Jeff P

Fantastic work, Callum. Always a treat to see your projects. Best, Jeff

Yikes...been a bit since I've updated. Here's what I've done lately: Completed the cover, added LED lighting and made a photo backdrop from an image a friend took. Rearranged the town like 27 times...still not permanent. Waiting on a building to arrive in the post. To fill a vacant space. Added a loop of Tomix Wide Tram track to run through a photo of a building which will have a foamcore structure added to pop it out into the scene. I was inspired by watching a video of a brewery which gets a single car dropped off via street trackage into tight quarters. Roughed in some foamcore to raise the buildings up a touch. It'll receive a trimming, some paint and blended in. Will post as I make progress. Everyone please stay safe... Best, Jeff

Despite the changes time has brought forth, it still highlights the excellent job you did capturing a moment in time. Jeff

Those are cool! I went whole hog...I used 3 boxfiles but I might drop one in favor of a fiddle stick since we're only dealing with a single line. Then I'll have an extra for further deviousness... Jeff

Here's the link to Ed's Train Crew app if anyone should be interested: http://traincrew.conrail1285.com Jeff

That's brilliant! Jeff

I owe J Pachl many thanks for the inspiration for this. I first became enamored with O Scale back in the 70's after seeing it in the model press and at a few local clubs (all gone now, sadly). Even though I've modeled in HO and N, I've had some equipment I bought years ago and it's always been a temptress. I've just never had the room for a layout. Browsing these pages, I saw the N Scale boxfiles done by J Pachl and remembered I had some laying around for other projects and figured I'd see if I could do the same but in O Scale. I grabbed some track, one switch and laid it out. It worked. Since they'll be folded up for storage, I had some O Scale photo flats I picked up from eBay and some off-cuts from the backscene for the Reading Central micro I'm doing in N. Since that project is idle for a bit while I get some buildings done, this worked great. Operating scheme is simple. A short (really short - 1 locomotive, 1 car and a caboose) backs down from the hidden track. The caboose gets dropped on the main track, the loco and car back up, if there's a car in the siding, pull it and couple it to the caboose and spot the load. If I simulate operating procedures, it would take 15 - 20 minutes to replicate the pull and spot move. My friend Ed Kapucinski made a switching simulator (free to use on his website www.conrail1285.com) that combines a timer and sound effects for common tasks. So here's a few shots of what I did in about an hour and a half...enjoy. Jeff

Whilst the town fathers mull over the arrangement of the town, here are a few buildings that will occupy its real estate. First is an unknown Downtown Deco plaster building I picked up from a scrap pile at a show for a fiver, mind you it looked like it survived the Blitz but some paint, window and door castings, weathering and a few assorted detail parts it came back to life. Second is another Downtown Deco kit, supposed to be a funeral home but with some decals and details became a grocery shop. Third, another Downtown kit, Randy's Burgers with some alterations and added details, that I renamed Cliff's in honor of my late friend who was married to a vegetarian but when on our outings would enjoy a hamburger and other forbidden fruits. Last, we have Tony's, which is an acrylic laser cut kit from a local firm called Custom Model Railroads that was a giveaway to attendees at a modelers meet. All of his kits are exquisite and when opening the box, one gets a bit of a shock at the number of parts, especially with his high-rise and large buildings but he's done an outstanding job with crafting the kits and the instructions that with a little care and patience a most excellent building is the result.

I had planned on 3 fiddle sticks to represent the "rest of the world" but then thought I might enjoy seeing a train running laps as a relaxing diversion. The extension is born; made from leftover bits and some 11" radius Unitrak. Both sections fit nicely across a folding table.

What I've found the problem to be with small layouts is not the layout itself, it's the other distractions that pull the eyes from the focal point. That said, I decided to box the scene in with a hood made from foamcore board from the dollar store so for a whopping outlay of 3 bucks we have the necessary resources to make it a cameo scene. They had a string of LED lights powered by 2 1.5 volt batteries...now we're up to $4. On the right track but the string of LED's just doesn't cut it...back to the drawing board and the town planning board is none too pleased with that linear building arrangement and all that vacant real estate...

I'm going to be using Kato Unitrak mainly because of reliability and the fact I already have enough on hand. Using the newer range small radius track and one #4 point. Here's the first plop-down...meh...

I've decided to come out from cover with my latest project in N scale, a layout that fits in several categories. It's a micro, it's a cameo, it's portable. The concept came from the mind of David K. Smith who came up with the idea that two railroads decided not to be part of the consolidation of the 6 bankrupts that became Conrail, The Reading and the Central of New Jersey. It's not that much of a stretch because the lines that went into Conrail were literally all over each other, passing through the same regions and sustainable until the demise of the US manufacturing sector. I thought it was a neat idea so I asked if I could run with the concept. I plan on relocating within the next 12 months plus I'm not a fan of big fixed layouts and even more so after seeing 3 friends tear out years of work on basement sized ones due to a move or finding out what a chore it is just to get ready for an operating session. I was watching a YouTube video by a user called DJ's Trains (he's a professional railroader) and he showed how a simple interchange could provide a lot of enjoyment in a small space. Bingo. Now I have it sorted out. An interchange in a town called Smithsboro, NJ between the RC and Conrail to serve the towns up the line of the James Creek Branch. I'm a big fan of reuse, especially when it keeps the cost of the hobby down. I found a baseboard that's 27" x 15-3/4" I'd used twice before made from Gatorfoam (which I got as a freebie when they threw out a big sign at a friend's job) and why it's that size is long lost to memory. A little clean-up and we're ready to get this train rolling...

If you modeled in O scale...the Plymouth that Atlas put out in the 70's runs a treat and will pull a stump from the ground. Best thing was the center drivers were blind so they are great on tight curves. Best, Jeff

Great work. If you can, you might want to see if you can find a Bachmann 44 tonner or a 70 tonner. The Western Maryland had a 44 tonner and a short line on the south side of Baltimore had a 70 tonner...it was the locomotive Bachmann used as its prototype for the 70T. Jeff

Fantastic! Reminds me of the narrow gauge live steam railway that ran through the park in the woods behind my sister's house years ago. I loved listening to it chuffing through and hearing the whistle echoing through the wood. Sadly, when I took my son there many years ago after talking it up to him, we found the steamer was gone, replaced by a locomotive with a gasoline generator running it that sounded more like lawn maintenance equipment than a locomotive. Jeff