So this is a thread where I am going to show some of my experiments and also see if anyone has done this too. I am going to attempt to make freight cars only from lasercut wood. For my first project I going to try a gondola and eventually a boxcar also. I am not sure how well this will work out but I want to try and form a long block train and feel like this will be the cheapest way to do it easily.

Ohio in the fall is often cold, hot, rainy, snowy, and beautiful, often on the same day.  For me it is a chance to get out into the fields around my home to pick trees for the layout.  For a little effort I can pick hundreds of reasonable, and free, trees in an hour.  Compared to store-bought, they are more realistic and can vary from an inch to more than twelve inches in height.  Their structure is delicate and represents late fall/early spring trees here in Ohio.  The evergreens are nothing more than grasses hit with cheap hairspray and some ground foam.  Eac

The Hill Country Outlaws 0n30 modular group participated in the New Braunfels Train Show this past weekend.  Overall, I think the show went quite well. The setup at this show consisted of our core display of an 8' x 24' loop with a wye at one corner. A 12' branch runs off the wye to a transfer table module and turntable.  The loop has a passing siding on each side to allow bi-directional running.

I was happy to see Lance Mindheim's article on smartphone photography up here. I've always liked his simplistic slant on the hobby with amazing results. I also picked up Model Railroader and Pelle Soesberg has a similar article...photographing your layout with an iphone (or Smartphone in my case). Awesome! Is it a cooincidence? 

Smartphones, like mine, the LG G5, come with 2 cameras. The standard 16 megapixels, the wide angle 8. 

The Atlantic and Great Western recently released a batch of cabooses to promote grade crossing safety. Painted similar to CSX’s cabooses, they have a different paint scheme on each side. The cabooses are also mobile offices equipped with the latest communications allowing contact between the crews, customer service and our customers. Another innovation in A&GW’s world class customer service. 

You can see more of my A&GW at;

Candy Corn. It’s the season for this colored sugar to take over the candy dishes. People either love it or hate it. 

Which side are you on? 

I have a lot of luck. Like really, I am one lucky guy. I have a small following and in that following are some very generous people. And in this project, I intend to meet their generosity in kind. This project will take a long time and I am happy to say that's alright. The client just wants to watch the videos along with you. And that is pretty cool.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnjzDVeniL0

The Bethlehem-Ares Railroad

(An Alternate History)