A model train geek, learning as he goes.
This past Sunday, I spent 4 1/2 hours operating on William Brillinger’s layout. What fun! You may recall I operated there once already, so this was round 2. After I arrived at Bill’s house at 1 PM, Bill offered me the choice of operating CN 532, stopped at Letellier, or a BNSF grain train from … Read more
I installed a TCS decoder in a Walthers Proto 1000 RDC today. It was pretty straightforward! The basic process is as follows: Remove the shell (and couplers) Cut traces on the board inside Solder decoder wiring harness to board Tape decoder down Replace shell Program decoder… and play! Here are the steps. Just a generic caution – … Read more
I did my first operating session on my model train layout with car cards. I took video with my phone and here are the videos. I broke the video in two because it was too long to upload and I wanted to edit out a few bits where I put the phone down to throw … Read more
I recorded a video to talk about the car cards I am trying out for my layout. I am going to use it to run through a trial operations session to see how well it works. In this video I show the car cards I am using, the card pockets I installed around the layout, and … Read more
Many model train layout designers try to have the maximum spur lengths they can, to maximize how many cars can sit at the industry, and therefore maximize their train lengths. There’s nothing wrong with this but you should consider how the industry actually uses the spur. I’ll give an example: the grain elevator spur in Georgetown on … Read more
When we were finishing the basement, I negotiated a portion for my train room. I think my wife accepted that there was going to be a train room in this house.. she knows me. We had drop ceilings installed with recessed lighting. This is handy as the lights can be directed, so I can point them to … Read more
I recently completed building the Walthers Concrete Grain Elevator kit. It was a long build, for several reasons, and I made a number of mistakes. Let me walk you through how I built it and show you the mistakes I made. “The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does … Read more
I’ve created a new model train store directory to list all of the train stores in Canada. The existing directories on the NMRA and CAORM web sites are woefully out of date, so I decided to “roll my own”. I’m using the Business Directory plugin for WordPress and it seems to work quite well. Please … Read more
I heard that CN was going to be switching Cargill at Helene, so I grabbed my camera and drone and headed out. Here’s the story, in pictures. I first caught CN 4497 Extra heading out of Winnipeg with several grain cars and caboose CN 79575 in tow. 4497 looks like she could use a wash! … Read more
Yesterday I was listening to an episode of Lionel Strang’s podcast, “A Modeler’s Life” (iTunes / Stitcher / web site / Facebook) while waiting for a train to roll south on the CP Emerson subdivision. I listen to podcasts a lot, and I have been searching for good model train podcasts. You may know Lionel from his writings … Read more