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 […]

Extra 10 North Holds the Main

I’ve been making steady progress toward eliminating derailments on the main track. However, the passing siding has seen wheels only a couple of times in all these years because, frankly, there hasn’t been a need to use it! So, to create a reason to use the passing siding, and also to get the equipment off […]

Book design

For 18 years, I’ve timed our family photo book to coincide not only with the kids’ birthdays but also with Black Friday sale pricing at Blurb. As the years have passed, the tools have improved, and the laptop has gained power. It’s possible that as the kids become less cute the photo volume may be […]

Realistic Layout Operation

My old friend Tony Thompson has started a mini series of blog posts on Realistic Layout Operation. As always, Tony is a thoughtful person, who probably has more model railroad operating experience than anyone I know. The first post in the series surprised me, but I’m not going to precis it; you should read it […]

Cattle Pen Top Rail

The Canadian Government Railways stock pen drawing on which I based the cattle chutes shows wire fences with a single rail around the top. I like the lightness of the wire fences because they don’t detract from the herd behind. However, I’m concerned that an enclosure that small would require a rail the cattle can […]