jeff train

miðvikudagur, 6. febrúar 2013

þriðjudagur, 5. febrúar 2013

Go With Throttle Up!!

Before leaving for the evening, the tired, but successful
electrical crew (Phil, Pete, Tom, and Mat) pose for the
obligatory group shot.

I blogged last week about the endless series of feeders I was soldering to the track and connecting to the buss wires. Well, tonight a few members of the Gainesville Mafia stopped by and spent a tough three hours getting the layout divided into several power districts, connecting all the remaining feeders to the buss wires, and in general having a good time with a tough, thankless, but entirely necessary task. It definitely sped things along and before they left we successfully demonstrated the power districts were working correctly, and the wireless throttles were all working correctly. I have a few things to button up, but the railroad actually works!
Thanks guys!

föstudagur, 1. febrúar 2013

Six hours of work ....

I've spent a couple of hours a night on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday working on the layout. Total: About 6 hours.
Here's the White River Junction yard area before I started Tuesday:

And here's how area looks now:

Isn't wiring fun?????

þriðjudagur, 29. janúar 2013

Wordless Wednesday #5

mánudagur, 28. janúar 2013

Everett, Vermont

Everett, Vermont, looking south. The paper mill will be partially represented with a photo backdrop. I'm getting really sick of looking at pink foam! I bet you are as well!

This is the first time I've shared any pictures of the town of Everett, Vermont on my layout. Although most of the locations on the railroad are based on specific prototypes, this is the one part of the layout that is 100% freelanced. The section of the layout, basically the point where the peninsula connects to the wall, allowed for a relatively deep scene. Why not simply pick another CV town? I considered that for a while, but ultimately decided against it. For one thing, the mainline is on an "S" curve - and most CV northern division towns were arrow straight.

I also wanted to have a "destination" industry somewhere on the railroad. A destination industry is a single large complex that offers a lot of switching. I intend tos in Everett before returning to White River. I decided on a paper mill. There were paper mills on the CV, but not on the section of the railroad I'm modeling, so the industry is freelanced. Plans call for a dedicated mill turn that leaves White River yard, works the mill and industrial tracks in Everett before returning to White River. Another reason for the freelanced town is a little more pragmatic. I've collected a number of structure kits over the years - while some of them (a generic "store" for instance) are useable in any town on the layout, I wanted one place on the layout where I could readily include some of these kits.
The buildings shown in these photos are for "locating" purposes only. I may or may not place them in the locations shown - in fact I welcome any suggestions on town/road building arrangements!
But you can see the basic setup- the paper mill complex in the corner; a small station; a couple of stores - represented by boxes at this point!; a freight house, and a feedmill. The feedmill is a kit from Stella Scale Models. Although not a Vermont prototype it's a very typical small town feedmill.

Williams Creek is just around the bend. The mockups in the distance are
downtown White River Junction, Vt.

Everett is just around the bend from Williams Creek, the scene shown in the header photo on this blog. Some of the you know that scene is named after Zeb Williams, one of my college classmates. Todd Everett is another Citadel classmate.

miðvikudagur, 23. janúar 2013

Wordless Wednesday #4

þriðjudagur, 22. janúar 2013

Southern New England Boxcars

A few months ago, the South Shore Model Railway Club in Hingham, Mass., contacted me about doing a special run of Southern New England Railway boxcars. I provided them with the artwork I'd developed for the SNE a few years ago and I just found out the special run cars are available. There are two different paint schemes available on the Kadee 40-foot PS-1s. One of them is obviously inspired by the Canadian National Maple Leaf scheme. The green wafer scheme is inspired by a similar class of Grand Trunk Western cars.
The cars are $34.95 each + shipping ($5 for one and $6 for a pair by Priority Mail).
Dave Clinton of the South Shore Club tells me they will be available for sale at the Springfield show this coming weekend. Or you can order them through the club website.
Thanks to Dave and John Sheridan of the South Shore Model Railway Club for doing such a great job on these!
If you've ever wanted to own a SNE car, here's your chance!