White stones and bricks

Here is a simple design that looks good.  It shows a garden area with white stones and brick to outline the track for two small trains.  Please click here:

World's Greatest

Here is a man who apparently does not lack either money or modesty who presents the worlds greatest indoor G scale train layout. 

It is extremely well done and looking at things like this does give you inspiration to come up with good ideas.  They just need to be inexpensive ideas!

Enjoy, please click here:  

Animated People in G scale

Interesting Video.   Very clever, take a look at how these G scale people were animated!
Please click here:

2 Feet of Snow?

 I heard we could expect 2 feet of snow on Friday!   Not sure if that is accurate but don't be surprised!   So in honor of big snow storms take a look at one of my favorite Railroad Snow Plowing videos.   It's only 17 seconds.    Take a look, Click here:

Latest addition

 A $2.99 Zebra made the perfect addition to the Playmobile train cars I have turned into a small  circus train.   

To much TV

   I know I am babbling but it is winter time and part of Mall withdrawal.  So can anyone find a good web site for Railroad Trivia?   Let me know.

Talk of the Day

You might as well watch, there is nothing else they are talking about today.  Enjoy!

Reminiscing

When it is 20 degrees outside I enjoy looking at nice and warm pictures.  Here is a quick flashback of  Carl's B&O outdoors and sounding good. 

Springfield 1/26/13

LEGO setup was great

 Springfield show was well attended on Saturday. Lots of smaller scales but not a lot of G.

SAVE THE GREENVILLE DEPOT display (one of the groups that MGRS supports)

one of the few G-scale displays

Did you know?

This date in history:  Jan 28, 1855 -  First Locomotive runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Where?   Answer highlight here: [ Panama Railway]. 

Amherst Train Show - 1/27/13

Here is a cool looking Sky drive photo Album which Scott Gould created yesterday.  It shows the double helix display created by Ralph and Dick.  Thanks Scott for sharing.
Please enjoy: click here to view

I think we could use some more engines

   I know some people do bring in their own engines to run at the Mall.  And a huge Thank You to the people that do!   It adds variety and a pleasant change. But, most people do not want to leave something in there and I don't blame them. I think the most favorite engine is Carl's AMTRAK.  That ran almost every day.  That is really not fair to either Carl or the AMTRAK.  I hope we can get some other reliable engines that the Club will own so that they can help carry the load and spread the work around.  Plus many people come in to help and they need trains to run.
   The BOD may have already planned to take advantage of some of the train shows coming up and I hope they are able to find a couple more engines.

  Or if we can come up with a plan to carefully use a members engine if they choose to make it available.   I would probably leave an engine if I knew it was only going to be used 2 hrs a day.
But we need a way to easily control that.  That may be worth thinking about.

   Some of the members are really good at Ebay. Maybe they could be on the look out for that "GREAT Deal" and be authorized to buy something and give it to the Club.  No, I mean have the Club reimburse them if it was something the Club needed and could afford.  That sounds like a dangerous idea, to much room for confusion or difference of opinion.  But it might work on a specific item  pre approved ahead of time.   For example:  IF you see a USA F3 Diesel that is B&M in excellent condition for under $150 - Get it!  That might work.

Spring Meeting moved to March 10, 2013

Sounds good to me, we get to meet two weeks earlier!   Same location and same time at 1pm.
I just read an email from Terry Norton with the notice changing the date.  Please update your calendar and I hope this makes it more convenient for you to attend.

Not much progress

It was just one of those days.  No big break through on the waterfall project.  I went on my own little shopping trip which was OK but I like to go and pick up what I want, I don't like searching for substitutes.  My quest for the illusive blue plastic wrap  took me to Wall-Mart, Shaws, Target and the Dollar Store which is about all the stores I even go to.  No luck but I bought a bunch of other stuff like scented garbage bags because they looked 'green',  craft colored paints, some non-slip kitchen blue thing,  cheap plastic table cloths.  I even carried around a box of Arm-and-Hammer  doggie clean up bags because they were blue!  I managed not to buy them, but only after I turned them back in at the cash register.  Good grief.  It was not the day to find the perfect waterfall material. 

Acrylic waterfall

This is still drying but starting to look more like 'water'. As the DAP cures it becomes clearer but it still stays flexible.  The plexiglass is very easy to bend and creates a nice 'tunnel' for Thomas to run under.  

I am using two pieces of plexiglass which will let me tint the waterfall by sandwiching some blue plastic wrap in between them. I want to try layering a couple of irregular cut pieces together and maybe adding a few white paint strokes. 

So tomorrow I hope I can find the colored plastic wrap.   After I get it as good as I can, then the big test - add a little water and see what it looks like! 

Railroad web cams World wide

First you need to know where it is daylight:  Click here to check:

Next take a look at all the sites available world wide: Click here to get started:

Here is one more to keep you busy. I call it Great Train Pictures:
 Click here to view

Guess what?

 

  This is an experiment in progress.  That is a card table covered with wax paper and a tube of DAP applied to it.  It goes on white but turns clear after it cures.  I hope I can turn it into a raging waterfall.
I plan to peel it off and glue it to a piece of thin curved plexiglass.    There are ways to touch it up and add a little color but the main idea is to model a forceful looking waterfall that will come to life when  we run a small amount of real water over it.      This will take a while but it is fun to experiment with.  I don't know if we will ever actually do this but I would like to see if I can come up with a realistic looking design for a waterfall feature for use at the Mall.   

Spring Meeting

MGR Spring Meeting
Date March 10, 2013
Place: Maine Mall
South Portland, ME.

~ Private Room ~
       1 to 3 pm


This is the same location as last year.  The best directions are enter the Mall parking area from the "Best Buy" side and stay right. The resteraut has an outside entrance just around the corner of  Best Buy.    Exit 45 off Maine Turnpike.  Excellent Menu and desserts. $12.95

Update from Scott Gould

 Dick Rubin is out of the hospital, where he had been in intensive care for a week.  I just talked with him and he is sounding great—sound heart and sound mind.  He is at the Northeast Rehabilitation Hospital at the Pease International Tradeport in New Hampshire for the next couple of weeks, while he gets his strength back.  All in all, very good news.  I’d be happy if you pass this along on the blog.

Very Impressive

I don't understand half of what I just watched, not even close to that, But, I LOVE IT.  I love the father teaching his son.  I love the way a young boy learns as an apprentice from an experienced  craftsman.  Imagine the education value gained in 2 weeks!  Wow, congratulations to the Schade family.

Please enjoy the video Building two Locomotives: Click here. 
 From Eric: " Ben spent two weeks working with me in the workshop building a working model steam locomotive.  We worked together to design it and to manufacture the parts needed.  We started with a nicely pre-machined kit of a steam engine for which we fabricated a boiler, frame, drive wheels and a chassis.  The locomotive burns alcohol and will pull several cars on our indoor test track with ease."