Turntable Progress

A little more judicious sanding with the sanding drum in the Dremel tool yielded a freely-turning turntable. Curiously, it turns freely about 30 times and then it seems to bind up again. I may have more sanding to do yet, but I decided to move on to the next step. While I still had the […]

Bonus Tracks! and Turntable Progress too.

Thanks to Andrew, the bonus tracks got glued down this evening. These are two extra staging tracks that may never be required, but I have room, and so I figured we may as well put them in. Perhaps it will be useful to store a few cars there. Andrew glued down the tangent sections, and […]

Wiring the Staging Yard

Andrew came over last Wednesday, and glued down most of the rest of the rail in the staging yard. I followed him with the soldering iron and wire strippers and added feeders to all the rails. Some of the wiring trenches got pretty crowded, but I only had to carve one a little wider to […]

Points First?

In Model Railway Journal 234, Howard Bolton has a super article about building complex trackwork. It would have been great to understand more about what he does, but even in this relatively short article, I picked up a nugget, which I’m going to capture here so I remember it the next time I go to […]

Slave Driver

Andrew and I made great progress on the staging yard on Wednesday evening. This was at least partly due to me mixing up the times, and thinking the clock downstairs hadn’t been changed yet. So, we got an extra hour of time in before quitting for the evening. Andrew, you have permission to tease me […]

What a difference a half-decade makes

The new sound decoder for #10 arrived last week, and I just took it out of the box. Wow, it is a lot smaller than the old decoder! This should be a cinch to fit into the tender, and may enable me to add a little more lead to bring the tender up to NMRA […]

Hard stuff!

When Al Feguson stopped by the other night, he was treated to a view of the locomotive without its tender tank (and associated weight), and with the cab roof off and a piece of tungsten sticking out. The extra weight really helps, but it’s not satisfying to have it sticking out like that. So, I […]

Thanks for Stopping by, Al

Al Fergsuon, of Black Cat Publishing gave me a lift home on Sunday night after the train show (the team put on a super show again this year, thanks for organizing it). Thanks again, Al! On the way, he asked for a precis of my clinic, and to make a long story short, I invited […]

Sorted: Engine House Switch

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there are a number of things that need to be resolved before I’ll be anywhere near satisfied with operations on Pembroke. I find it rewarding to share progress, and every little bit of motivation helps when you’ve got a job you’d rather not do. So, I’ll apologize […]

Trains 2014, Burnaby November 7-9

I just uploaded my slides to slideshare for my clinic at this weekend’s train show. It is a progress report on the layout, and so, I’m going to share it here as well. I’m presenting on Sunday at 11:30, opposite Mark Dance, who is certainly going to be more interesting and probably more entertaining. I’d […]