Gene

Gents, I'm wondering if anybody on this forum has made any purchases from Dart Castings/ Montys Models in the past month or two? I ask because I made an online order with them on June 11th and received confirmation that my order had been received and the Paypal payment was completed also. I still haven't received my order and my e-mail queries are going unanswered, which is starting to give me some concern. I understand that its a smallish business and the folks that are involved have real jobs but not replying to customers emails is not on. Does anybody here have any knowledge as to the situation at Dart? Cheers Gene

I haven't posted in ages so here's an update.I've been spending quite a bit of time playing with sound-chips for my locos, working on a section of the club layout and trying various weathering techniques. On the sound-chip front I've installed Howes sound chips into a Bachmann Pannier Tank loco, 2 Hornby GWR Flying Bananas, 2 Heljan Class 33 Cromptons and a Bachy Class 108 2-car DMU. They were all quick and easy installs except for the Pannier...that required a bit of chopping and cutting but really it was pretty straight-forward also.I'm very impressed with both the sound quality of the chips and Howes' service. My local club, The British Model Railway Club of Montreal is building a new exhibition layout, called Allingham, after the last UK WW1 vet who just passed away. It's not modeled on any particular prototype or area but I suppose one could say its an amalgam of SR,GWR and BR(W) practice. I adopted a section that has a fan of 3 sidings and were we decided to put an industrial warehouse. So I built a warehouse useing DPM parts and various bits and pieces...I know, I know DPM are US HO prototype and scale...but trust me it looks pretty good...or so the British born club-members tell me. BTW...the name on the warehouse is in honour of one of our club members, Hugh Rowland, who passed away about 2 years ago. A sweeter guy there never was and he is sadly missed by all. Weathering...I've always been a fan of weathering, ever since my armour modelling days over 35 years ago. Up until recently I've basically restricted myself to useing powders, washes and dry-brushing enamels and some acrylics...until I ran across a couple of web-pages and a particular book that is. The web pages are: http://site.scratchmod.com/Home.php http://www.modeltrainsweathered.com/ and the book is Done in a Day by Pelle K. Soeborg These are great resources for weathering info...the modeltrainsweathered.com page requires you to register to access all the info but its painless and well worth it. Rich Divizio, the page owner, is a heck of a great modeller and very helpful, as is Rob Ferreira, the owner of the scratchmod webpage. So, useing advice and info from these 3 sources I got some oil paints, some gouache paint and an airbrush and have been playing around with the various techniques that these guys refer to. Needless to say I've been using cheapo old freight cars to practice on...well until this weekend that is ) I want to have a derelict, rusty, old loco on the club layout...so I used this technique http://site.scratchmod.com/Part_I___Rusty_metal_pla.php on an old Hornby Terrier....and I have to admit that I'm very pleased with the results, especially considering that its my first real attempt at using oil paint and this particular technique. it's not as red as it seems to be in the pics...I promise!

We don't see Heljan rolling-stock in the stores here in Montreal, I'm curious if anyone can let me know how these Class 33s run? quiet/noisey? smooth/rough? good slow-running?? I'd really like to order the West-Coast ones but haveing no experience of Heljans locos I hope I can get some insights from the gang here at RMweb. Cheers Gene

looks very cool Andy. I really like this layout!!

Mikkel...great layout and blog....I really love the Edwardian period of your layout..very very atmospheric :icon_clap: :icon_clap: . Its funny, I've been following the GWR website for about 7 years I guess...but only just found the Farthing Layouts blog...i feel like I've come full circle...I'll be following it very closely from now on Cheers Gene

Looks most excellent Andy!!!

My first layout from ten years ago with my first attempts at weathering.

