• The Ruphe & Tumbelle Railway Company, What's New

• TT & TO help for the Ruphe and Tumbelle

• Help with loco gear noise

• OMG I just bought a "laser"

I'm currently expanding the R&T and am looking to get back to ops again. We (about three or four of us) have been running With a Time Table but without any Train Orders, or dispatcher. Being a small narrow gauge layout with few trains being run the job of a dispatcher would be a bit boring, so we have worked without one. This works well if everybody is on time, but, of course, that usually isn't the case!

My question is this:

I've been messing around with my Bachmann On30 4-6-0 lately. It runs dead quiet backwards but it's a growly old thing when moving forward. So I took it upon myself to take her apart to see what makes her tick. Here's what I found:

I suppose I shoulda' taken a pic when I had it open but, oh well.

Hello all.

I've been posting here for a few years now and have decided that instead of starting separate little blogs for every little idea I have I should consolidate things a bit. So...

From now on, New and exciting things on the Ruphe and Tumbelle will be featured here.

(Insert trumpet fanfare)

Well, I've overcome fear and common sense, and my "thrifty" ways and bought a laser cutter...

How I'm going to get it to the moon is anybody's guess!

Seriously though, I'm curious how many folks on the forum have/use laser cutters.

Been having some fun lately trying to deal with a particularly nasty shadow on the backdrop.

Here is my problem:

I like the effect of the lone Spruce next to the engine house but the shadow makes it blatantly obvious that the sky aint' real!

I tried painting some darker clouds around the shadow as seen on the right side here:

Been thinking that it would be nice to have some order boards at the stations on the Ruphe and Tumbelle Rwy. that can be operated by other engineers down the line to indicate that a train is not running on time. This is not prototypical, I know, but we have neither station agents or a dispatcher so I figured this would be a neat way to request that orders be picked up. Orders here basically being, talking to the other trainman and figuring out where to meet, when etc.

Was at the local Dollar Store the other day, looking for zip ties, and found these in the craft section.

"flat pad earring backs" whatever they are??

I just saw streetlight lamp shades so I bought a pack. Buck fifty for 14.

I've always wanted to include a few older style lit signs like the ones pictured here:

Basically just painted signs with an array of light bulbs forming some of the letters.

With the tiny SMD LEDs around these days it would be possible, but the thought of wiring up all those ity-bity LEDs was not exactly filling me with enthusiasm!

I've been working on the streets in the city of Ruphe and one of those streets will have a streetcar running over it. I figured it would be a lot easier to lay the tracks first and finish the street around it rather than trying to chisel in the rail afterward. You may laugh at that statement, but when I get into a project I tend to get impatient and frequently end up hitching the horse to the back of the cart!