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Also went and visited the model railroad club in Union, NJ for their open house. Pictures don't do justice to the sheer size of the layout. They have been working on it for over forty years and have plans to keep building for the next twenty years
If you visit the NY City area, this club is definitely worth a visit! They own their building which is located on county parks department land. They pay no rent for the land and in exchange, the public is allowed to visit the layout once a week. You can read about their history here: https://www.themodelrailroadclub.org/history/
Such beautiful work, and great to see it in action through your video. I enjoyed following the progression from the contemplation of the track plan, to the steps along the way... this video serves as a nice reference in building a project from start to finish.
Wait, did I say the f-word???? I heard a rumor that layouts are never finished!
Such beautiful work, and great to see it in action through your video. I enjoyed following the progression from the contemplation of the track plan, to the steps along the way... this video serves as a nice reference in building a project from start to finish.
Wait, did I say the f-word???? I heard a rumor that layouts are never finished!
Thank you for your kind comments! I need to put together an album of the whole build process.
The layout is definitely not finished - I still have a Starbucks store to build and lots of details to be added. But I have to admit that I am taking a bit of a break from building and have been having fun operating the layout every day. It really is a pleasure to run trains.
I just got started with the Starbucks kit and immediately ran into a problem - I don't have the right kind of glue! I just read through the instructions and discovered that the parts are laser-cut acrylic so styrene cement won't work on this. This is definitely an intimidating kit - and I will be taking my time to assemble this - I really want this to together go right
As it happens, one of my friends also told me that my video came up as a suggestion for him too. I'm really surprised it has been so popular since there are many YouTubers with much better model railroad channels! I barely have any material there - need to add some
I got this nifty radio mast which sort of looks like a cell tower. This one is of a German prototype (made by Busch) but it seems to fit in pretty well.
Apologies! I had a house full of guests over the holidays and lost my momentum. A good friend of mine gave me this tower as a present and I had to go and install it right away of course
I still have to finish the Starbucks kit for this layout and have to get back to thinking about my N scale layout.
Sorry for the long gap - there was, unfortunately, an unexpected death in the family. I have been really busy as I am the executor of the estate. As a result, I have not really gotten back into my projects much in the past month or so. Hope to get back into action soon.
The radio mast from Busch has a bunch of LEDs and came with a blinker unit. I finally got around to getting it up and running. Feels good to finally get some time back in the in the train room. There are actually three LEDs that blink alternately - looks really good. It will definitely feature in my next video.
Installed a couple of small track-side cabinets built from an ancient IHC kit I got at some train show. Nothing very impressive but I always like seeing these small details!
Finished the shell of the Starbucks - this is a great kit but its definitely not for beginners. You need a good set of right angles and clamps to assemble it properly. Also, this is not a styrene kit - it is laster-cut acrylic so you have to use a special glue like MicroMark's SameStuff.
The drive through window is visible in the back. Note that one of the acrylic sheets was slightly cracked as delivered so I had to put a small piece of styrene as a splice plate. Fortunately, it should not be visible in the finished model.
Finally finished a small chore that I had been planning to do for a long time. I knew I needed a shelf under the layout for the DCC command station and a few accessories. So I finally got to use my new miter saw to cut a shelf to size and install it. Looks much neater now!
!! That is some impressive! 
