Happy New Year !!

Be Safe and have a Great New Year.

Here is something from "tiny" if you missed the countdown! Click here:
(After you finish the 'count down' Note what happens when you keep clicking) Boom. . Bang...Boom!

To all

The very best of wishes to all our members and their families as we begin a brand new decade together.

Fresh from Lowe's after Christmas sales are a couple of G scale figures that will soon go from the kitchen table to the layout downstairs. I like the outdoor theme and the father and son "Fishing Lesson" along with "Didn't see anything" hunters will fit right in.

Battery question ??

I know you can pick up power from the track. But I guess that you are getting around 17 volts DC. At least that is what I think. My train transformers put out variable DC output up to 22 volts. I want to eliminate using batteries (3 AAA = 4.5 volts) in the tender of my Keystone/Bachman engine that provides power to the chug-chug and whistle sounds. My question: Is there "something" that I can wire in that will reduce the track voltage to 4.5 volts to eliminate the batteries? I do not want to blow out the sound board by blasting it with higher voltage then I should. Has anyone done anything similar? The engine I want to modify is pictured in the video of the Christmas tree train I put on the blog last week.

Happier days on the railroad!!!

Steam and Coal must be favored by the railway gods!!!

the Victorian Christmas train at the WW&F Railway two weeks ago.

Thanks to Denneth "tiny" Lee

MGRS is lucky to have a member that likes to look on the Internet and receives lots of interesting emails that he passes along. He is one of MGRS best sources. Following are a couple of recent train stories (Tank Cars and Maintenance Truck)that 'Tiny' sent me and I was waiting until after Christmas to post. The people involved must be very thankful that no one was hurt. Remember: Click on small pictures to enlarge (most of them) :)

Petroleum-filled tanker cars derail

December 15, 2009 Valley Herald
ANACORTES — Six tanker cars filled with liquefied petroleum gas on an 18-car train serving industry derailed Monday night on March Point. No injuries or fuel leaks were reported, according to railroad officials. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad crews were working Tuesday to right the six tanker cars, which were tilted at an angle, fallen on their sides or flipped on their tops, said Gus Melonas, railway spokesman. The tanker cars worked as designed, preventing fuel leaks, he said. Liquefied petroleum gas is a mixture of propane and butane. The 18-car train was traveling at a slow rate of speed, and the derailment occurred at the point where the railroad tracks join tracks owned by the refineries.

CSX Track Maintenance Truck

December 19, 2009 ~ Two maintainers were working pole line issues on the New River Subdivision when a tree fell from the opposite side of the track hitting their Signal Maintainer’s Truck. "Always expect a tree, at any time, in any direction, on any track." Fortunately, no one was injured.

History: In the late 1940's the New River Gorge in West Virginia ranked as one of the most heavily industrialized places in the world. Steam engines chugging through pristine wilderness contrasted with the harsh reality of a coal fired manufacturing region. Today, many of the mines and facilities are no longer there. Nature is gradually reclaiming the site. The Chesapeake & Ohio lives on in the form of CSX whose trains still haul coal and other products through the beautiful gorge.

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train 2009

This is a very colorful and special Holiday Train by the Canadian Pacific Rail Road. The link to this video will take you to many other videos about this train if you want to see more. To view click here:

Hope you enjoyed Christmas Day

If you want to try out the animated Christmas Tree Train again, then here it is. It is from Ashland Univ. Choir. Follow the instructions on what to click on and when it is done, you can right click and zoom in on the train (or the fireplace) It is pretty good! Click here to begin. Have fun.

The Night before Christmas

Poem by Clement Moore

Merry Christmas from Phippsburg

With the little snow we had over the weekend, conditions were right for a little snow plowing. As I was playing in the snow, I took some video of the progress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkQlr2KFcPo&feature=channel

From Maine Garden Railway Society

To all our Members and their Families ~ and to the Friends of Maine Garden Railway Society

Christmas focus

Used to be I hated wearing glasses. But as the years wore on, I noticed how much more beautiful the lights were becoming on the Christmas tree. Here's a picture of that rosy blur for those of you who aren't as blessedly blind as me. Beneath the tree, that blur of trains is the runaround I most like to see.
Originally Posted by sgould

Here are some MORE Train Videos ( The list of Videos just keeps growing and growing). ~

This photo is from our son and his wife in Buxton Maine from Christmas 2009

Here are some other peoples train videos posted on You-Tube.

