ECLSTS 2010

Good Luck to all the members that are on the way to the East Coast Large Scale Train Show!
Bring back lots of good stuff!
Click here for ECLSTS details for 2010

Mark your Calendars for our first Spring Open House on Saturday, May 15th.

It is early and you will hear a lot more on the details later. But for now just make a note that Eric Schade and his wife Sue have picked out a date for their Open House in Phippsburg, ME. They have scheduled it for Saturday May 15 with a rain date the next weekend May 22, 2010. Thank you Eric and Sue. That is great news as we celebrate the official start of Spring today on the vernal equinox.

Some Pictures of Neville Lewis Railroad Items for Sale

Please Note - Most of these items have been sold. There will be new pictures posted in a couple of days of additional items that are for sale. Please see above posting of 5/12/10. Thank you.

We have dismantled our garden railway and we are selling all of our track (400 feet) and 30 switches, rolling stock, 50 buildings and numerous accessories at very reasonable prices.

There is 128 feet of track and 12 switches still on benchwork that someone might want to incorporate into their layout. Buy the track and switches and take the benchwork free.

Please call before coming.

Neville Lewis

576 Pleasant Point Rd.

Cushing, ME 04563

207-354-8055

End of Buy-Sell-Trade Items
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An Easy, Portable, Table-Top Layout

Garden Railway Magazine February issue has an interesting article that emphasizes "lightweight folding tables are the key" to building an easy to transport table-top G scale train layout. The article points out the benefits of quick and easy construction within a few hours of a sturdy, nice looking and reasonably priced G scale operating layout. Perhaps this is something that we might as an organization take a look at doing ourselves. What are your thoughts?

A Duck Story

"The ducks are Back!" OK, this proves we have no life, or very little. We have this tiny piece of water out back that is basically just spring runoff that every year a pair of mallard ducks return to. So yesterday I went to get the mail and when I return, Gigi is out on the deck motioning me to be quiet. "The Ducks are Back" They jump in the Water Garden and seem to enjoy hanging around the back yard. Of course they have me trained to deliver them a smorgasbord of bread crumbs, bird seed and any think else they ask for. They ignore the cast iron duck in the garden but we love to watch as they interact with the other wildlife that wanders by. Things like turkeys, squirrel and crows. The ducks do well. I am always impressed how gallant the male is as he stand guards and always lets the female eat first. Accept yesterday he did not wait to long, they were both hungry! Today is a day that only a duck can love. So here's to you ducks, Enjoy it! And please, get off the railroad track!

Tiny sent me a video of ducks returning in early Spring. Click here:
OK I promise to be serious tomorrow. But before I do here is the head duck himself, Donald and his Model Railroad "Out of Scale". Click here

Clocks "Spring Ahead" tonight

Just a reminder to all you Engineers out there to set your pocket watches so that they will be correct tomorrow.

National Train Day

National Train Day is relatively new. The 3rd anniversary is approaching. Here is a some background and links to look at for information.

• Official Web Site Home Page
• All about Trains -Past Present Future
• Promotionals

MGRS Annual Spring Meeting - Excellent!

The sun was shining and what a great way to start the 2010 season for Maine Garden Railway Society. The luncheon meeting held at China Rose Restaurant in Brunswick was enjoyed by what I believe to be the largest turnout we have had so far with 32 dues paying members plus all their guests. The assortment of foods and desserts on the buffet was delicious and our private room was perfect. Thank you to all the members who came and participated. Terry Norton did an excellent job of administering the role call and certifying the quorum as indicated by our bylaws to vote on and pass resolutions adopted by the Board of Directors at our annual meeting last July.
A showing of hands expressed a strong interest in having some kind of outing or train related event this year. More on that later, keeping in mind May 8, 2010 is National Train Day.
Carl did announce the date for the 'extravaganza' as Saturday July 10th. Eric is planning to hold an early 'Open House' once again this year. The exact date to be determined. Any member that is interested in having an open house please contact Carl as we start to build the schedule for this year.

Carl had some exciting news when he announced that this could be the year that MGRS will put on a train display at the Maine Mall! He said that we are looking into the possibility of hosting a display sometime after the Thanksgiving holiday. It would probably require a minimum commitment of at least two weeks. Much more to come on that as soon as more details are known.

The meeting was concluded with an excellent presentation by Eric Shade complete with many hands on samples of how to build model windows. First of wood and then examples of molded windows and even figures he created from silicone molds and filled with a urethane resin. His work is amazing and he did an excellent job of explaining it to the group. Here is a link to an old blog that shows his completed buildings.

