***Adendum: Please disregard  this OP, in my research with your help here and in been delivered my proper lights...but there are still a few things to wrap up..getting there.***

I've been looking at LED light strip options for my shelf layout. In a perfect world I would have a valance and use my existing IKEA lights but the bulbs keep burning out and come in at $8.00 cdn a pop. So I am going the LED strip route. I prefer the spread of the LED lights and the price point is perfect. 

Hello everyone. 

Something i've been putting off has been backdrops. An important feature of a model railrad. A friend of mine doesn't really like the photo backdrops as he says it takes away from the modelled portion of the layout. But as one of the backdrop providers says on their website, a backdrop is a model too. 

I'm proficient with Adobe Photoshop and with editing I can produce a nice backdrop with high quality images, if I have them. 

I previoulsy posted about yet another move to Toronto with my portable Ontario South Central. This is now the 4th location. If you follow my blogs I wrote about a small switching layout that fits into a Condo living space satisfying the missus. 

Well, we've broken up, and I had to move to the burbs and had my layout in a room in a town house. 

So we'ved moved again... back to Toronto. For my Toronto friends up here please get in touch. So this is the Ontario South Central's 4th location but it just won't work in the current living arrangement. It doesn't mean i'm demoloting it though. Here it is leaning up against the wall behind the guitar amp. (The OSCR has always shared a space with a recording 'work station' studio).

I had a discussion with Damon at The Credit Valley Railroad Company, our local Railroad shop in the suburbs in the Toronto, Canada area and the dwindling amount of shops here, about Matchbox cars. Damon, btw works at the 'LIttle Canada' exhibit..a saving grace in the amount of the fallen flags of the Bricks and Mortar shops in Toronto. 

When I talk about downsizing, I'm not saying the overall size of the layout. In fact, the Ontario South Central Railway has grown 4 1/2 feet with a long staging/Interchange since its inception at its first location. My issue is turnouts. I have about 4 I have to replace. About $150 worth. And as a musician and near min. wage job I can't afford to do that. So...what to do?

Hello,

I model proto-typically as possible. But here's a 'layout' a friend outside of the hobby that builds Lego structures and the sort... It's a tram..

enjoy. 

I was happy to see Lance Mindheim's article on smartphone photography up here. I've always liked his simplistic slant on the hobby with amazing results. I also picked up Model Railroader and Pelle Soesberg has a similar article...photographing your layout with an iphone (or Smartphone in my case). Awesome! Is it a cooincidence? 

Smartphones, like mine, the LG G5, come with 2 cameras. The standard 16 megapixels, the wide angle 8.