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It has been a long time! Journals/Blogs
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Super User 1,277 posts ChrisNH Super User 1,277 posts
ChrisNH

It has been a long time since I have made a blog entry. I have been busy with work, family, and other hobbies. After a long hiatus I started home brewing again. I have also discovered that editing home videos takes an absurd amount of time. Oh yeah, I have two toddlers. 'Nuff said!

The other thing that slowed me down was my decision to switch to HO scale and begin early period modeling. From the day I made that decision all progress on model railroading came to a screeching halt. When I was pursuing my N-scale diesel-era interest I had direction and enough background that I could at least crawl along.

Thats not to say I have been idle. I still have my weekly round robin group where I either operate or pursue such exciting tasks as soldering LEDs, fitting sleeper ties into gaps in track, or just standing around eating cookies and talking shop. I still managed a few conventions and operating events.

I have finally found my interest in my home modeling to be picking up again. My NMRA division has decided to start a Free-Mo group. This is going to become my HO scale outlet. It will let me slowly pursue that interest without having to spend money I don't have on a lot of equipment. My goal is to build up one pre-1908 train in the next year in addition to a module or two. It gives me the freedom to go back to working with N-scale in what is a very N-scale space in my basement... a space that has to be shared with my home brewery and with a work area for doing my video editing.

I look forward over the next year to documenting my work in Free-Mo and my continuing effort in finishing the N-scale scene I had previously been documenting here on my Blog. I am not going to be very active on the message board. For a variety of reasons I have backed-off my activity on model railroad related forums.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, a pet peeve of mine, I promise the next post will have some actual content!!

Regards,

Chris

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”           My modest progress Blog
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Scarpia Prolific poster 2,152 posts
Scarpia

Chris

Chris, It's nice to hear from you. Been missing your updates, and running into you at NH shows. Based on your plans, cut that yard section up. You should be able to salvage a couple of workable turnouts for free-mo use.
HO, early transition erahttp://www.garbo.org/MRRlocal time PST
On30, circa 1900  

 
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ChrisNH Super User 1,277 posts
ChrisNH

The Yard

I had been thinking of using the yard to stage the modules.. but trying to lift them off might not be a bad idea. Then I can fix them up on the work bench.

Did you use white glue to fasten the ballast?

Chris

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”           My modest progress Blog
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Scarpia Prolific poster 2,152 posts
Scarpia

White glue

White glue for the ballast. Look for spikes as well holding them in place, and keep a soldering iron handy to free up the rail connectors. The yard ladder shared the common rail, just cut it up with a razor saw and you'll get a couple of ok turnouts. Than throw away the rest!
HO, early transition erahttp://www.garbo.org/MRRlocal time PST
On30, circa 1900  

 
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rfbranch Frequent poster 588 posts
rfbranch

He Lives!

Good to see you are still in the mix Chris!  I missed having luke warm beers over the cacaphony of the Amherst show this year.  I look forward to seeing some progress shots soon!

 

 

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~Rich

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Proto-Freelanced Carfloat Operation, Brooklyn, NY c.1974
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ChrisNH Super User 1,277 posts
ChrisNH

Ahh, warm beer..

Rich, I missed it too. That was a good time!

Springfield was a game time decision. In the end it would not have been fair to my wife to take the day off when we had been having so many issues with snow and family illness earlier in the month... especially when I had no real budget to buy anything with. Maybe next year! I am still hoping to make it to Collinsville for at least Saturday.

Chris

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”           My modest progress Blog
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bkempins Regular poster 317 posts
bkempins

Early Rail - less space claim

You probably discovered this already, but HO scale early rail equipment is not much bigger than N scale. You can use a smaller minimum radii, etc. Many of the trackside structures are smaller too. So it may not claim as much space. You might be able to fit an HO design into an N scale space.

Bernard Kempinski

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Personal Layout Blog: http://usmrr.blogspot.com/
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ChrisNH Super User 1,277 posts
ChrisNH

Early Rail

Quote:

You probably discovered this already, but HO scale early rail equipment is not much bigger than N scale.

I know that intellectually but am having a hard time translating that into an effective plan. I don't have good HO intuition and even less "early rail" intuition. I am hoping that my Free-Mo experience will help me to start to understand what I can do in a given space.

Maybe I should be considering a smaller HO shelf layout at home to start to get a feel. I think I am very guilty of poor HO track planning that has lead to frustration. I am probably not compressing as much as I could and am perhaps setting my standards as far as curvature and train length too high.

Thanks for the comment, I love the work you are doing on the USMRR.

Regards,

Chris

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”           My modest progress Blog
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