XTool Finds a Home

While I’m optimistic that the XTool is going to be fabulously useful, it also takes almost as much space as a third child. Although it is less than 24×24 inches, that is still almost .25 percent of our home’s floor space. I had to consider where it would live before I even pushed the “buy” […]

Model Railroad Planning 2022: All in the Family Room

Model Railroad Planning 2022 is finally at McNews on Lonsdale, and with it, buried near the back cover, my little article about Pembroke. You should really pick up a copy if you haven’t already. There are several thought-provoking articles that could help you see the hobby in a new way. And then there is mine. […]

Tender wheel parts

The tyres for 1120’s tender have been plopping unceremoniously onto the lathe bed for the past couple of weeks. I had thought to make them in two batches – one per truck – but wound up getting several extra tyres and wheels out of one blank, albeit not enough for the whole tender. In the […]

XTool first cut

Like every cool toy they advertised when I was a kid, the new laser cutter came “some assembly required.” It took a few days to reach the top of the to-do list, and when it did, the straightforward task took a good hour or more. Strangely, the instructions get you to the point of downloading […]

The Images that Draw Us

In the silent auction of Ken Chivers’s estate almost forty years ago, I won the book, Fairy Tale Railroad, the story of the Mohawk and Malone Railroad in upper New York State. As my modelling interests matured, the danger of modelling New York dissipated and the book was a candidate to re-home. It was nearly […]