What’s the big idea?

Mike Cougill posted one of his thought provoking missives this week. Then this morning, Lance Mindheim announced his new book. Both encourage us to think of model railroading as art. Now, I’m absolutely looking forward to the day when Canada Post drops Lance’s book on my doorstep. He has done far more research and education about art […]

Backdrop epiphany

In response to my hack-job about composition, Neil Erickson sent over an in-progress photo of his layout that he likes. It is a simple, entirely railroady scene, quite similar to the painting of a train I showed in that post. I quite like the oil painting varnish on the photo; I’m not sure if that’s […]

Challenging composition

Some of the comments in Friday’s post lead the way to thinking about model railways as art, and it’s worth getting a book out of the library to refresh ourselves on the elements of composition. My favourite art book is Jeanne Dobie’s Making Color Sing. It changed my dabbling with watercolour dramatically. One of the […]

Of Accuracy and Realism

Lance Mindheim’s piece last week about prototype modelling strikes a chord for me. You should read it yourself, but to précis, it is an argument for flexibility in prototype modelling to augment appearance. Embedded in the essay, Lance says, Its taken me decades to realize this but the two, appearance and accuracy are, in fact, […]

Momentum

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the worst thing about the great flood of 2018 was that it completely destroyed my momentum. At the end of January, I had finally arrived at a place where I thought I might be able to cut Proto:87 wheels for #622. I had even cleaned the lathe […]

Conformity and the NMRA

From the first time I entered an NMRA model contest, back in 1994, I have had a challenge with the Conformity section. How did a freelanced model earn full points while my prototype model did not? It didn’t take long at that first convention to fall in with Richard Hendrickson and the Prototype Modeller crowd. […]

Lance Mindheim on Time

A great post on Lance Mindheim’s site caught my attention at lunch today. Here is the critical idea, but you should read the whole post: The hallmark of a good design? It’s pretty basic when you step back and think about it. A “successful design” is one that results in a model railroad that produces […]

Next order layout goals

I just read a thought-provoking post over on Tony Thompson’s excellent blog, modeling the SP. Then I took the dog for a walk, which is an excellent time for thinking about something, if you’ve been so provoked. Tony identifies a spectrum between operations-oriented and prototype accuracy goals that I think resonates with many in the hobby […]

Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn

Neil (@sarahdaddy) asked in a comment a few days ago where I stand on the question of romanticizing Pembroke, compared to its history. I understand the desire to create a utopia where everything is beautiful on a sunny summer (fall or winter) day and there isn’t any poverty or racial issue but some things existed […]

The year ahead

I realized over Christmas that it’s coming on two years since I decided the best course of action for number 10 was to park it until I have the skills to repair it. As that is my only locomotive, no wheels have turned on Pembroke since then, which is a sad state of affairs for any […]