Well, we did it, we put an offer in on a house on Brock St. in Thunder Bay and it was accepted. The train room will be a 20x20 room in the basement. I have been working on the floor/track plan. It will be two layers shadow boxed as before.

I don't have any HO scale, so I'm having trouble getting started. Especially since I Have NO money whatsoever. I have HUGE problems with Slacking off on my household chores, so my parents aren't willing to cave in to my Modeller Wannabe side. Plus, My parents say we don't have enough room in our Three-bed home. Advice? Feel Free To Comment Some Advice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IgEg8T5_54

After a long summer it is good to be back to the layout.  I continue looking for natural material to use and I happened to be looking at corn stalks yesterday.  The tassel at this time of year is dark brown to almost black in color.  When I grabbed some it came out in a long strand that included a reddish colored strand, as well.  Some quick work with scissors produced a nice looking brush material that contrasts nicely with the tan colors already in place.  Some glycerine should preserve this nicely.  Here are some test shots.  See if it works for yo

Time to move one to some more scenery and fill in a bare spot with rocks. I will be using both my own moulds and commercial ones to cast the rocks.

Some may remember that when my wife and I went to Salt Lake City for the NMRA National Convention, we ended up spending the first evening at a Home Free concert (my wife's favorite music group, which she did not know until that day was in the area). Well, we are in Nashville, TN for a Home Free concert at the Ryman Auditorium ("The mother church of country music") this weekend. Wandering around town, waiting to check into the hotel, we stopped by the Tennessee Central RR museum, which was founded by the local NMRA division.

Hi all,

I have been working recently on a boxcar project which just got finished and took its place on the layout today. It started off as a Kadee boxcar factory painted with various stencils/diagrams. The car was disassembled to put it back into kit form (time lost...). Paint was removed with lots of sanding at parts in order to get rid of the (pad-printed?) diagrams/stencils. Subsequently it was painted using Vallejo colors based on recipes out of MRH's excellent acrylic color guide.

In 1985, Bruce Chubb developed the Computer/Model Railroad Interface (C/MRI) to allow computer control of model railroad accessories: signals, occupancy detectors, turnout control and sense. See JLC Enterprises His modules communicate with a computer via an RS-485 serial interface.

I found an unpainted built-up model of the Heljan roundhouse at a railroad club tag sale.  I wiped some mortar into one panel of painted bricks, dusted it with weathering powder, and it looked really good, so I decided to break it down and give it a 2-evening makeover with simple stuff I can get from a craft or hobby store, using only moderate building skills. It would be even easier starting with anew, unbuilt model.