Of course that’s the wrong question. I can cast eyes across the net at the many wonderful models by modelers that I admire and I can see that in several areas my own humble efforts come up a little short.
First crossover turnout
Just finished the first turnout of the crossover. Nothing much to add other than I started with the frog and prefabricated all the pieces before doing any soldering. Everything came together nicely. I’m still getting to grips with the correct clearances – they are looser than they need to be – but everything seems to work fine. My little truck navigates the turnout without any problems. I still have to do some cleaning up but overall things look much tidier than my first turnout effort.
Tracklaying on the crossover
Well after a period of procrastination I finally made the switch from the diorama project to the track-laying project.
I have to admit I was quite nervous. It had taken two months to learn Templot to get curves on the diagram just right, then I had to figure out to how get the plan printed out, and then I spent another week preparing and laying down ties – all done just to get to this starting point.
The Modoc Line
A few years back my brother and I went on a cross-country trip through north-western Nevada exploring ghost towns. One of the towns we visited was a place called Wadsworth. Although not strictly a ghost town, Google maps showed that a railway line once went through it and just outside town the map showed the remains of a railroad bridge. We went down there, took photos of the bridge and went on our way. I never forgot that bridge and often wondered which railroad built it and what happened to the line.
Scenery scratch pads
On a trip to the UK over the holidays I finally managed to purchase some Gordon Gravett books on grass and trees. I’ll say more about Gordon Gravett another time but in the meantime I’ve been wanting to get hold of these books for a while now. Unfortunately to have them sent to the States puts them in the $70 a piece range whereas I got them for about $30 a piece in the UK – affordable and well worth the price.
Peco Static Grass Applicator
My Peco Static Grass Applicator arrived over the weekend. This is my first branded applicator as opposed to my hand-made (not by me) applicator.
The original Noch applicator (that introduced the static grass method a few years ago) is nearly $200 which is a crazy amount of money to spend on such a small and simple tool. Even though I could afford it I could never justify spending that kind of money and therefore via Ebay (and Australia and $30) I bought my hand-made flour-sifter version. It has served me well for several years now.
Back to tracklaying
It’s been a couple of weeks since I last worked on this project. I first made a critical mistake by soldering down code 83 rail instead of code 70. That cost me two hours work and left my nice tie work looking terrible. I then realized that I had no more code 70 rail left.
FIRST POST!! — Glass fronts
I had plexiglass fronts installed on the model cabinet. Our new cat (we have had him six months now) is (as all cats are) very curious and has jumped up onto the model a couple of time wrecking my telephone wires and poles. I’ve already had to do repairs twice now and a while ago I put up tape in front of the cabinet to protect the layout while I figured out how to secure the area.