I presume you mean carveing cobbles into foam nearly drove you mad......I can see how that could happen. I like your nickname BTW. Gene

So..back to the present layout. Here's an overhead view of the layout...essentialy the right-hand side is a 3 track Inglenook with the shortest front track haveing a kickback sideing that serves the local fuel company, the left side is a 2 track inglenook and the two are joined by a runaround. the rear right hand track is the branchline that heads off the right rear side to the rest of the world Scenery was the standard techniques and materials...Woodland Scenics, dried tea from used tea-bags, washes. etc The buildings are all commercial products I built useing the DPM series of modular pieces. The backscene was originally foamcore that I painted a greyish sky on, but the foamcore warped after a few days so I got some thin balsa and used that for the backscene. Oh yeah...track was regular Peco code 100 flex and insulfrog points. In a way the layout is finished, but of course layouts are never finished and I keep finding things to change and/or add...in the meantime I keep playing trains on it while I plan the next layout :icon_biggrin: :icon_biggrin: I really am pleased with Jack Trollopes' bicycle-spoke manual point control system, next time I'll use electro-frog points with a micro-switch as per Jacks drawing in my earlier blog entry. I'm partial to inset track..on this layout I did a section of inset tack by useing some plaster...next time I'm going to use sheets of foam with cobbles carved into it as per a technique posted on another forum by a chap called Peer Donner.. http://germanrail.8.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2515 looks really fantastic in my humble opinion. I did some experiments useing his technique on the foam trays that meat and veg comes packed on from the grocery store

Ok...here's the next installment. My venture into the world of DCC...but first I have to backtrack in time... After I finished the 6ft x2ft layout that I built a number of years years ago, (I mentioned it and posted pics of it in the second entry of this blog) I took a few years to read, do research,accumulate stock and armchair( build in my mind) my next layout. One of the things I knew I wanted to do on the next layout, along with makeing it very lightweight and trying the bike-spoke point control, was DCC. So about 3 years ago, before even starting construction on the present layout or even deciding on a particular DCC system, I decided to see if I could even hardwire a chip into a loco. My logic was as follows...I figured that even though more and more locos were comeing onto the market with either factory equipped plugs or chips that to get the full benefit I'd still need to hardwire some locos. Now up to that point my soldering skills were limited to soldering power-feed wires to track...nothing finer. So of course I jumped in at the deep-end and chose as my first hard-wire chipping project......wait for it...the Hornby 00 Terrier...I figured that if I, with virtually no soldering or chip installation skills could pull that off then there wouldn't be an HO or OO loco that i couldn't chip if I so desired. Long story short, useing instructions and pics I found on the Yahoo Southern e-group I pulled it off on my first attempt....only problem was I didn't have a DCC system to try it on...fortunatly my local hobby shop did...thats how I found out I had succeeded...and thats where I got to try the NCE system. NCE...most people and clubs around here use Digitrax or Lenz as their operating systems...I tested both along with NCE and quite frankly I found NCE to be far more intuitive and user-friendly that either of the other systems....the handset is bigger and clunkier than the Lenz or Digitrax handsets...but I have big hands and I like the thumbwheel throttle... so its ok. So for me it became a no-brainer....NCE was my choice...and when I built my present layout and found out about the NCE Powercab system well, bobs your uncle.Back to the Terrier...well I was very pleased with myself that I was able to 1) hide that chip in that little loco 2) was able, with my fat fingers and lousy eyesight to strip, handle and solder those tiny wires, not to mention not ruin the chip in the bargain 3) and that it actually worked first time............so I went a chipped another Terrier...same results Don't ask me why because I don't know but the Terrier is my favorite loco, one day I hope to get a footplate ride on one at the Bluebell....as far as the Hornby Terriers, well I've got 7 now, no, only 2 are chipped so far....I bought my first about 9 years ago and was amazed at how well it ran...especially at dead-slow speed...and every one I've bought since runs just as well...and on DCC nothing short of fantastic...amazeing! Well since then I've hard-wired a couple of other locos...a Bachmann Spectrum 0-6-0 Dockside saddle-tank and an Athearn RS-3 diesel...they were pretty straight forward and installed chips in various other locos that were DCC ready with plugs...dead-easy to say the least. About a year ago, just as i got this balsa layout wired up I bought a P2K SW9 with DCC sound on board...that loco hooked me on sound. About a month ago I started experimenting with installing sound chips....first I got an new MRC plug-and-play sound chip for an RS-3...very easy install and the sound is pretty good, then I got an MRC plug-and-play chip for light steam and put it in the tender of my P2K Heritage 0-6-0 loco...that again was easy except for drilling about 300 tiny holes in the coal but well worth it...that sounds great!! Then I decided to get a bit more adventurous and bought a Tsunami sound-chip for the Alco engine in my other RS-3 along with a seperate speaker...well that was by far the most difficult install I've done...but I did get it done and I must say the Tsunami sound for the RS-3 is far better than the MRC sound for the RS-3. Don't get me wrong, the MRC is very good and the drop-in installation is great, very quick and easy...probably if I did another Rs-3 I'd use the MRC just because its quicker and easier to install but the sound is better with the Tsunami...just more work to install. So DCC it is for me...even on a small layout like my present 6ft x1ft board I think its worth it. And now my local club is building a new layout...and everybody agreed to DCC it! oh..my local club...guess i should give a quick explanation...we have 6 clubs here in Montreal..4 model North American HO, 1 models North American N and 1 models British 00...called British Model Railroad Club of Montreal, guess which one I'm a member of ...yes, the British club,its been around for about 15 years, 90% of the members are expats from theUK and it has had a large DC exhibition layout for about 10 years. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, it had gotten pretty long in the tooth, so last year we decided to retire it and build anew. The new baseboards are all built, track has been placed and hopefully the wireing will be completed in another 2 weeks or so and then we'll be running, no scenery or ballast, for awhile to check for problems. The club voted to go with the NCE...YES! OkOK..next entry I'll get back to my present layout.

