After over 15 years of development, construction and installation, NMRA’s exhibit titled “The Magic of Scale Model Railroading” opens at the California State Railroad Museum on April 6, 2021. A detailed, 6-page feature article with floor plan, authored by exhibit leader Charlie Getz, appears in the April 2021 NMRA Magazine. A shorter recap appears in Bob Brown’s “Robert’s Ramblings” in the March/April 2021 issue of Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. In the same issue, Charlie describes narrow gauge layouts that form part of the exhibit.

I am soon to take possession of a 20’ x 20’ fully finished train room with a house attached to it, so planning a new layout has begun, and I'm interested in the community's constructive comments. The next post shows a floorplan of the space.

The Daylight Division of the Pacific Coast Region of the NMRA, Inc. looks forward to hosting you at our Fresno convention Sugar Pine Centennial 2021—a free, virtual, on-line, one-day event on Saturday, April 24, 2021.  The convention web page is http://www.pcrnmra.org/conv2021/.

Details to be updated in subsequent posts. Click here for a live link to the registration form. Hope to see you online!

Chris Palermo, Publicist

Need fruit crate labels printed for your orchard business? Up or down California, Schmidt Litho can handle it. 1/87 model and photo by me, from a Monster Modelworks kit. Scratch partial 3D interior and LED lights.

I conducted a series of experiments recently to determine if I could develop a scenery adhesive that would not require the use of alcohol as a preparatory step to reduce the surface tension of granular materials, while having a minimal number of ingredients. For these experiments, I prepared scenery material samples of three types:

Member @jimcubie1 asked how to keep styrene work in process from sticking to his work surface in this thread.

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/39976

Well, almost. More scenery and installation on the layout await, but hogs are in the grill, which is scratch built and lit with two 3mm flickering candle LEDs. I need cook figures and a chopping/pulling block. A few of these photos are bench progress photos to support an NMRA contest entry.

For several months I've been working on a small-town downtown scene with two streets and seven structures. Six of the seven buildings are from Design Preservation Models kits and wall panels which I have had for many years, spruced-up with new details, interiors, and lighting. For the seventh building, I wanted to do something different than the standard transition-era town, yet still correct for my layout era of 1954-1956.

Like many modelers, over time I have accumulated a large number of different weathering tools, as new and different techniques have become available. When manufacturers introduced weathering powders and chalks, I got some of those; next came Prismacolor pencils; then PanPastel powders. However, over time, I stashed these materials and the tools associated with them in different drawers, cabinets and boxes in and around my work area. Then, when a specific modeling project arose, I would forget to use one technique or another. Out of sight, out of mind.