This week we're off to Warley, the larges UK Model Rail Show.  It's always a great show with some cracking layouts, interesting displays and exhibitors and a wide range of trade.

I am onto my next 3d printed project some signals, so far I have the signal head and base completed then working on the pole now.

These are both made in Autocad Inventor and if anyone has sugestions I would like to hear them.

I got inspired after reading a number of recent posts on LED layout lighting.  I spent several hours overcoming information overload on Amazon and eventually settled on a strip of 5000K SMD5050 LEDs.  Saturday morning the postman delivered the goodies and I got to work.

Now that my coal tipple is built it is time for mountain building.  As I mentioned in a previous blog entry I am using mostly foam for landforms.  The major benefit is ease of planting trees which is especially important for Appalachia.  Just make a hole with an awl and plant a tree.  If it doesn't look good, then pull it out and move it or try another.  I spent hours playing around with trees in the finished areas to get them to my liking.

New to the site, Would like to ask for ideas and help in building a new layout. I'm thinking about going with Bachman EZ track, what anyones opinion.   Thanks Charlie

So far I have managed to get four locomotives back together and weathered. All of them run. Each has some one at the controls. Left on the list is #1 and #8. I have to make handrails for #8. Winter has set in so I should be able to get back to my models now. 

Until Next Time.

Tim

Cold weather sometimes has interesting side effects -- and exposes problems that were there all along. Recently, the big yard in my layout developed a short. The PM42 triggered, of course, and my control panel showed that the problem was in the Deseronto yard area. I took everything off the track and started poking around. Nothing... checked all the turnouts, trackwork, nothing showed. Interesting thing, though. When I measured the resistance between the rails I got 84 ohms... an odd number. FInally, by isolating chunks of track and walking the line with my ohm meter -- I found it.

Our family has begun a new project - a small layout in a wider hallway in our recently finished basement.  Yep, it's not much space, but it's enough for us to tackle as a first effort.

The bench work build for my updated layout is taking a long time so to keep things interesting, and get some trains running, I indulged in this small project, making use of unused equipment. 

Happy holidays!