Sketches for Pembroke 1.0

I was looking through some sketchbooks for a kid’s school work earlier this week, and found some sketches I made back when I was still working on the first incarnation of Pembroke. I don’t recall making them, but I know it was during the Pembroke 1.0 era because there’s a track plan for that layout […]

Pembroke on the tour

I’ve signed Pembroke up to be on the tour for the Railway Modellers’ Meet on May 22. This year. Last time I displayed Pembroke, it was a motionless diorama as #10 had just tied itself in knots. I’m resolved to have a running layout this time, which means the pressure is on to complete not […]

A Peculiar layout?

The kids and I have been reading a wonderful pair of books by Stefan Bachmann. The Peculiar and The Whatnot are set in a version of Victorian England on the cusp of war with faeries from an alternate world. It’s an evocative steam punk vision of technology diverted from steam-power to magical-power. A grimy, gritty […]

Thoughts on the Staging Turntable

A turntable at the end of the staging yard will enable me to simulate the action of the Y at Golden Lake. The mixed train will break apart there, replacing outbound with inbound cars, and the engine will turn, before coming “back up the branch.” We will have to fiddle or switch the daily passenger […]

Pembroke:87.1 – A Stretch Too Far

The deadline for accepting the invitation to RAMMA next year is coming up at the end of October. So, I spent the weekend researching the travel, and thinking about all the other commitments we have in the year ahead. Finally, I decided that 2015 is not the year for us to travel to Europe. I […]

Track Planning in the Large

After we’d finished with the check rails for the staging yard last night, Andrew and I got out some paper and tried fitting templates around for the portable version. Bottom line: we think a 2×4 foot module is viable for the plan that I have in mind. So, now, I’m wondering if Prof Klyzlr was […]

Track Plans for Pembroke:87.1

I had a minor trampoline injury on Sunday evening, and so, I didn’t feel up to building anything. I used the time to dream about possible track plans for a display layout for RAMMA. As you can see, I started with the prototype, of course. This came from a diagram that is a little later […]

Thoughts on Shipping

The RAMMA thought experiment continues. If I were to construct a micro-layout for the show in Sedan next fall, how would I get it there safely? The Rexroth option, while interesting, sounds awfully expensive to me. Also, I would still need something on the sides to protect the layout. Then, looking at some other foamcore-based […]

More thoughts on Pembroke:87.1

Will I build Pembroke:87.1? The jury’s still out. However, I’ve been having fun thinking about the project. So, here I will jot down some of my thoughts. I don’t want the display layout to distract me too much from the main layout. That means it must use minimal resources in terms of both time and […]

Pembroke 87.1?

Well, Dave Doe is at it again. Every couple of years, he pulls together everyone in Europe who does anything with Proto:87 and invites them to a big display somewhere. Last year was Scaleforum, this year they’re at RailWells, and next year he’s enticing me to trek over to Sedan, France. October 2015 is just […]