "2009 HOn3 Annual" it arrived on time around the first week of August and I was expecting a book full of adds like most Narrow Gauge magazines. To my surprise it turned out to be an above average HO Narrow Gauge magazine with very few adds and lots of great construction articles and a number of multi-page step by step projects.

Painting Sheep for My BlackStone Stock Cars

Rio Grande Dan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:27:08 +0000

I finally Found some sheep for my stock cars and they each need painting as they are all pure white. Anybody ever see pure white Sheep other than Marys' ?

I have been looking for 3 years for sheep for my stock cars. A little more that 15 months ago I found 2 packs of 4 sheep each pre painted for $8.49 and said no way!! Some body out there has to make un-painted sheep in bulk for less money.

Ballast color test and code 55 Narrow Gauge ME Track

Rio Grande Dan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:59:07 +0000

It's been a while since I posted anything on my RGS RR and NowI'n working on some ballast I have made from soil and ballast fron the actually RGS in Colorado. Here are a few photos of a mocked up area on my RR:

Catching the Spamers before they get too far on MRH

Rio Grande Dan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:09:11 +0000

I love MRH forums for the simple reason that people trying to Advertise here for free by starting a blog as a cover for their products last about 20 minutes and admin gets a dozen e-mails reporting them and then they are gone forever. I like that every member here looks out for the forums and as soon as some dork tries to place a hidden add on the forums they are reported and bam they are gone gone gone.

Computer Hard Drive complete failure

Rio Grande Dan — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 03:47:27 +0000

My Computer has 3 Hard drives in it Drive C 250 GB, Drive D 1Tera Byte & Drive E 260 GB used as Virtual Ram which allows My computer to Run at super High Speed.

Well My drive "C" was my Photo and book File and had all my model Railroading and MRH magazine files as well as My e-mail and everything that I had for Model Railroading.

CMT an MRH Sponsoring Advertiser

Rio Grande Dan — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:30:28 +0000

A couple days ago I registered with one of our Sponsoring Advertisers "CMT Model Trains". Apparently I put (.com) at the end of my e-mail address and it should be (.net) and Steve at CMT went out of his way to call me at my home yesterday and left me a message explaining that he had tried numerous times to E-mail me with the information I had requested and that the address I had given him wouldn't work and he kept having his E-mail returned as un-deliverable and left me his phone number to call him directly.

Beyond The Homa Sote yard

Rio Grande Dan — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:08:34 +0000

Now that I have the Yard layout set I've been putting the 4% Narrow Gauge Main line grade out of Ridgway toward Placerville and Telluride using the cookie cutter style baseboard. I have about 40 feet of baseboard installed so far and My wife went to bed so I had to quit cutting and screwing the baseboard down and decided to glue down some cork roadbed in place. Usually I use wood glue to attach the Cork roadbed and I have 3 or 4 tubes of Caulking type tubes of liquid nails so I Tried it. It is so much less messy than any other adhesive I've ever used before.

Hobby Shop Day

Rio Grande Dan — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:50:01 +0000

I was on a hobby shops Trek yesterday "317miles round trip" 8 Model Railroad specialties Shops in 9&1/2 Hours. A few of the Items I was looking for were decoders for 2ea 2-8-0 C-16 & 2ea 2-8-0 C-19 D&RGW light steam engines Soundtraxx DSD-101LC Decoders for them & the RGS Galloping Goose #5 DCC/Sound card Tsunami TSU-1000 DCC w/Sound and 5 ea 0.78X1.56X0.31 Oval Speakers for all 5 engines and 14 differently numbered new Rolling stock by Blackstone in HOn3 as well as numerous accessories and books and DVD's.

A Happy Thanksgiving to All the world from the USA

Rio Grande Dan — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:34:48 +0000

While sitting in my Train room this Morning I realized today is Thanksgiving in America. I know other countries have similar celebrations but for U.S. citizens it's our end of harvest season party and is celebrated on the last Thursday of November. It was actually started before America was called The United States By the early settlers and the Native American Indians coming together with that years Harvest grown by the settlers and the wild Game the natives brought to a feast celebrating Peace of the two peoples.

RGS Roundhouse Wall Molds Photos part II

Rio Grande Dan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:11:26 +0000

Here are all the Molds I'll be using to cast my walls for my HOn3 Rio Grande Southern Roundhouse and I built 1 of the 6 interior Roof supports with scale lumber 12X12 up rights and 45 degree supports and 2X12 that will have nut and bolt castings added later as well as the 4X12's used for the base supports around each of the legs. Also The Base which will have the top of the pit area still to be cut out. see Photos below

Scratch Building The Ridgway Roundhouse and Turntable for MY Rio Grande Southern RR

Rio Grande Dan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:07:55 +0000

Hello again MRH readers its October 4th 2009.

For the past 6 months I have searched for a High Quality Craftsman Model of the Ridgway Roundhouse for my Rio Grande Southern Railroad and have been unsuccessful! what I do have are Exact scale Drawings of most of every structure on the Rio Grande Southern so I decided it's scratch building time.

