ExactRail just announced on their blog the availability of two new cars in their Signature Series - the HO Scale, PS 50' Waffle Box Car and CP Rail 65' Mill Gondola. They will be available for sale on the ExactRail website at Noon on April 13th. 

Bernie's book is great.

While i have no intention of building a steel mill of any kind, the book ofers lot's of infprmation about one of my favorite subjects: Converting existing kits to other uses from different scales. For example, when Bernie built Alkem Steel in N-scale he used the Walther's HO Scale kit and nodified it to make an impressive b;ast furnace on a N-Trak module! Well done, Bernie.

Irv

I took time out to go operating at Hograils, great time.  Last 7 pictures on this link page are the new additions. Close to completing bench work. Lighing for staging cannot be completed untill 2nd level bench work in. http://www.grandepacificmodelrr.org/html/gp_2008_forward.html

The 32nd Ave. shops recently completed the new, experimental paint jobs on BC&SJ #74 and #75 (Kato RS-2s). Railroad management seemed delighted. Give Joe Brugger (32nd Ave Shops head honcho) an Atta Boy!

Cheers,

Charlie

My friend got an iPad this last weekend, and he let me borrow it for an hour. My first impression is - dang, this sucker is fast! Typing on the software-based popup keyboard was easier than I thought it was going to be, and in a short time I was able to type at a pretty good clip with it.

For the first year or so I was a loner on building my railroad - not by choice, but I just hadn't connected with other model railroaders.  While the hobby was fun, I knew something was missing...and that something was other model railroaders!  I had a friend invite me to a meeting of the Piedmont Division  of the NMRA in the Atlanta area and I was at first hesitant as it was a 1-1/2 hour drive.  I attended the meeting, and to my surprise there were over ninety other model railroaders there!  I had a blast and made some new friends.&nbs

A major milestone has been passed.  The first test trains were run across the Peace River bridge this weekend.  At this point everything is under temporary DC power.  Rail joins on the bridge need to be soldered for good electrical conductivity and all my locomotives need a good run to break them in.  Despite that, the test runs went well.

Not that long ago, I started construction of the helix for my multi-deck layout.  I had read many different variations of construction techniques, and thought I'd add mine to the list.

Here are some photos of the Washington Northern Port Andrews District's largest customer, Raven Pulp & Paper. Because of the limited space I've chosen to model more of the main mill structure than the woodchip yard. The main buildings in the back hide the two staging tracks and have been kitbashed out of several Walthers Kits and a lot of scratchbuilding. The mill itself has 3 sidings, one for the chemical unloading area, one for woodchips which will be spotted on one of the tracks running through the center of the mill complex to the "off layout" woodchip yard.

A few weeks ago our operating group had a tree making clinic at one fo the member's home.  We tried our hand at making many different sytles of trees using a number of methods.  I took a "shining" to the wire armature method.  This method uses florist wire (28 gauge) with twisting and forming the wire to make the armature.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any gesso to coat the bare wire armatures to continue the process so I couldn't create the finished result.