The school year began last Tuesday, and I welcomed back last year’s seventh graders, now railroad veterans in eighth, along with the crop of new seventh graders. The sectional railroad is still in summer storage but I have the Inglenook set up in a corner of the room, available as a teaching aid for learning the basics.

Well my first venture with pan pastels I would say had mixed results. Seemed to work about as well as Bragdon powders. I used a plain Southern boxcar as the first test. You can see the before and after here. I also used Mike Confalones oil weathering techniques on a covered hopper. Frankly I thought that came out much better. Before and after shots below.

BEFORE

AFTER

How fast do you model?  How consistently do you work on your layout?

I look at the progress modelers like Michael Rose makes with amazement. He accomplishes more in a day then I do in a month!

Railfanning and layout update
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-x71-StopIc

This is my first foray into engine kits in more years than I care to type.   My last adventure was an MDC 3 truck Shay.   As I was struggling through that project, nice brand new ones came out that looked good and ran good right out of the box.  I relieved my wallet of some money and relieved me of the stress of trying to get that kit to work.  :)

Now I have a 4-4-2 Atlantic Roundhouse kit I got at a train show for $35+Tax.  ( they were very adamant about charging tax).   

I was on a business trip to Newton, Iowa, recently and did a little exploring along the Iowa Interstate mainline which runs through the town. The railroad delivers bulkhead flat cars (with sheet steel) to a siding where a trackmobile switches them into the Trinity Structural Towers plant. The company makes wind turbine super structures.

The track configuration consists of just two turnouts: one off the IAIS siding, and one to split the track at the company for holding and receiving spurs. The whole scene makes for a very interesting, albeit simple, switching module. 

It's been about 8 years since I had to dismantle my last layout, a casualty of getting married and combining two households into one. While that layout had its own room, it never got past the plywood prairie stage.  It also grew organically - a product of "how many industries can I fit into this space?"  Not surprisingly, it didn't get run very often. There was no staging so the layout was always full, making an attempt at an operating session more tedious than enjoyable.

So, my school has probably one of the best clubs ever. It is known as engineering club costs nothing but that is not the best part. It goes for 2 hours and you have access to the latest version of Autocad and other programs in that family, with these you can then use the LaserCutter or one of three 3d printers on site. My first project I am working on is a stone bridge and have already completed the side with stone file and done a test cut. It turned out great and I used many shortcuts such as Hatch and Array to speed up the process. Overall it took me just over and 1-1/2 hours.

Need a little advise on the above wiring of these switches, seems they can be wired a couple of ways ?

What's the best way anyone for DCC using Tortise motors.