One of my design projects is an interesting one in that I've gone and started combining 2 DPM corner buildings with an atrium. The atrium will provide an all year round outside style cafe and shopping center while at the same time provide me with an exercise in testing an idea that some people I came across have been asking. We scratchbash all kinds of existing buildings but hardly do we see people go into the raw design aspect of the scratchbash and outright redo or completely do up an --dare I use this term-'imaginary' building? Become our own architect in other words.

This is Spalding in about 1970.  I dont think that I will have space to house train lengths like this - it is probably an empties train made up from wagons that delivered coal to the adjacent sugar beet factory.  

This scene is long gone and the yarf is now a car park and the front of the station opens direct onto a main road.

No real progress on the layout front.  I have been "prepping the space" though.  

The last several days I've spent building an airbrushing booth to fit under my layout in my workbench area.  The idea occured me that I could build my own and found a host of reference material from other including another member on this site about how they did it.  I found this website page of particular usefulness.

http://modelpaint.tripod.com/booth2.htm

Here's some "best of" photos from the just recently completed Feb 09 op session on my HO Siskiyou Line.

Right off the bat, events indicated this would not be a typical op session on the Siskiyou Line. This session we simulated April 14, 1989 - and since the DRGW has purchased the SP, there's black and orange power starting to show up on the SP. For example, Roseburg had a pair of DRGW GP40s that were available power.

I realize it's early as it is 6:35 AM here in NYC on Monday Morning, 16 Feb. 2009, but I don't remember whether or not we will get another part of Joe's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly About DCC." or not. I sure hope we do.

Last night was op session night on the Siskiyou Line (sorry, no photos from me) - April 14th, 1989. The SP has been bought out by the Rio Grande... and survives as the SP. Speedlettering is making an appearance. D&RGW locomotives (in this case two lovely Atlas GP40-2's of Ron Smith's) are showing up on the Siskiyou Line. Even had a set of Cascade Green BN power including a B30-7B(?) unit. Wish I'd had my camera - the GP40-2s ended up as helper power and I set the BN set as the head end power for the Seagull West out of Roseburg.

Those JPEGs are awful.  I will have another try perhaps with the CTI schematics - sorry!

High Fulney is a work commencing.  It is to be a 28ft x 10ft (8x4metre) free representation of the tracks that once passed through the UK town of Spalding in Lincolnshire. This is to be built in a draughty old lambing shed next to the swimming pool 150m from the house.

Starting in 1848 with the arrival of the Great Northern Railway Spalding's importance as a junction rapidly grew until in 1890 the Midland and Great Northern completed it's E/W link from the Midlands to the important fishing and holiday town of Yarmouth. 

Well it's not really a big problem but one which isn't making me very happy. It has to do with a specific article in MRH and I find it is insurmountable at the moment. The article is great and the magazine is great too. Howver, the problem is that no matter what I do I find I can't get the article printed out on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Now it might be that I simply don't know how to get the information to print out on that size paper and if that's the problem I will be grateful to anyone who can teach me how to do it.