Hi everyone,

I have a bachmann spectrum 4-6-0 and 4-4-0 on my HO thoroughfare gap railroad which is set around 1900. I am thinking of fitting some diamond stacks to these locos as I do like the look of the balloon and diamond stacked locos. 

My reasoning is that my railroad passes through a dense redwood forest and logging area and the diamonds would be used to arrest any sparks, even though these are coal fired locos I understand that some coal fired locos were and still are (in the case of the shays at cass) fitted with spark arresting stacks.

For the Kiwi steam fans out there (and others),

KA 942 came thundering through town the other weekend on her tour of the south island. I waited in the biting wind for 45 mins (she was running late) to see her on her way to Invercargill.The rain held off till she came into view but then alas the heavens opened. I'm still pleased with the photos though.

Enjoy

Luke

I had some fun with Photoshop Elements the other week applying vintage effects to some photos and decided to have a go with some photos from my layout then thought I'd share them here. Theres room to improve and it is kind of sad to suck the colour and vibrance from a scene but was fun experimenting nevertheless.

Luke

Hello everyone, I’ve been reading MRH for about a year now and really enjoyed reading through the forum and seeing everyone’s layouts. I’m in New Zealand in a small town where I don’t have any connections with other local modellers so it’s nice to still get to see what other people are working on.