This is a picture of the Matthews Yard as it exists today on my layout.  The picture was taken by my friend, Bob Wheeler.  I built the yard as a "newbee" and made some serious mistakes including putting 6 of the 9 tracks at the back of the yard instead of the front.  The good news is that the yard section (30" wide by 13-1/2' long) is built as a section.  I can build a new yard section outside of my train room and switch it out in a few hours.  I'll probably use the buildings over.

Naturally I did go there to run my newly painted F3's, which now have a proper paint job, none that "east of the Mississippi", stuff.

Pretty much new to the model railroading experience, I have become facinated with making my own structures. I started out using balsa wood, then switched to styrene, but am having trouble finding plans for structures and have had to pretty much design my own structures from pictures etc.....

Are there plans out there for yard buildings, houses, gateman towers or switching towers, etc. that are available on the web that I can download? I model in N-Scale, but could convert HO plans if that is all there are. Thanks.

After working for the railroad for almost 18 years, and being a trackside railfan for almost 35 years, I saw something unique "fly by" Utica, NY on CSX rails today that "perked" my interest. After seeing countless UPS TOFC trains go by over the years, today I saw my first FedEx  TOFC trailers fly by. Now that I work for FedEx, this brought a smile to my face. It's nice to something different out here for a change.

I've been practicing "turtle railroading" lately - slow but steady is getting quite a bit accomplished. In the last few weeks I've done the following:

1. Completed a new swing bridge across the entrance aisle to the layout:

(early photo - roadbed for the siding is being glued down with AZ Rock & Mineral ballast as weights)

Brooklyn N-Trak had a show this past weekend at the nature center where we meet these days. There is even a Youtube video that you can watch. Unfortunately, due tot he weather and a recent injury I wasn't abe to get there.

Irv

I haven'r posted anything on the Hudson and Hartford in a while primarily because nothing has been done on it for awhile. That doesn't mean I haven't made any progress on getting it built since I have been spending time doodling and experimenting with possible track plans. I havem't got anything I would want to show yet but I think I am getting closer.

And I did, they aren't exactly perfect, but what in life is?

I have just gone through my entire collection of railroad material (again). A recent house renovation project forced my collection to "relocate" to a different part of the house - per instructions from the trainmaster -err- my wife. I had to consolidate some half empty boxes to make everything fit. In doing so, I found that I now have a bunch of extra timetables, rulebooks etc..