I took this picture in 2003 from the Union Square Hotel directly across form the Dallas, UPT. This building did not exist in 1963. If you like the picture you are welcome to save it and share it.  This is a view that was not available at the time JFK was shot.

It has been a long and busy summer, but not for working on the railroad. The trackwork is reasonably stable now, having suffered a few more changes. Sitting with potation in hand mentally operating the railroad has been fruitful. Track in the mine area was extended and a cross-over added that enabled switching runarounds that would otherwise have proved difficult. An interchange track was added between the Tamworth extension (an area built on top of the helix) and the main. And the Deseronto yard got a small restructuring as well.

Occasionally one needs a little diversion from other model railroad projects.

The picture below represents one of those diversion projects, actually it shows two. The truck and trailer will be a cement bag hauler. The cab over truck is an Athearn product. The trailer is a kit bash from two different trailers. The idea behind the cement trailer will be a cement distribution diorama with several cement storage silos with a railroad siding.

Here are some videos of the progress new on our layout.

Now that most of the track work is completed on the railroad I started adding feeders.  I've seen a number of methods of soldering the feeders with most of them soldering to the side of the rails.  I thought about trying to solder the feeders to the bottom of the rails before installing the track but it would have been too difficult.  I decided to solder the feeders to the bottom of the rails after installation and it isn't that difficult.  Here's what it looks like using this method (sorry about the fuzzy pictures - this was a rush photo shoot):

I recently got my hands on a few pieces of polystyrene over the past couple of days and was wanting to use it to create the foundation of mountains with crumpled up newspaper placed in certain areas then drape plaster cloth over everything to create a solid frame to paint and mould into scenery how would I go about getting the heights right in order to make them realistic in height and size according to the scale of the train set

All the details and lots of photos on my blog:

http://rgsrr.blogspot.com/2013/11/enterprise-and-hesperus-scenery-update...

More pictures of a couple of recent projects for a couple of clients.

Richard - Superintendent CNW Peninsula Div.

blog - http://mrhmag.com/blog/richard_harden

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