Christmas G scale in the Living room

This is a nice O Guage 5x12 layout in the basement.

Indoor Trestles at Christmas Time ~ G scale

Christmas Train Village

Our Friend and Member Eric Schade makes some excellent postings on You-Tube. Here are some examples:

Christmas on the WW&F

Steam up 2009

Winnegance and Quebec Dec 2009


Here is a short clip of John & Gigi's Christmas Tree Train -2009
Merry Christmas



Return to top of Member Blog

Small Train Repair

Yesterday my wife complained that I am hard to buy anything for so I said well OK, I would like a 153 infrared controller. I said they are about $30 at Small Train Repair in Cumberland. I could see her eyes go wide. She liked the idea and wanted to find me a birthday gift so when we got home she called him up and yes he was open. After lunch we went over. It was great to walk in his store. It smells like trains! I mean that to be a compliment. He has a great store and is all decorated this time of year. He had on his Conway Scenic shirt and I found out he is a conductor on the Polar Express! We talked about trains and clubs. He does know 'tiny' and we both agreed what a great guy Denneth Lee is. He is a builder by trade and it turns out he did all the molding and interior work on the Conway dinner train car which we rode on this year. It was fun to visit and see George Small again.

More on Expert Craftsmanship - continued

When I was looking at the following post in detail it lead me to two more related sites:

First is a video tour of the Joe Martin Foundation Craftsmanship Museum where Mr Park's model is located.
Please click here to view.

Here is a link to other models on Craftsmanship Museum: Home Page

Absolutely Incredible !!!

Denneth Lee sent me this. I have never seen anything that compares to this man's ability to craft a model. It is 1:16 scale and is all hand made from aluminum. Mr Young C. Park model maker extraordinaire, his work speaks for itself.

Please click here:

Be sure to go down to the bottom of the article and click on the small pictures to see the amazing detail and craftsmanship. (see sample top right)

Maine Narrow Guage ~ Polar Express~

Here is a composite of pictures taken on December 10th a few days ago which was my grandson Jameson's birthday. My daughter took him and his best friend on the Polar Express. She sent me these pictures and they are in no particular order but you can get an idea of what it was like. I know that they had a very good time and they did enjoy it.

Five to Six Hundred enjoyed watching our Trains run

Well let me say this, If you are a member of MGRS you should be proud to hear how many folks, young and old really did enjoy watching our display which Paul hosted along with the support of several members.

You could see and hear their delight as people came through the door. It was a very successful exhibit and the environment of the Festival of Trees is an excellent setting for us to set up a Christmas time train display.

I know Paul is tired because he ran the whole exhibit and was there every hour. But he is also sincerely pleased to have met hundreds of new people and had the opportunity to tell them about a hobby we all at MGRS truly do enjoy. Yes, it is a very good time of the year!

Here are a couple of pictures taken yesterday. The first shows the two little boys that Paul gave his railroad magazines to. The older boy remembered Paul's sound system that he pressed different buttons on to hear special railroads sounds. He remembered things like the brakes and other unusual train sounds from last year! Shows you how impressed the kids are with what they see and learn.

The other picture shows a trolley car passing by the 1:24 die cast cars and trucks that many people have noticed and commented on.

Thursday at the Festival.

It was a good day at the 'Festival of Trees '. We were open and ready to go after the big storm. Paul was there early as usual and added a string of red railroad lanterns to brighten our display. Member Jim Jenkins stopped by and spent the afternoon having a good time. I noticed Paul was bartering with a couple of cute youngsters who were asking him if they could take some of his trains home with them! They did end up with each treasuring one of his railroad magazines. Scott was back again and busy doing some photography for a future issue of the Newsletter and I was occupied watching Thomas cause "trouble on the tracks" to the delight of several on-lookers as speedy Thomas caught up to the mainline train. I think everybody likes Thomas the Tank Engine. Sorry, I did not get any usable video (oops) but we all had fun and got to talk about trains with the good turnout of folks that came in today. Several people said they have been in previous years and look forward to returning. That is exactly what we hope to hear!

Depth of Field

The November issue of The Iron Horse has an article on close-up photography, which discusses depth of field (DOF). (Foregrounds and backgrounds on pictures we take of models often look out-of-focus because of shallow DOF.)

