I'd imagine I'm not alone in the model railroading community with a lack of space for a layout.   However, research of a specific prototype location, its industries and traffic has been a rewarding substitute for physically building things.

Hi as I am sure most of you know by now my school is starting a club and we want to make it modular (possibly) and I could use some help planning the gap points below is the track plan so please let me know what you think. Thanks, Trainmaster247

I've made some progress since my last blog entry, but not the progress I was expecting.

I ended up taking a detour because I asked a very important question: where would the signals go between Sutherlin and Oakland. Turns out, it's very fortunate I thought to ask this question, because the result saved me a ton of grief later.

I finally finished this project; it had been in various states of completion since I started it.  The inspiration came from a photo I found online from James Lalande (posted here with permission.)  The flatcar and tie handler are not exact matches, but capture the look of the prototypes.  The flatcar kit is from Red Caboose.  It had the stake pockets as separate castings, which made leaving some off very easy.  Wire loops were added for the tie downs.

More than 20 years was this small model of a small steam engine in my stock and never it has to do a real job.

This small class G1 consolidation of N&W was a great workaholic beside all the other great engines of N&W, because it was built in 1897 already and was in service until 1955. A real long life for American steam engines!

A couple things. I sold a New York Central Dressel lantern i had been looking to sell for a while, and made $60 off of it. Then, this morning I used that money to get a railroad lantern I wanted Waaaaaaaaay more: a Boston & Maine Railroad lantern with a marked globe! Yes! It is a Deitz vesta, and is in very nice condition. I've been waiting a while for one of these to come up on ebay for a reasonable offer(less than $70). Also, my trackwork has been inching along.

Welcome to my layout room...

Bench work begins on page 12....

Signals construction begins on page 26...

Technology takes another leap forward as Twitter enters the realm of "Live Broadcasting" with the iPhone app Periscope. I used it today to record a train passing through Haslett. I didn't have much time to get ready for the shot. I set up my GoPro camera and saw the headlight as soon as I got on the bridge. Started recording on the GoPro then started Periscope and the live broadcast. It was an interesting experiment. I was able to save the recording to my camera roll on the iPhone but the broadcast didn't save to Twitter.

The Pillsbury Plant is being revamped after 20+ years of existence.  This is what it looks like today in its present form on  4/22/2015. 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByPK-Un3b6GbdnYxcHhnVXhMSUU&authuser=0