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Back at the old bench in a new location. I tried to move things around the bench and thought I did a good job until my wife said, “I thought you were going to move things around.” Seems most everything was put in similar places on the bench. But, I know what changed… First up is a RiverrPoint...

I have been operating trains on 2 dates. Both modern but 10 years apart. 2005 and 2015. I started out in 2014 after retirement to prototypically model Central Wisconsin, the Valley Sub of the CN. I did that as I could still operate at the time my large roster of Wisconsin Central locomotives. CN...

Help Needed See the wire coils on this car? I want to build these as detail parts to use on my layout as loads. I am way overthinking this. I have the bulk head cars, I know how to create the hold downs and strapping. When I worked in the wire forming business all coils were delivered by...

Fellow weathering enthusiasts or bored looking for something different! Welcome aboard. I have a MP15ac HO scale Athearn Genesis that needs some dirtying up. This will be different for me. 1st thing is to remove the body from the chassis as this is a rough runner and cleaning out and...

Hello fellow modelers with interests in painting and weathering. This will be my new spot. Instead of starting a new thread for each weathering project, they will be here. Pictures of rolling stock will be here. At this time I do not do locomotives. I encourage you to give Constructive...

Hello. I have CN gondolas that need some weathering. Purchased on 2/19/2022 at the MadCity Train show in Madison, Wisconsin. These are scheduled to replace 2 cars I had weathered and sold when in January I really thought of taking the layout down due to my health mentally and physically. Here...

Hello and welcome to a journey of discovery. I really have only been weathering since the Fall of 2021. So many of the techniques I have used were new to me. While weathering pulp cars ( there is a thread, Pulp cars being weathered) I learned quite a few things. The #1 thing is that you quickly...

I never designed a engine service area for the layout. Just off the entrance to the paper mill yard (PMY) is an area I was neglecting but it was the recycling center for the Steel Company across the tracks. Really just never got to the space. But it did hold 4 spots for an operating session...

Or will you just Wing into 2022? On a so far quiet Christmas morning instead of reflecting on 2021 I am thinking forward into the new year. I will start out below with my thoughts. Please pitch in as we discuss the coming modeling adventures even if you feel it meaningless. Thanks TomO

Hi, Merry Christmas. We have friends and family coming for Holiday dinners tonight the 23rd and tomorrow Christmas Eve. Normal layout power is DCC with 3 ProtoThrottles. I have found at previous dinners some folks like to run but the PT is too complicated. So I pulled the DCC set up and we will...

When my youngest, now 35 stopped playing with his Legos at about 12 years old the seemingly thousands of pieces went into a bin. Sat there for years. Sometime after the Legos were in the bin retirement home I read somewhere that a modeler was using Legos to square up his scratch built...

I pulled out a couple F68AH Bulkhead Flats from the drawer of rolling stock that has not seen the tracks on the layout. That changed this morning. Did my initial check of gauging the wheels, weighing the car and checking how it rolls. These 2 Flats were pre-ordered from ST and have been in the...

The other day in the diner someone mentioned Xacto blades and Excel blades. They were unaware they were separate companies. So, post the tools, blades, the knives and clippers that you use to model in your modeling space. Left to right. In the rubber bin are my various extra blades. I have...

Hello let me know which of the 2 pulp cars look right to you I am using pro type pictures to go off of but I am terrible with colors and the wife says both are OK Both cars have been faded with the same pan pastel Neutral Gray Extra Dark, the difference is the steel side brackets. This car...

I sold parts of my Ethanol Plant, the ST tank cars that supported it and now have 76”x14” of space to fill. Enter the Grain Terminal. This was an added discussion I was tacking onto the conversations in the daily diner. It belongs in its own build thread. I have the following Walthers...

I have been working at the bench making wire armatures trees. Here is my overloaded messy work bench, located under a portion of the layout and also used as my programming track. The not special tool is the old wife approved frying pan. I kept making foil trays when I sprinkled leaves on the...

The top picture is without lights behind the valances. The picture is taken with the aisle lights on and my single bulb spot light I attach to my IPad Pro. The bulbs in the trainroom are all the same, Cree LED screw in bulbs. 40w Daylight, 5000k 840 lumen. Purchased from HD. The bottom picture...

Thank you for accepting me. I model in HO, have a ISL centered around a PaperMill based on parts of mills along the Wisconsin River in Central Wisconsin. I operate the layout using the ESU CabControl system and Protothrottles. I model the year 2015 and and equipment run on the layout that is...