Having moved to Australia and finally settled in I think it's time I start some railroad modelling again. I am particularly fond of an area in Port Shepstone, South Africa where the Standard Gauge (1067mm/Cape Gauge is the standard in South Africa) met the now abandoned two foot gauge for a further 13km south and then 109km inland towards Harding.

With exactly the same low cost hardware and a library of examples ready for anyone to download and use, you can now configure six “mobile or multifunction” decoders to respond to DCC Functions and a similar set of six Accessory decoders to respond to DCC Switch commands. The neat feature is that the Accessory decoders ALSO respond to a programmable single mobile decoder address, so you can configure each of the 17 pins to perform different functions, including their use as a 17 servo accessory decoder driver.

I am starting this thread to show the relocation process I took to revise and relocate the Engine Terminal at Watersmeet, MI on my CNW Peninsula Div. HO scale railroad. The first series of photos is of the Terminal as it was currently located. Also in these photos is the Watersmeet branch line trackage and some industries. (to be removed)

I have completed some more work on the car wash in the VIA Rail Yard. 

I posted an earlier blog as I was constructing the car wash. I have replaced the black plastic tubes that came with the kit with pipe cleaners and scratch built a base from 1mm styrene. Adding railings, grating and a chemical tank from other kits. 

With dramatic scenery, short trains and some quite unique equipment, Peru's railways offer some great opportunities for the modeler. Having seen Luis' layout in a recent blog I thought I would add a few pictures of another Peruvian layout, my freelance  FC de Pacasmayo. The real FCP was abandoned in 1968 after much of the line washed out, but what if it had survived and been extended...?

Wish me luck everyone!

James

I had the chance to break away from work for a few hours yesterday. I went to Owosso Michigan to film the Pere Marquette 1225. What an awesome locomotive. As most everybody knows the PM 1225 is the locomotive used in the making of the movie "The Polar express". The Steam Railroading Institute puts on a great event. Here is a movie shot from my Phantom II quad copter. The thing about Quad Copters, They are noisey! So music was added to the video. When I get some better movie editing software I will dub in some locomotive sound from my camera # 2.

Brother Poole continues his treatsie on C&S rolling stock with his latest on modeling stock cars in Sn3. You can read his article on the C&Sn3 blog at: http://coloradosouthern.blogspot.com/

This is from a recent ops session where, as part of the 18 man crew, I got to operate one of the two yard engines at the "Enola" yard. Thanks to Steve Mallory for inviting me to join their monthly session. Enjoy!

My progress so far on the Pacific City Station for my HOn3 PC&N Ry. It is based on the S.P.C. Agnew's Station. So far the most challenging part are those roof braces! I am still pondering the color scheme, but am currently leaning towards a medium grey body with dark green trim.

Ross