MichaelE

It's finally going to feel like Autumn here. After a week in the lower 30°Cs, a cold front is coming through to lower the temps by 12°C, followed by another cold front. They say frost is possible late in the week. I hope Autumn is finally here to stay.

Marketing it like the product that it is.

I didn't realize there were so many fans of American football in the UK. I am not a fan of most organized professional sports in this country (the States) other than a little baseball now and again.

Erfurter Bahn Service Br.232 hauling logs passing an SBB Swiss express train:

This is Lisl von Schlaf. She was bred from E. German and Czech lines and is from a litter bred for law enforcement work. Highly intelligent and easy to train. She is a one-person dog and is very aloof. She doesn't like other dogs either. She has been trained in personal protection, basic and advanced obedience, and agility, although the former two did not require as much training as the latter. This photo is when she was around three. She will be 11 on October 26th. She's slowed down a lot over the last few years, and her personality has mellowed somewhat where she will now allow visitors in the house without subjecting them to a personal inspection and a wary eye on them at all times. They can even get up unescorted to the loo. 🤨

This is my first steam locomotive on the layout. It is the TRIX model Br.95 of the DR. It runs very nicely and the sound is good. I didn't get the smoke version as I don't want to put up with the eventual mess. It had some problems on point frogs so I added a Hex Frog Juicer and that cleared up the problem. I cobbled together a DR consist, but I eventually want to get all Rekowagens for it instead of just the one I have in the mixed consist of original and Reko coaches.

After digging in to the 600 page manual for this camera, I found that it will do this automatically. It will take a series of photos at different focus points that I specify. Not the focus points, but the number of photos. Ingenious. All I have to do is drop the photos into the program and the software does the rest.

Thanks Jim. I'm going to have a look at this. I've heard of the process, but did not know how it worked, If I understood the procedure in the video, I leave the camera settings where they are in manual mode for each photo while only changing the point of focus.

I didn't make the background. It's from Faller. I too use the Obersdorf background on the other end of the layout that is more level than where I have the Neuschwanstein background.

It's supposed to be a photo of the Füssen area near Neuschwanstein. There is no Schloss in the photo, so I don't really know. It sure changes the look of the layout though.

I dont' know why, unless Imgur is down.

I've had this Faller background since my new Br.95 showed up from Germany, but I wasn't certain how I wanted to mount it. I finally decided on the simple way and used Gorilla Tape patches on the back at about 10" intervals to hold the push pins I used and attached it directly to the wall. It's not perfect, but considering what I had to get around, it'll do. What I didn't know about this background is that it repeats itself. It's three meters wide, but only a meter and a half of the scene and then another meter and a half of the same scene. Bummer, but it looks better than wall paper. The photos are mostly experimentation with a new Nikon Zfc camera that arrived yesterday. I loved film cameras and when they fell mostly out of use, I resorted to a cheaper Canon Sx10 back in 2005,6, or 7. Can't remember exactly when I bought it. I wasn't thrilled with the many menus I had to navigate just to set an aparture or speed. Then I saw this Nikon last week at B&H and fell in love with it. It is an all digital camera, but with many analog controls, ust like the old days. It's my first Nikon, as I've always have Canon film equipment save for my one flirtation with digital. Here are the first of the photos with the new background from the new camera:

Watch the older Liliput rolling stock. I could have used the wheels to cut pizza on the Era III coaches I received the other day. Very nicely made and finished though. Those wheels wouldn't roll on Code 83 track, and pushing it through the points was like off-roading. I changed out the wheels and they're fine now.

I received an email from Modellbahn Union this morning with that HO set from PIKO on sale. I was so tempted.

That's a great looking model.

The light coming in to the train room looked good yesterday afternoon and into the evening.

The interchangeable nature of EU railroads is one of the attractions of this modeling for me too.

I bought my first two freight wagons for RhB. I was going to get three more, but I needed some Preiser figures and autos. I also got around to adding the crossing signals at Langwies.

Thanks very much. It was a challenging experience. If I could easily find another one of the Faller station kits, I'd replace the Litzirüti station. I don't see that happening any time soon though. I did add some people, backpackers, tourists, and a Doctor, from Preiser that arrived a couple of days ago.

Pre-formed catenary section are relatively fast and easy to put up. It's the scratch building catenary that is a slow and tedious job. I really didn't mind doing it, but maybe not so much. I would hate to have to do a eight or ten track station area all scratch built. This video I took a couple of days ago was the first proof runs under the wire with pans up. Skip to 2:50 to see Allegra departing.

Willkommen in Langwies, Graubünden, Schweiz:

Actually, it is Sommerfeldt stuff, but because of the mast spacing, off the shelf catenary sections wouldn't work for the spans involved. The longest unsupported span is over 26" and it was going to have to be scratchbuilt. I was trying to replicate this station area the best I could, and that involved accurate mast spacing according to the actual Langwies track plan. The last cross-span is a little closer to the third cross-span than it should be, but allowances had to be made fore the space I had available for this project. This much is certain; it is the last time I'm hanging scratch-built catenary. 🤪

If you choose an ESU Loksound decoder, the sound files are on their website. However, you will need the ESU Lokprogrammer to load the files to the decoder. The alternative is to find a hobby shop that offers the programming service when you purchase the decoder from them. Many shops do this at no charge when you purchase from them. The Lokprogrammer not only allows the upload of any sound file on their web site at no charge, it also allows easier CV programming and manipulation, and additional sound bits within the downloaded program. For instance, different horns and whistles, additional station announcements, etc. Custom files made by other individuals are also possible to upload to the decoder.