Incredible!!!!

So I ended my last entry with rhetorical questions.."so what did it all lead to? where am I in the hobby now??? " I suspect there's no single easy answer but I'll put it in a nutshell...it led me to the idea that there is no set answer...nothing is set in concrete, everything is open to discovery and experiment..it's a hobby and that means it is fun so lose the fun and it's not worth doing. I became fascinated with the ideas expounded on Carl Arendts' site and in Model Trains International, to whit...small is beautiful and the concept of multi-modeing era and/or location on the same layout.So I decided to keep my next layout on the smallish size, 6ft. x 2 ft, a couple of pics of it are in the precedeing blog entry ....no more empire building for me. Now a bit of explanation on my view of layout size and this isn't a comment or judgement on others druthers, just my own wants and druthers. As I said, my last layout was 6ft. x 2ft. and that is as big as I'll go for the foreseeable future. I'm experimenting with makeing layouts as light and portable as possible so one person can easily carry by hand and set-up quickly and easily and yet still be strong and durable enough to exhibit. I tried using foamcore for the baseboard of my next layout, its been done before but I didn't succeed very well and gave up on that idea. My next attempt I decided on balsa wood...nice and light, strong if built properly and I felt it would be stable enough if sealed properly. Here's a pic of the balsa board,its been sealed and painted green and hinged in the middle with the track pinned and wired...it's 6ftx1ft unfolded so it fits easily on the backseat of my car when its folded up. The trackplan is very simple and I had quite a bit of help with it from Shortliner Jack Trollope....I also wanted to use this layout to test DCC...so I wired it for both DCC and regularDC power....I also took the opportunity to try the manual wire-in-tube type of point control albeit modified to another suggestion of Shortliners, bike spoke and choc-blocks, here is a pic of Shortliners drawing of it..thanks Jack! :icon_biggrin: Now,due to my bad eyesight I stick to 00 and HO modelling and as I stated earlier I am interested in German,UK and Canadian outline so I decided to try to do this layout in a multi-mode concept. Let me explain my view on this concept...simply put it just means that scenery,buildings,signage etc., is either generic enough that it can fit into any of the 3 countries or various eras, or failing that, the building(s) and/or signage can easily be changed to accomodate a change of country or era. Of course it's a purists or rivet-counters nightmare but it works for me.

