My grandpa operated one of these up to his retirement years. I remember him taking me and my brother to work with him. I wish I was old enough to take pictures. Since I have many shays like he operated, I decided why not the diesel?

Started an HO layout depicting a freelanced CR secondary set in Ohio. Hopefully i'll have work photos soon.

With all the cool stuff that I have seen using the cricut machine, An idea hit me. Why not try to make detail parts. I have an old Athearn bluebox caboose that has those old end rails, so I thought about making the end rails closer to what is on the more modern cars. I started by scanning the end railing off a Walthers International caboose. Then using  paint.net I modified the image to fit the Athearn car. Then using Inkscape I saved the file in the svg format needed by Cricut.

Following are fotos of the yard and shops module that represent the town of San Esteban on the Norh Fork mining district branch of the Montezuma, Snake River and Northstar RR. No where near completion, these are progress shots only. Following TOMA principles, I've constructed the first of 2 modules for the yard and town, this one being 8 feet long by 2.5 feet wide with a small peninsula that will hold the Round House and shop area.

Following are fotos of the yard and shops module that represent the town of San Esteban on the Norh Fork mining district branch of the Montezuma, Snake River and Northstar RR. No where near completion, these are progress shots only. Following TOMA principles, I've constructed the first of 2 modules for the yard and town, this one being 8 feet long by 2.5 feet wide with a small peninsula that will hold the Round House and shop area.

Well I picked up a DigiTrax wi-fi interface and it's working pretty good. 

I upgraded the wife's phone and I'm using her old one as my controller. So I wanted a place to park the phone when not in use and went on a search. Went to the dollar store first and nothing peaked my interest there. Next was Wally World and wandered through kitchen, bath, and sporting goods, I ended up in automotive and came across a nifty little pouch that's supposed to hang from the vent in your car. It's made by Auto Drive. Pics below.

Hi All,

I have attached the current version of the track plan that I am working on.  For the most part its a double deck layout with lower staging.  I am looking for tips, concerns, possible changes and suggestions.  Below are a few stats about the layout plan.

Railroad:  ATSF & DRGW along with BN, UP, C&W and Santa Fe Southern (Kansas and New Mexico Divisions)

Era:  1990-1996

Scale:  HO

Min Radius:  30"

Turnouts:  Main Line #8 all others #6 (fast-tracks)

More of the Same, But Different

Time to assign some power to an early 60’s Southern Pacific passenger train. One loco will be a Life Like era Proto 2000 E8 in Black Widow. As on the UP e-units, the Kato motor transplant, drive line upgrades, truck tuning, LED lights, and Tsunami 2 are the same. The choice of speakers and mounting are different. More follows

I did an experiment tonight.

I use the Bachmann EZ Command DCC system. I have the EZ Commander, and two "Walk Around Companions" on my layout.

So I placed all of my DCC engines on the layout tonight. (I usually run with just six DCC sound engines, one lighted car that uses track power, and one DCC sound car)

So tonight, I put them all on.

NINE DCC sound engines, ONE DC engine (the Pegasus) the light caboose (Proto 2000) and the BLI sound cattle car.