I learned quite a bit about the capabilities of my less than $300 3D printer while working on the stockyard/feed lot project. So I decided to try designing & printing the passenger waiting room that will sit over the tracks. I was originally going to scratch build it from styrene (not my best talent) but felt that the 3D printer might be the right tool to accomplish this task.  The first picture shows the mockup of the building that was done last year that was used as a guide.  I also reviewed some pictures of the actual KC Union Station (not shown).

This update includes the final two parts of the design and building of the Morris Stockyard/Feed Lot with 3D printed parts.  The video below (Part 3) shows some of the final testing that was done to ensure that the spacing between the siding and the cattle ramps was sufficient to permit a train to pass by all of the 18 ramps.  During the testing, I found one ramp that had to be moved back.  The train in the video is pulled/pushed by an Intermountain FT A/B with a few stock cars prior to beginning the next step of assembly.

This is the 2nd part of the story of the revision & building of the N-Scale stockyard/feed lot using a 3D printer for the parts. First here is a video of the 3D printer in action printing a section of fencing and gates.

One of the key industries for my layout was the ATSF stockyard/feed lot located at Morris.  It was designed to service at least 18 each 40 foot stock cars at a time and their associated livestock.  The purpose of the stock feed lot was to rest/water/feed the livestock while also cleaning & servicing the stock car trains traveling from the west and traveling to Chicago. The original track alignment is shown below.

The San Antonio Model Railroad Association (SAMRA) recently held their 41st Annual Train Show in San Antonio, TX. Before it got too crowded on Sunday morning, I was able to take a few videos of some of the club layouts that were at the show.  There is a large HO layout that has a really great looking refinery scene, then an O-scale layout that has a great circus with lots of music, and lastly, the N-scale layout with dinosaurs in the stock yard at their meat packing plant.

Just wanted to share some of the decal work that I have been doing over the last month or so.  I have a pair of Kato RDC-2 units that needed some ID markings. While digging thru my box of decals, I found some “Turtle Creek Central” decals that were purchased several years ago so they were put to use on these units. The following video shows the RDCs & some other items.

Over the last year plus, I have visited various model railroad layouts as well as working at train shows in the Central & South Central portions of Texas.   The video (slide show format) is my way of sharing these visits with everyone. Thank you to all of my MRH blog readers & especially for your comments during 2016. I hope that everyone has a Happy "Model Railroading" New Year in 2017. 

This is part 2 of Preliminary Operations Planning for the ATSF Paradigm Division. This part shows the results of re-positioning trains to match the schedule sequence for 00:01- 06:00 AM. The biggest change has been to change where trains reside in the lower staging yard based upon their location (north, east or west).  This sequence was chosen since it has the most trains run in a 6-hour period/trick.

Over the past month and a half, I have really not worked on layout construction but rather have been working at the Central Texas (Temple, TX), AMRE (San Antonio, TX), and New Braunfels train shows. In between, I have done some preliminary operations planning.  This consisted of finalizing the sequence of train appearances as well as creating switch-list forms and train location cards.