Google has not been my friend this evening, and the worst of the results was that "timetable collection" took me to collection times for trash. Critiques of my collection aside, that was NOT what I was looking for. And even the website for the National Association of Timetable Collectors was rather sparse on the how-to aspect of collecting. Thus I come here in the hope of answers or guidance.

I'm not sure if this is a Eureka! moment, or if I just reinvented the wheel, but.....

November update....

Hi. I'm AJ. I am an addict. I am addicted to model trains. Someone needs to save me from myself!

My mom is my greatest critic, whether it's my acting work or my train modeling, I can count on her to give me honest critical feedback. She had a few things to say about my first photos of the Lionel FA... well, she actually had a single thing to say: "top not rusty". Hopefully I have fixed that to her liking.

I have models from Z to G - Z, N, HO, Lionel, and 1:29, to be specific, and one of these little gems is a Lionel ALCO FA from the post-war era. Originally, the FA was painted for Union Pacific, but somewhere in the late 1980s I decided that it would look better in a different scheme. First it got a stylish dark blue and dark grey scheme with silver trim, and then - for reasons I cannot begin to explain - I repainted it gold. Solid gold. Solid metallic gold.

As the photo below shows, EZ track (and foam) is shifting out of the way of for flex track and #6 turnouts. The bottom level will have a test loop with wide(ish) 15" radius curves. There will also be a couple of holding tracks down there. The green lines are 1/2" spike tape to remind me of the setback. This track will mostly be hidden behind the facia (.060 styrene) and under removable scenery / structures, so no fear of meeting the floor. It's my hope to get it in and working this week. Once I have that, I'll turn my attention to the next level.

The revisions and whatnot of building the N-scale BTR to the stage that it is currently at has left me with a small stack of spare wood panels and planks. I couldn't leave them with the layout as the "train room" is just off the front door. Early 21^st Century scrap yard is simply NOT an acceptable style of furnishing the so-called living room. So, in trying to find a suitable place to stick said spare panels, I made a happy discovery....

At 11:00pm CDT on July 19, 2016, the N-scale Bonne Terre Railway's recently accquired GP35 completed a full circuit of the layout's twice-around (folded loop? / folded dogbone?) mainline loop. It's more a wooden spike moment than a gold one, for the track is currently laid out with Bachmann EZ track, which, because of its sectional nature, is too broad for the board in some places and too narrow in others, but it is a start progress!

It's nearly 2:30am here in Missouri, as I start this, so the title of this blog entry is quite literal.

Progress has not progressed at break-neck speed, but it definitely hasn't been spinning its wheels either. In the first photo you can see the old nightstand that I have re-purposed as benchwork for the layout. The second photo a the mockup of a factory flat that will go against the backdrop between the city and rural areas. The backdrop itself will be a 12"x24" sheet of 0.060" styrene.