It’s hard to believe it’s been five years–almost six–since I had to tear down Dan’s Backyard Branchline. I was sad to take up all that track and buildings and leave the memories behind, but it was time to move so it had to go. The buildings are all in my attic and I have all the track and trains in my garage.

Why haven’t I rebuilt? Well, it’s a combination of things. First, our new home doesn’t really have a “yard” even though it’s on a bigger lot. It is completely trees, which means it’s not conducive to G-Scale track. And some of those trees are walnuts, so even less healthy for plastic structures. Also, my health isn’t as good as it was, and I just haven’t had the energy to lay out temporary ovals of track more than once or twice. On top of those two things, other hobbies have taken up more of my time.

I still dream of rebuilding Strelsau and the railroads that served it. But for the moment, it’s just a dream.

It looks like the loggers have had an accident. Apparently the logging crane came off the tracks near the shed. Continue reading More Work to Do →

It should be something I’m used to by now, but the hot, windy weather has kept me inside most of the summer. I want to run trains, but it’s just too miserable.

A few of my buildings are in need of help after I failed to do my usual Winter refurbishment

This is the spot where the windmill stood. One of the sails needed some work and the mill owner/postal worker that were out front need their arms reattached. Continue reading Need Maintenance →

This winter I didn’t manage to get any of the buildings from the layout inside to refurbish them, which is when I usually work on that sort of thing. So I’ve brought a couple inside. I bought a few additional live steamers in anticipation of spring, but… between school activities being canceled for my three school-age kids and work going a little crazy, that got away from me too.

A few weeks ago I looked out my back window at the layout and realized that the grass had grown up so much that some parts weren’t visible, and the ROW was overgrown with sedum and juniper. I’m having trouble keeping the weeds out–here in Kansas I need to spend a couple hours a week to keep things under control and I’m pretty busy.

Continue reading Quiet Spring →

Usually I get up to some amazing project in the late winter/early spring. I have time on my hands (sometimes) and there’s a lot of enjoyment anticipating some new feature that will be ready for the first few runs of the year. This year I didn’t get to anything.

Well… not exactly. I managed to do two tiny, pitifully small projects. One was refurbishing my logging vignette–I rebuilt the log wagon almost from scratch and created a pair of lumberjacks chopping at a stump/fallen tree. I also fixed up the “getaway” car from my wedding scene.

That’s a ridiculously small amount of layout work between November and May, but that’s all I had time/energy for.

The weather was great for running trains and being outside together.

It’s odd to see snow as late as April 15th, but there it is

Saw this stock photo

And thought about my Dora and a Newqida coach

Continue reading Battery-Powered Eggliner →

So, my layout isn’t perfectly flat. I tried to level it when I installed the roadbed and track, but there is definitely a low spot on the front straight and a high spot at one back corner. 

For DCC controlled locomotives, which use electronics to maintain a constant speed, this is no problem. For analog engines, it doesn’t really matter as I can increase or decrease the power to the track if needed. But for live steam, which is controlled by the throttle in the cab, it’s trickier.

The solution, of course, is to add radio control to the live steamers using a car R/C transmitter and receiver and a servo to open or close the throttle. As a first step, I’m working on installing such as system in my Saxonian. I fabbed up a servo bracket from aluminum and installed it in the cab. I ran it on a 6′ radius test circle in my garage and it performed as expected.

Next I need to set up a trailing car to carry the battery and receiver. That would allow me to mount servos in the cabs of all my live steamers and just move the R/C car between them depending on which one I want to run. But it does mean figuring out what to do about couplings. My Frank S. has LGB loops, the Dora has link and pin, and the Saxonian has a chopper.

I’ll need to noodle on that a bit.

A couple of months ago I was told I have moderate arthritis in my shoulders. Immediately I thought of how this would affect my ability to run trains. My first thought was that track maintenance is going to be trickier. My second thought was that it would be an excuse to focus more on live steam.

Continue reading More Steam, Less Spark →

Ok, you can’t run trains in this… I’m going to need a bigger snowplow 🙂

Also, notice the fence… we’ve decided to give up on trying to keep it painted and just let the cedar age naturally.

It’s just enough to be prototypical. About a “foot” of 1:24 snow

In California, when you don’t plant something, you get dirt. Maybe a little wild oats, but pretty much nothing grows in the desert unless you plant it and then water it regularly. Here in Kansas, if you don’t stay on top of weeding you get wild strawberries, chickweed, and corn. Yes, corn.

So this year I’ve been pretty much too bust to run trains except on rare occasions when all the stars align. I’ve probably done less than one run a month since January. Because:

The reason we moved here to Mac was for me to obtain another Bachelor’s degree… in Auto Restoration this time. So finishing that up, with my Senior Project, has been filling my days pretty full. Now that things have slowed down on that front, maybe I can get back to trains 🙂

Just a quick post to show where things are at the moment