Okay, it's 10:45pm local here in Orlando and I just got back to the hotel - as you will see later, I went to the Orlando N-Trak (not that they have any N-Trak anymore) Railroad Club for an op session. Even though we were running for about two hours, it felt a lot longer - not because of boredom, but because so many people where there and so much was happening! I have never operated on as busy a layout as that one was.

But before that was clinics, and the Celebration (fmly Contest) room opening up, and the Silent Auction opening...

Well after many months of construction on my house I have decided to shelve my former FWWR layout and decided to change directions.

Week 2 - 20 weeks remaining

Week 3 - Finishing trackwork

Week 4 - Continue working on Week 3 stuff (eat too much and cycle while the sun is shining!)

Building model trains is, and has been, a lifelong passion.

By definition my hobby is a pastime and not done for income or to please anyone other than myself. That sounds selfish and self centered but really true.

On the other hand I really love to share my efforts with those who understand.  This forum has been that community.

So I finally made it to a convention on Sunday - I think that may be a first. 

First, a word about the facilities - the Rosen Plaza Hotel is a seriously nice place, with very nice people. I got here around 7:30am local (which is about 4:30am at home) and was expecting to perhaps be able to store my bags and crash on a couch. 

Nope.  They looked through their no-show list from the night before and got me right into a room. I desperately needed the 2 hours of sleep that gained me. 

A long journey covering a short distance.

An interest in trains of old and actually getting to travel behind steam locos in New Zealand as a junior (long night trips to Whangarei-North and locals from Penrose to Auckland city on bright Summer days) created a desire to see models doing it too.

Of course coming from a working class family it wasn't easy and when I eventually started work myself, well lets just say 1970's N Scale wasn't quite the bargain operationally and cheap enough for me to continue.

Testing in progress on the ONE MODEL RAILROAD CAR FORWARDING SYSTEM TO RULE THEM ALL!

Progress is moving ahead on the layout with the development of the backdrop. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had recently been working on the design of a children’s book with a friend of mine who’s an illustrator, and she offered to create the layout’s backdrop. She works exclusively in Photoshop and uses layers to develop her paintings. Below is a roughed in section of the backdrop depicting the area around Big Island Road and the Rock River crossing:

Greetings one and all. Its been a while since I have posted anything as I have been busy getting all of our ducks in a row pending retirement on Sept 29. I have gone through several layout designs as our final location has changed several times. First an apartment with a decent size spare bedroom. Then a  house with a full basement...that was a dream layout design there..now finally we have settled on a brand new mobile home with a nice size spare bedroom.

This is the new blog entry for the new 3d printer, including building, as well as building the multi-use paint booth/printing stand....

Here is what opening the box revealed.....it got worse....:) 

Finished painting main part of fascia today, satin black. The center shelf for my controller I'll paint a lighter color. Haven't decided what yet.