Shelf mockup

My darling wife kindly pointed out that the turnout controls I installed earlier this month are ugly. Now, they should almost disappear once painted black, but in keeping with my learning about Art Nouveau, I also designed them to flow into a half-inch decorative shelf that will extend most of the length of the layout. […]

The Railway Modellers come to Pembroke

The Railway Modellers’ Meet was one of the first to meets to forge ahead in a virtual format amongst all the cancellations of 2020, and I dare say we have virtual meets increasingly dialed in. The virtual format suits the British Columbian geography. Sparsely perched on the far edge of the continent, for many of […]

Last train on the Columbia and Western

I had the great privilege to be invited to Mark Dance’s Columbia and Western for one last run before he tears it out and crates it up for its new life in Edmonton. We ran some trains (including, at 47 cars, the longest ever on the railroad), had some snacks and Mark gave each of […]

In pursuit of one great model

Over on Model Airplane Maker, there is a beautiful post recollecting an old friend and hobby store owner who offered that everyone has one great model in them. It’s a well-written post with lots of photos of beautiful models; you should read it then come back here. In a model railroading context, the idea of […]

Installing Turnout Controls

Awaiting a custom set of N-scale Grand Trunk decals from Black Cat, I have had to put Percy aside for a week or so. Meanwhile, I’ve been honing the approach to installing turnout controls. These controls had to satisfy the following design criteria. They need to behave like a real switch stand. I want to […]

Percy and the mega-print

With Percy now coated in primer, it is easier to see and comment about how that single big print went. Truthfully, it was two prints because the first one had the cylinders too high. While I wouldn’t consider it a failure, the single big print was not the best decision. I knew I was in […]