New Backshop Clinic

Nice job Joe and Rick - interesting topic, very good audio and video. Thanks for continuing to deliver a great product in Trainmasters TV and MRH overall.

Looking forward to the next video.

Artie

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This has so much potential.

Well done. The opportunity to have presenters work with Rick or Clark or others from their own workbench should open up a lot of possibilities. TMTV can do the editing to create a TV quality final product. Now you don’t have to find Canadian only talent. 

Nice explanation of the NMRA gauge

Thanks for the excellent presentation of the uses of the NMRA gauge for determining clearances.  I've long used the gauge for determining whether my handlaid track was within tolerances, and whether wheelsets were gauged properly, but other than using it to sweep for overall clearance in cuts (and mostly for height), I never realized all of the different things that were determined by the gauge.

About the only topic you didn't cover was how to keep track of the darned thing.  I misplaced mine for a couple of months a few years back, and couldn't progress further until I finally gave in after hours of searching and cleaning and decided to pick one up at the next train show.  I found a lone gauge at one of the tool dealers, snagged it ("Last one on the rack! Aha! Come with me, my precious!!"), got it home, went to put it in my tool box, and immediately found my original NMRA gauge underneath several packs of fresh X-acto blades.

From long experience with the disappearance and re-appearance of small hand tools at different locations, I am a believer in the small wandering black hole theory - that small hand tools, keys, coins, and socks are sucked into these small wandering black holes and reappear instantaneously at another point in the time-space continuum.

My solution has been to create separate toolboxes for each broad category of hobby tasks - trackwork, electrical, painting, cutting tools, and assembling tools, and a spreadsheet that tracks when things are used up or what I think I need for a future project.  It's been helpful, and my second NMRA gauge has resided in its envelope, pristine, waiting for the eventual call to duty -
or when my brother-in-law misplaces his. 

Janet N.

International Orange

Reading Janet N.'s comments above reminded me...  I too kept misplacing my NMRA gauge, among other tools.  One day I spied a spray can of International Orange (fluorescent/neon orange) paint and thought "why not?" and gave my NMRA gauge a nice coat (both sides) of this paint.  Now it is really easy to find it among the rubble on the layout and workbench.  Works so well that I've sprayed track radius gauges and other tools. 

I even sprayed the handle on a sprinkler head adjustment tool for my sprinkler head that was manufactured with a green (go figure!) handle - it would blend in really well with the lawn and be darn near impossible to find.  Except with the mower...

Anyway, excellent video and subject!

Al Carter, Mount Vernon, WA

Thanks, guys

Imagine my surprise

Imagine my surprise to see Joe demonstrating and talking about the HO gage extender while I had one printing on the Prusa MK3S because I have been unable to locate one, either from NMRA or any of our many sponsors.  Details about the extender at  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/nmra-gage-extender-12216920

Joe, the presentation was great and the information was very helpful and informative.  The format worked extremely well and should open many possibilities for future episodes.  The "web" format appears as a type of "split-studio" format and the only drawback is Rick couldn't pick up your gages and play with them. 

Keep up the great work and innovation.

Much to my dismay ...

Much to my dismay, the NMRA seems to have discontinued the extender. :-(

You can always make one from styrene. Folks in G, O, S, and Z would have to make their own clearance gauge no matter what.

I may have to do a follow-up episode on making your own clearance gauge extender ...

I liked the format and presentation

The web format worked well. Making your own clearance gauge extender could be a quickie added on to another session with Rick - have him follow along with some sheet styrene, ruler and pencil, hobby knife (and bandaids, even if not really needed - Rick has a gift for physical comedy), then compare the finished extenders.

Would be a natural fit in an episode where you show how to use gauges for the other critical trackwork issues all in one show: coupler height, maybe one of those acrylic flat cars that people use to find misaligned joints in their trackwork, especially something that shows how to check for problems with vertical transitions or S-curves in yards.

Thanks,

Janet N.

In my very humble opinion

I think that the split screen is a big improvement. It may only be me but seeing the guest in his own modeling environment adds a layer of depth and information that was not possible with a studio production. And that comment comes from a guy that spent 45 years in a studio!

Keeping the quality up

Something to be aware of

Some things to be aware of with this new "web clinic" tech we're using.

1. We're getting low on our in-studio segment backlog, so we needed to do something to get more videos made.
2. To test this technology, I'm being the guest in the first run-through of shooting these, to find all the bugs with the tech.
3. That means for a few months, you will have to put up with seeing my mug a lot as the guest or the presenter.

Once we get this tech figured out and can effectively support new guests with setup orientation based on my experiences, then we will be doing new guests and you won't have to see me as much.

But in the short term, you're going to get a lot of me. Can't be helped given the travel lockdown situation and our need to work out any glitches before we "inflict" all this new tech on some unsuspecting guest.

Screen splits in new video format

.. I found myself expecting the screen split to change shape once Rick had introduced you, Joe. It would have looked better, in my opinion, if the guest's screen was expanded in size once the presenter had made introductions, as the guest's input is far more important than the prsesenter's comments. 

Just my opinion, otherwise the new format is fine!

John