Frog Jewelry

When I first laid the track for Pembroke, I left the detail off until it was running the way I wanted. That day is getting near. There are a few persistent derailments, but I’m getting better and better at fixing them. So, the southern-most two turnouts are starting to get dolled up. In my previous […]

A Second Printer Joins the Shop

Thanks to Santa, a second 3D printer has joined the heavy shop. Why would anyone need two 3D printers, you might ask? You might ask the same of hammers, and yet I own a regular claw hammer, a tack hammer, a rubber mallet and a maul. Like hammers, different 3D printers have different uses. Resin […]

Spike Options

The photo of the wire fencing last week demonstrated to me that there is no avoiding the need for spikes holding the rail to the ties. Without them, and with no tie plates (as is appropriate for 1905), the rails look nude. I’ve made spikes two ways in the years I’ve been at this. Back […]

The Insane Engineering at Trains and Scones

[Updated per Graham’s corrections] For about ten Decembers, Graham and Leddy Stokes have hosted a layout visit for the North Shore subdivision of the NMRA. Graham shows off the progress on his trains, and Leddy makes delicious scones, and nobody is sure which is the bigger draw. Anyone with something to show is invited to […]

Cattle Spur Culvert

When I initially routed out the stream on the cattle spur module, I felt the roadbed was too low to allow for a culvert, and so, I chewed straight through the roadbed to make a space for a bridge. The rails flew over this chasm for months as I waffled on the bridge or culvert […]

Turnout Details

Who even remembers what I was thinking back in the day when I laid these turnouts? I unfortunately wrote little on the plans for detailing the turnouts back when I was designing and installing them in 2013. There is one note on tie placement, and that’s about all I could find, other than a ridiculous […]

Stupidly Fine Wire

It is better to leave a detail off than to make it too heavy or over-scale. Typical line fences, such as the one at the edge of the pasture, or the fencing for the cattle pens, are a mesh of wires no more than 1.5 mm in diameter. That’s less than .02 mm in HO […]

Coal Dock Book Arrives

Less than a week after I placed the order, Blurb delivered our annual photo books today. The family photo books came out beautifully, as usual. I was most excited, however, by the model book, which I submitted primarily as a test. It is the 7×7 size in paperback, and now that I have it in […]