Current Blog

I'm moving all my model railroading activities over to a single blog, Some Railroad You've Never Heard Of (Blog)

Post Title

This is text that is otherwise a part of my post.

Test

By Lisa
author of Flour Me With Love

I'd like to know if people have the time (or want) to bake completely from scratch or do they prefer to use packaged mixes for part of the recipe?

Visit the "Baking (scratch or packaged)" Discussion

2ft. Narrow Gauges

Well I'm in an apartment now, so Model RR activities will be limited, but I'm already started on planning a small (and by small I mean around 20" x 20") continuous running, up-and-over small diorama-ish layout. It seems that my fascination with narrow gauge, particularly with 2ft. gauge is leaving me in a state where most of the things I like are not commercially available, except in Japan.

Just for kicks I decided to do some "investigatory math" to determine given the sizes of commercially available track, what scale would it be to use them to model 2 ft. gauge trains.

Commercial Track	Equivalent 2ft Gauge Scale
Z	1/94
N	1/68
HOn3	1/58
HO	1/37
S	1/29
O	1/20

Hmmm... Anyone up for 94n2?

On a bit more serious note, 68n2 may be a reasonable proposition. It will make use of N-gauge track (9mm), be slightly larger than HO scale and smaller than O scale. For comparison, a figure of a person 6ft tall would be...

HO (1/87): 2.1" tall

1/68: 2.7" tall

O (1/48): 3.8" tall

It'd be possible to use N scale loco mechanisms and is fairly close to the 1/72 scale that plastic models sometimes come in (the smaller the scale the less a difference makes 1/68 vs. 1/72 for a 6 ft. figure the difference is only 1/8 of an inch).

LNI R&R Transfer of Ownership

With my upcoming move to Colorado, ownership of the LNI railroad has been transferred.  It will be converted from a HOn30 mining/desert layout to an N scale logging layout, though most likely maintaining the same track plan.  I've asked him to send me pictures if it's ever completed.  Will post here if I get any.

So long.

Layout Updates

Work on the layout has been on and off. Part of the reason for that is I'm at the stage where I really need to do all the track on the lower level, but there are 3 problems which are coming up:

1. How will the turnouts get thrown (switched)?
   Should I use the caboose hobbies turnout throw stands, build my own (probably a bad idea), or do the wire-under-the-table method? I need to figure this out really before I proceed.
   
   
2. Should I use the turnout throws I already have?
   I have some Caboose Hobbies turnout throw stands, but they're for regular sized HO turnouts. That means they plunge about twice as deep as they should. I don't know if that's really usable for my application.
   
   
3. Do I get a different sized PCB tie?
   The wooden ties that I have are not the same height as the PCB ties. That's kind of a problem, but I've been making due and hiding the size difference. I need to decide if I should continue using them or buy the correct size (which is lame because they're not exactly cheap).

Well in all of that I've still managed to do some things on the layout.

Firstly, I built the right-most lower level tunnel...

I did some experiments in freehand rock formation and painting. I'm not completely happy with this, so I'll probably replace it with something else. The experience of painting the rocks in the color scheme I'll be using though was good.

I've also finished installing almost all of the roadbed...

I'm kind of tempted to actually do all the track laying for the upper level on the workbench, and then glue it in place after. In fact... that's probably what I'll do.