Lovely and very atmospheric...I really like the wooden inset of the track, its a very nice contrast with the cobbles :icon_thumbsup2: Cheers Gene

Ok folks, so now that I'm getting a handle on this new site and this blog stuff I'll try to be a bit more informative about myself and my railroading interests... and add some more pics since each one is worth a thousand words :icon_mrgreen: About 8 years ago,due to a medical issue I had to give up my first love, scuba-diving, and my scuba business. As such I found I had quite a bit of spare time on my hands and, for various reasons which I won't bore you with, but they include christmas trees and trains, I took up the hobby of model railroading. So, using magazines and the internet I started informing myself about the hobby and so was introduced to both UK 00 outline and German HO outline, especially early 20th century companies. Now I am Canadian, but of a contrary sort of character and so of course I chose to completely ignore North American outline and started accumulating both UK and German stock and commenced construction of the proverbial railroad empire. Well, that didn't last too long as I figured out fairly quickly that I'd either get very bored or very frustrated before it was ever finished. Fortunately for me I stumbled on a website and a magazine, and their members and contributors, that changed my whole perspective on model railroading. Those two sites are Carl Arendts' Micro/Small Layouts site http://www.carendt.us/ and Chris Ellis' magazine Model Trains International http://www.modeltrainsinternational.co.uk/ and its discussion forum http://forum.mtimag.co.uk/index.php So what was it about these sites and magazine that changed things for me?? Well first of all and most importantly they introduced me to some of the nicest and most helpful people around, such as Jack Shortliner Trollop, John Flann, Chris Gilbert, Mog, Blackcloud, the late Dave Howell and many many more ... and all these people, both named and unamed showed me that smaller can be better :icon_thumbsup2: AND the concept of multi-modeing both era and location on the same layout. Of course these concepts led to a snowball effect of learning for me which kept up my interest in the hobby...so what did it all lead to? where am I in the hobby now??? I think I'll leave that to the next entry :icon_clap: So here are a few pics of my first attempt at a small ,multi-mode layout..its about 8 years ago

Hello everybody, First I'd like to say that, now that I'm getting a better handle on this blog thing I decided to add just a quick intro today, Oct 22, 2009, telling a bit about myself and my modeling philosophy. I got interested in model railways about 10 years ago while recovering from a bit of a health issue. Now I had the usual circle of track under the Christmas tree some 50 years ago but I was never very interested in trains and such. My main modeling focus, into my late teens, was armour...and I got pretty good at it...then girls and other pursuits took my interest. Anyways, back to the present...so about 10 years ago I needed a hobby...one of the things about model railroading that interested me was it's very multi-disciplinary..carpentry,electrical,painting,scenery work, detailing etc, etc. Needless to say I made all the usual beginners mistakes which I won't bother listing here, and I'm still making mistakes Thats another thing I like about this hobby...it's a continual learning experience...just over the past 6 weeks I've learned how to install sound chips into locos, how to wire and box the speakers for them, how to use Decoder Pro and JMRI and just over the past few days I've been learning how to do this blog thing. The other great thing about this hobby is all the new friends you meet...granted many if not most are through the internet and we probably won't get to meet most of them face-to-face...but they are still friends nonetheless. The internet...I've got to say that wow!! has it ever been a great boon to me..the amount of knowledge and information that is available on webpages, blogs, forums such as RMweb and from individuals through emails is just awesome. Without the internet and all it offers this hobby would really be much less fun and interesting than it is. now, as you'll see from reading further into this blog I am interested in UK,German and Canadian railway modelling and since my apartment is so small I prefer small layouts as opposed to EMPIRES...I'm also a big fan of multi-modeing my layouts, there's more of an explanation about that in Chapter3, More on My Layout of this blog. So i hope you enjoy my attempt at a blog and if you have any comments ,advice or questions please feel free to contact me either here or via PM...Just 2 pics of my present lightweight,folding,shunting plank to start with. :icon_mrgreen: Cheers, Gene

thanks Andy...your technique for inset track will be coming in very handy soon. Cheers Gene