So far I have laid out the base of the 7 stall roundhouse and the three brick walls on the ends. Now you ask why are there three ends?

Spikeing down the track wireing the Turnouts and jumping up and down with JOY

Rio Grande Dan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:54:01 +0000

September 2nd, 2009- Temp in Layout room 1 a cool 70 Degrees.

Photo of last Mountains Painted

Rio Grande Dan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:33:01 +0000

These are the mountains I am Keeping. I still have some touch up like repainting the sky along the left side of one mountain where it's all white and looks like a heavy snow hit there and a few minor areas other wise these are it.

Notice the Green at the botton of each picture this is the basic tree line the under coat and I still need to paint a few thousand trees so the line will NOT be so straight once I add the trees and in fact you won't be able to see this color once the trees are added.

Painting The Rocky Mountains really stinks

Rio Grande Dan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:56:23 +0000

I have had tips and names of books sent to me trying to help me in my attempt to paint the rocky Mountains from Ridgway to Ophir Colorado but they are all examples of paintings miles away from where My model is taking place. The areas I'm trying to paint are in the middle of these Mountains not in the distance http://backdropwarehouse.com/SkMtsGrp.htm#41 check out the Three San Juan Mountain sets the stations and the RGS railroad runs through these not 20 miles away even these Mountains are many miles too far away from what I'm trying to paint.

Re-did the Paint on the Mountians or in

Rio Grande Dan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:48:11 +0000

Re-did the Paint on the Mountians or in the progress the of changing the colors I realized I was on the wrong track so hopefully these are closer to what I should be doing. It's only been 25 years since I painted a Picture of any size.

still not finished but headed in a better direction.

Paint My first 12 feet of Back drop Color Mountains

Rio Grande Dan — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:26:17 +0000

I'm No where near done yet!! Here are some photos of the first 12 feet of of my backdrop painting. I have never painted any kind of mural in my life and it's fun but not as easy as they make it look. I have about 5 books on painting Model Railroad Back drops but, just because we buy the books doesn't make us Rembrandt. The mountain on the far left just has to be changed I'm not sure why it came out looking the way it does but the rest in in the early stages and the lower half on the right does seem to be doing OK.

Painting an Sketching Back Drop of the Rocky Mountians

Rio Grande Dan — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:39:27 +0000

I've Sketched using white pencil Hope you can see it, also the blurry lines are where I erased earlier attempts. also the 2 photos shown were the only 2 of 6 that would show up on camera the white lines I used for sketching the backdrop.

Building The Final Table and the Back Drop of my RGS W/Photos

Rio Grande Dan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:41:08 +0000

For the past 2 weeks I have been on vacation from work and have spent 6 to 8 hrs every other Day on completing my bench work and getting the homosote as well as my back drop up for my first section of my RR The Ridgway Engine facility. Next I'll paint the back drop and get the Narrow Gauge Yard ready for track.

Photo Log of Rio Grande Southern in HOn3 summer 2009

Rio Grande Dan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:31:24 +0000

Hello again

I've been working for the past month on bench work after re-drawing and tearing out the other Bench work I'd Started I have a few Photos of the Bench work my work areas and some of My HOn3 Rolling Stock and Engines as well as supplies laying out ready to be installed. Starting Is a drawing of the first stage in room #1.

After the Chain Saw -- Building the Rio Grande Southern in HOn3

Rio Grande Dan — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:12:13 +0000

For 3 years I planed to build a portion of the D&RGW & the RGS in an area 30ft by 40ft. early this year my new building burned to the ground just before completion (NO RR equipment was lost.)

So until my funds in the stock market are replaced ready Cash in NIL.

Flash I now have changed my whole way of thinking about the RGS. I have an area 26ft X 18ft in the form of 2 rooms and instead of trying to build everything at once I have taken a whole new approach.

I need some Advice from The MRH RR Crew

Rio Grande Dan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:33:11 +0000

Which Level is best to start first?

Where Do I start This RR It is driving me crazy

Rio Grande Dan — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:04:40 +0000

The Main question is Where to start This RR & it is driving me crazy. I had quit a large amount of my basement Railroad bench work started then I removed all the work I had done when I had everything but the electrical inspection by the city on my joint venture RR building in the back of my main house thinking I would never get the smaller Railroad in my basement as well as the club RR I was trying to start anywhere near finished for under a few thousand dollars I don't happen to have so, I disassembled the basement RR.

Building the Rio Grande Southern in a room12.5 ft X 14.10ft HO & HOn3 New Photos of mock up Nix the Helix no double deck

Rio Grande Dan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:09:08 +0000

Today is March 8th, 2009 after much consideration and reading Tony Koester latest Book "Designing & Building MULTI-DECK Model Railroads" from cover to cover and back again. I have decided to turn a 185 sq ft room into a 370 sq ft room. Well, sort of a 370sq feet it will be a duel level. The first or lower level will be 46in above the floor. The second level will be 16in above the first and will use a 5ft round Helix 5 layer 2.5% grade in the room next to it. I'm considering this as stage one and using only 1/5 of my basement plus the 5X5 foot Helix in the adjoining room.