Carl also brought in a new building he just completed of a warehouse style structure with a very authentic looking asphalt flat roof just like you see in Maine. When I get the name of the product he used I will post it on the blog. All together it was a terrific meeting and we are really looking foward to 2010 as the event schedule fills out to what we hope to be a great year for MGRS members. Thanks again to all the members that traveled to Brunswick today for your support and to all the others that will be participating in the future.

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Maine Street Station - Brunswick

Denneth Lee reported that the Brunswick train station where the Downeaster will arrive at is located right off of Main Street just before the sharp left corner around the church. You will go right past the spot if you are headed up to the Luncheon Meeting from the south on Rt 1. The railroad tracks cross Main Street and the station is just beyond the tracks on the right. I did find the web site for the Main Street Station. It looks great and is something to look for when you go to the meeting - Thanks Tiny - Take a look Click here:

MGRS Luncheon Meeting is March 6, 2010

Please click on image to see details

Here are some pictures of the site of our meeting this Saturday at 1:00PM. If you have ever been to Main Street in Brunswick, you may remember the large cathedral church like building that I think now is part of Bowdoin College. It is where Rt 24 makes a sharp left corner and heads toward Bath (The Bath Rd). About 1 mile from there on your right is where we are meeting. Click on the above image to enlarge the map.

The weather prediction is Good! Plus member Eric Schade who is one of our most talented model builders has agreed to speak and share some of his methods he has developed to build G scale model windows. We are looking forward to starting off our year with a great meeting and we hope you will be able to come.

Rambling on

I Love this weather. Not a single snow plow in February! I bet some people have run trains already (in Maine this year). I could have, just to lazy I guess. But, I am outside starting to putter around, looking forward with expectation of a great year ahead. I want to bring up the idea of a MGRS day trip or outing sometime. I know National Train Day is May 8th (Saturday) and it is to early for an open house but it might be fun to go some place. Or, perhaps later in the year when more things are open. I don't know what we would do, but it is fun to think about it. I know many of us do things on our own and have some good ideas. Keep them in mind if we have time maybe we can discuss it more at the lunch meeting this Saturday.

Buy the way, Voting on the blog has worked well. I think I counted 36 people or more that said they were planning on go to the Luncheon. Great! Thanks for taking part and voting! It is an easy way for us to gather some information and we thank you for participating.
John

You know how much I enjoy designing decal box cars. I think I will actually print this one out. If you look very close at the top of the car it reads "State of Mind" not Maine, and the saying is not the State Slogan but based on it. It's my own retirement version. We both like flags too, we have a flag pole out in front of our home, even if we are the only ones that can see it. Heck, we even have our red and blue shirts on! I do not remember the occasion, but I do remember what was said to make us laugh. Sounds like the perfect car for us.
John & Gigi

Pleasant Valley Senic Railroad

Web reporter "tiny" Lee has found another interesting site. This shows the development of an outdoor railroad in the little town of East Earl, Pennsylvania. Take a look here:

Bad day in Brownville Junction

Read the rest of the story from the Bangor Daily News: Click here:
Compliments of Denneth Lee.

Lionel Corporation Tinplate 381SS "Brute" (Standard Gauge)

Scott Gould likes to collect tin plate and he got me interested to look up tinplate on the internet I wandered into a website named Eric's Site. Which I though was interesting to look at. So here is a little bit of it. Click here:
Eric's Site

British Columbia looked Good

I enjoyed watching the Olympics and as expected the Canadians were excellent hosts. What beautiful country 'Aaaaa?' I guess Seattle must be pretty nice too. But, now it's back to reality and guess what ? I wake up and February is gone! What I always considered the worst month of winter has passed. I got the feeling this will be a great year for getting out in the garden and working on the railroad! Lets hope so! March has arrived, All Aboard!

Draining standing water from your yard

After all the flooding and heavy rain this might be of interest to some folks especially if your railroad is in danger of flooding or even worse your house! Click here to read the article.

To Dick in Bath

Hard to find those G scale birthday cakes! But, I hope you got some other scale items for your birthday.

1-24 scale items

My daughter enjoys making all kinds of items for ebay dollhouse collectors. They are usually in 1:12 scale. But these happen to be 1:24 scale or G Scale which is a little unusual so I thought I would show off her creativity. I am impressed at the level of detail that she can achieve.