Here is a YouTube video that Brian Gould found that shows why DOF has such a dramatic effect on the apparent realism of a photo. In the video, what appear to be models are pictures of 1:1 scenes. What makes them look like models is that they are shot in a way that the film plane is not parallel with the lens. The result is a very shallow DOF, because very little of the picture is in focus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvOppCMNS84

Augusta Maine - Train show 12-05-08

Here is something that Denneth Lee just sent in for us all to enjoy on a snowy day. It is a video of the annual train show at the State museum in Augusta, Maine. Great sounds and videos posted by GP9railfan.
Thank you "tiny" for finding it for us. To watch Click here:

A good day for the 'Young at Heart'

Today was a fun day at MGRS 'Days of Trolleys and Trains'. School was in session so not many youngsters were there, but it was a very good day for the young at heart or the 55 plus crowd. Several folks stopped by and reminisced about their train traveling experiences in Maine. One man in particular that we spoke with had ridden on the 'Flying Yankee' and remembered the first day when just about all the town turned out to see it. Paul C. continues to carry the work load every day encouraged by Rachel with moral support from several members. Terry and Sue N. had been by previously and today Dick C. and his wife Meridel had just come from Carl and Pats and they stopped by for a nice long visit. Scott G. and John J. where there all having a great time when who should arrive but 2 bus loads of our friends from the Veterans Home in Scarborough! It was a great surprise and a real treat to see them as these were all the same folks who had been out to visit us several times this summer as part of the Veterans outings sponsored by Maine Garden Railway Society held at Carl and Pat's home in Buxton.

As long as I am mentioning names, Lets also thank the generosity of members who came in and offered their own time to help setup and get us off to a great start. Besides those mentioned above there were Mac M. and Doug J. and Hunk E. and John S. and Denneth L. who drove in from NH just to help support this years MGRS Winter Event.

The Excitement of Trains

Little Girls tend to stand politely and watch nicely as the trains go by. But, little Boys like to run around and jump up and down. Ahhhh, Luckily some things never change!

Some still shots

Every once in a while I would notice the trains would start to run real fast. That was when Paul was giving training instructions to some up and coming engineers. Everything went smooth, No Trouble on the Tracks!

Not railroad but "Family ties "

It was fun to see some of the family stop by to say "Hi".

People are "Loving What They See"

Paul knew what he was doing when 5 or 6 years ago he started to setup a train layout at the Festival of Trees. This is a tremendous venue and is perfect for MGRS to display what we do and educate a receptive audience of kids and their families about G scale trains. The people are coming and they are really enjoying it!

Trolleys and Trains get Rolling!

(This is a great video watch as the boy waves to Santa on the back of the train)

Off to a great start "Trolleys and Trains" helped draw a large number of folks to the "Festival of Trees" in Westbrook. The event kicked off on Saturday morning and by 11:00am Paul had recorded 90 people that had visited him to see the trains run! There is also a beautiful display of decorated Christmas trees inside the building to see. Parking is easy if you take the Westbrook bypass to Church St. and park out back. It is Bright, it is Warm and it is Comfortable. And, it is Free. It also helps support local Charitable organizations. Stop by and enjoy the sights and sounds of good old fashioned Trolleys and Trains.

In the spirit of "Giving" and saying "Thank You"

This is the 60 year anniversary of a special event. Only 39 of these cars exist today. Pictured is Maine's Merci Car "or "Thank You" which can be seen at Boothbay Railway Village. Forty eight of these boxcars were donated by France to the US. One for each state as thanks for US aid after WW2. Each car was filled with beautiful gifts from private citizens. The French citizens were showing their appreciation for over 700 box cars of aid and relief gifts collected all across the United States from American citizens in 1948. The cars from France arrived and were shipped by rail to each state in 1949.

Paul Corbett, ready for the "Days of Trolleys and Trains" event..

The Real Polar Express

Watch the real Polar Express ~ Nice quality video and great looking locomotive ~ Click here:

An Historic Steam Engine for MEC - #470

Maine Central Number 470 Was the last steam locomotive to run on the Maine Central Railroad. On June 13, 19xx it made its last trip from Portland to Bangor. It is now located off College Ave in Waterville, Maine.
(click on pictures to enlarge)


Was year was that? Here is a good hint.

Here is a bonus video for all 1956 era delinquents ~ Click here: