4.5 Magnitude Earthquake from Lake Arrowhead and Hollis Maine about 7:15 tonight

Wow - Carl said his house is OK but he thought it was going to be damaged.  Mac was outside and saw telephone poles swaying.  My son in Buxton said it felt like a sonic boom came through the ground and exploded in the basement! Everyone's OK.

Three big Items from B.O.D. meeting

The MGRS Board of Directors met Sunday and discussed many different items.  Here are 3 big items involving the Mall train display. 

1. Setup - Day has been moved up to Monday Oct 29th.
.   The Mall has confirmed that our layout platform will be ready and available for us to begin the setup on Oct 29th.  The  Board of Directors voted today to go in as soon as we can. Time is still 8am.  That way we take full advantage of all the time available to prepare for opening day on November 10th.   

2. We will sponsor a free Train Drawing.   MGRS plans to give away a new ready to run Thomas Train Set to some lucky person!  The Mall will setup a nice looking display case at a convenient spot around our layout to show off the boxed prize with a professional looking poster explaining what we are doing.   We do not have to handle anything!  The Mall will provide the entry slips and record and pass along the contact information to us.  We expect a large number of people will be interested.  Santa Claus will draw out the winning name.  Some little boy or girl will be excited to receive a great Christmas present and we will benefit from excellent publicity and contact with the public.

3. A Fantastic Fund Raising Opportunity for MGRS.  Because we are a non-profit organization the Mall has offered us and excellent opportunity to raise money.  There is an opening that just occurred that we could fill. It involves either 2 or 3 days (Dec 13, 14  or 15th) that we could run the gift wrapping area which will be setup right next to where we will be running our trains.  The hours are the same as ours, actually 1 hour less.  The Mall provides all the supplies.  Paper, tape, bows, boxes. Gift wrapping is free but there is a sign that suggests donation amounts.  Here is the exciting part for us.  Because this is an official fund raising activity we are allowed to keep all the money that is donated for wrapping gifts.  The Mall estimates that we would receive $3,000 per day! We have never conducted a fund raiser like this but the  Board of Directors has recommended that we pursue the opportunity and contact members and family members to help raise volunteers.

  

Lemax figures

I was in Michaels today and they have a lot of Lemax people for sale.  Prices are not cheap (This was $12)  but I got a 40% off next time.  Anyway my point is, I like the people, they are very well painted and they are G scale 1:29.

This one is a group scene with a sign that say Photos with Santa and I thought it was pretty neat!

Yes, I don't know where it will go but I do plan to bring it into the Mall.  

Festival of Tree Schedule for 2012

  General Schedule - Open to the Public - Free

  Paul thought you might like to see all the different companies that sponsor a tree.   They are a beautiful sight.  Please plan to stop by and enjoy them this year and of course stop in the train room and say hello.   Below is the basic schedule for the hours the Festival of Trees will be open this year.  When Paul Corbett makes up his individual train display schedule we will post that information also.

Please Click here to see  Festival of Trees schedule

Nice Looking Buildings

 

  If you have a favorite building on your layout and you would like to display it this holiday season at the Mall, you can!  There will be plenty of room on our layout this year.  Just contact Carl.  Today he and Mac drove in a truck full of buildings, followed by Norm and James with another truck full and backed up by Mike and Moreen in their car.   All this was off loaded along with my drawbridge and is now safely in the Mall storage area awaiting for the setup day to arrive. 

  Tomorrow the Board of Directors meet and check back on the Blog for any news on latest developments.

Authentic Railroad Items - AUCTION

Please click here for info on over 400 authentic railroad items on auction this Saturday. 

Sent to us by Tiny.  Thank you!

All scales can work together

I think any scale can be used on a train display as long as you arrange them from the perspective of the viewer.  Our minds automatically "adjust" to visualize smaller objects as being in the distance and fit them in their proper place.  Here is the same image as below re-arranged to take advantage of what we naturally do.  In fact without this ability we could never model any 3 dimensional scene.

The Rocket Man

I apologize ahead of time because I know it is very improper to laugh at what someone else takes seriously.  But, there was something about the last 5 seconds of this video that just triggered my laughing mechanism!   Dr. Strangelove came to mind!   Please Click here:

Different Scales

  I know we have seen this before,  But here are some general ratios as to what each of these scales represent.
  

G     1 to 24  
O     1 to 48  
S      1 to 64  
HO  1 to 87  
N     1 to 160     
Z      1 to 220   

OK Here is Worlds Record the scale is 1 to 35,200

Click here to view:
 (The original video said the N scale layout was 44 inches long.  160 x 220 = 35,200)

The "Old Layout"

The picture is not to clear, but then neither is my memory.  But, I know I was a lucky child and I do remember we had a train layout typical of the 1950's style shown above.  Our's was on a piece of plywood that simply laid flat on the floor. 

I am still a lucky guy.  The old layout looked big to me and it was 32 square feet, but in a few weeks we will be looking at something that is over 1,000 square feet!  I guess we all are pretty darn lucky, thank you MGRS, we can't wait to see this years layout!

Amtrak Station Freeport Maine

Station opens for service on November 1, 2012

Open Station structure.  Free Parking

Night view                                             Under construction








Some pictures from the Internet.  Click on images to  enlarge.

The story of Big Boy

 One of the best steam railroading film of the 1950's this was made by Union Pacific RR

This is a little lengthy but very good.  I think you learn something when you watch it and feel the emotion of railroad past. To view please click here:

"Scenes"

 I hope we end up with lots of diorama scenes this year.  I think one possibility is the Chairlift.  I can imagine a smaller ski hill with the chairlift connecting to a larger ski hill which just happens to cross our main line as it works its way up the display.  We can have all sorts of related snow scenes and maybe even a ski station stop on one of the elevated levels.

I just took a quick look at some of the people on my layout and I can imagine  them fitting into such a scene.   Join me and take a look at what you may have.  It's fun to use your imagination and help bring the layout to life.   I hope we do try and emphasis diorama scenes as this years layout  particularly lends itself to displaying close up scenes.   Also remember Barry's sawmill and we will have maple sugar shacks and farms and sleigh rides plus many other good old fashioned possibilities!  Please be thinking about what you might be able to add.

CN Freight Train

Maybe someone is familiar with a "defect detector" and how it gives a reading.  Here is a video of a CN freight going through a crossing that is monitored.  Take a look and listen to readout at the end: click here
   

A train is space

Here is a cute video that Eric found.  Please take a look; Click here:

Ski Trains

  I always liked the idea of going on a "Ski Train".   I will skip my story and go directly to the videos:  Here is a real train and here is the G-scale version.  

Now, this would be fun to wire

Please click here and take a look.

Now that is what I call a garden railway!!!

This is an amazing video.  I have never seen any train like this before.  The engine to me looks like it is  a scale 1:3.  The coaches look larger, more like 1:2.  Amazing, real steam and its in England.  Looks like it provides tourist rides out to some facility.  This is a good research project.  Sent to us by Eric who simply said : "Now that is what I call a garden railway!!!!!"
Thanks for the find!  To view please click here:

Thank You!!

Click Here!

See all those Names,  Fantastic!  You did not have to do it so early.  But by not waiting around and jumping right in YOU good folks should be applauded.  Super thank you to you all.  I know that there is a long list of kind, reliable and dependable group to follow and we appreciate and need them too.  But we also needed some good leaders to show the way.  Nicely Done!  We are off to a great start.  But, there is still plenty of room to fill in and we encourage all our membership to join in if possible.  Even if its just a drop by,  come in and experience whatever you can.  Thank you. 

Want to help Barry decorate his sawmill?

  Barry and Carl were talking on the phone and Barry said he would like to invite members to help decorate around the sawmill he is bringing to the Mall.  People, wood piles, equipment, lumber or anything else that you think would add interest.

  That reminds me of a good point.  The round shape of the layout combined with the straight sections of the mainline provides many opportunities for close up display areas that we never had before.  The combined effect of all the little details is what will create a grand impression.   Let's plan to get all that are interested to add a little special detail to this years display!