Best to wear black or navy

Before he was a model railroader, my friend, Mark Dance was an award-winning figure painter. So, when he asked if he might try painting a couple of the lovely pewter figures from A C Stadden, I leaped at the chance. Mark sent through some in-progress photos today, along with the question “I couldn’t find any […]

622 drawing progresses in OnShape

I’m starting to get the hang of parameterized CAD with OnShape. Tonight, I managed to get a pretty good sketch of the locomotive frame, and extruded it to make the outside layers. I also discovered a handy feature called a variable, which enables you to label a dimension, such as the standard thickness of metal, […]

Selkirk Express 2016: An Introduction Timetable and Trainorder

I’m up at the Selkirk Express PNR convention in Salmon Arm, where tomorrow I will be presenting my introductory clinic on timetable and train order operations. As promised, here are the slides and handouts. They are offered under the share alike Creative Commons license.

Improved roundhouse wall parts

Today’s lesson: when you’re cutting many window panes, don’t aim to cut right through unless you’re willing to babysit the Cricut. If the panes are cut right through, then they may pop off the cutting mat, and eventually the blade will land on one of the freed squares. Then, dragging the square around like a kid […]

Unexpected call from OnShape

I’ve been on the Internet for a long time, and I use a lot of free or freemium services. I can’t recall ever having a call with one of these services before. Earlier this week, I signed up for an OnShape account. I’m hoping it will be the replacement for SketchUp! on Linux, and after […]

Learning from Roundhouse Test Cut

Well, this is why we test! As you can see, something went horribly wrong with the studs this time out. They are the same .034″ dimension (3″ in HO) as on the previous test wall, but for some reason they came out thinner this time. Indeed they are so thin, and perhaps the blade is getting […]

Roundhouse ready to test

It’s a sad reality that creating models with new tools like the Cricut leads to more time in front of the computer. What’s worse, my wife and kids are never even feign enthusiasm when I show them the output of a night’s drawing. I doubt you are interested either. The partially tested plan is to make the roundhouse […]

Why are North American Train Magazines so Tedious?

Railroad Model Craftsman arrived on Friday. I haven’t even finished reading the last one, and to be honest, I don’t know if I ever will. It’s been drowning in the pile of books beside my bed for weeks now, occasionally thrusting out a feeble page when I resurrect the book atop, but sinking ever lower. By […]

The right time to find a mistake

In software development, we call the prevention of defects earlier in the process “shift left testing.” The idea is that if you can find a bug earlier in the development process, it is less expensive to fix it. Tonight I was just about ready to go and upload my roundhouse side walls to the Cricut […]

Test wall for Pembroke roundhouse

In 1908, the Pembroke roundhouse was listed in “fair” condition. It stood for another 48 years until it burned. So, I read “fair” to mean that it was not dilapidated, but also, perhaps not first class. I speculate, therefore, that perhaps it wasn’t painted. The other challenge with the Pembroke roundhouse is that it is […]