A very helpful reader of the blog pointed out a glaring error I made in last week's Throwback Thursday - the location of the photos is actually Mingo Junction, Ohio, not Sayre, PA. The slide mount does say Sayre PA on it, but I can only surmise that the photographer made a typo in his notes that day. We were only off by 300 miles!
But this actually brings me to another related topic - one of the reasons I started this blog was to interact with, and share tips/tricks/knowledge among other railfans and modelers. So I'm glad that my mistakes are pointed out (and moreover, that people are actually reading my posts!) - I'd rather have accurate photo descriptions than look like some half-baked know-it-all. And if anyone notices errors in my future posts (no doubt there will be some), please let me know - I welcome the comments or info you have to share.
Stay tuned for some upcoming posts on recent HO work in the next couple of weeks.
People have been talking about Huberts Model Railroad Mfg Corp (http://www.hubertsrr.com/) a bit now, and I wanted to weigh in on the topic.
They're NOT LBF
Ok, with that said, here's the deal. LBF/McKean Models/WTF has been around for a long time in a number of incarnations. Each new name meant a new, well, I don't know what, but a new name, and I think a new way to avoid dealing with old problems. From my understanding, it wasn't the most financially solid, or savvy company around, and given the tough nature of the Model Train Biz, it never did that well. Each incarnation started out strong, but as time progressed, the business didn't, and it would fail.
Given this past yo-yo act, it's not surprising that many people (both consumers and retailers) are not apt to trust them. However, I've spoken with the guys from Huberts at the Timonium MD Show and they've been very clear that they purchased the tooling from LBF, but not the business, meaning that the people behind LBF, it's debts and its assets are NOT under their control.
I wish these guys the best. They have a good solid product (not quite as detailed as modern Atlas or Athearn stuff though) and a lineup of stuff not otherwise available. I wish their price point was somewhat lower, since $20 cars are a little out of my range, but I hope that these prices help them get off the ground and offer more good stuff.
It seems the latest fashion in Model Railroading, apart from the timeless vest covered with railroad patches and the tie tack with blinking crossbucks, is on-board sound. Tiny speakers nested under coal bunkers or in fuel tanks emitting tinny noise are on the list of any beginner, and even many more experienced guys. A speaker that's supposed to evoke standing trackside listening to the roar of an EMD 567, or the chuff of a steam locomotive have captured the hobbyist's imagination.
But not mine.
I've had the pleasure of installing a number of sound decoders into both N and HO scale locomotives. I've also participated in a few operating sessions where sound has been in use by one or God forbid, more than one operator, and I have to say that after the first few moments of novelty, and the delight of pressing F2 and getting a faint "woot woot" from the kazoo-like speaker, the excitement plum evades me.
Maybe it's because when I'm running my trains, I've just gotten used to listening to old vinyl records. (A fact which should say a lot about my affinity for technology of another age.) Or maybe when I have three diesels on the point of a heavy N scale train, I like to hear them working... often sounding a lot more like a lashup of real diesels than those little micro chips can.
In either case, on-board sound just doesn't do it for me. I don't like the way it adds significantly to the power drawn by the locomotive, I don't like the way it sounds so thin compared to the real thing, I don't like installing sound decoders and speakers and all those wires, and I don't like having more buttons on the throttle to fool around with while I'm trying to operate my train with one hand, and sip a beer with the other.
Nope. Sound is not the savior of the hobby. There are many who would argue otherwise, but rest assured, they are wrong. Sound is a novelty, it will amuse the uninitiated briefly, and be a crutch to people who would rather not pursue a higher standard of model building.
If I wish to enjoy the sound of some historic diesel, I shall spend a few moments scanning You Tube, and I'll find what I want in a matter of moments. If I want to really enjoy the thrum of a big diesel, then I shall take my web lawn chair trackside. And there I'll get the full Monty! Squealing flanges, flattened wheels tapping by. Maybe, just maybe, there will be some jointed rail and a healthy dose of clickety clack!
This Fall has been quite busy for me and the modeling and the layout has come to a standstill. This past week I was on the run it seems everyday after work. I squeezed a few minutes of decaling out this week and that's about it. That decaling would be on my Ex-KCS SD50. I put VMID reporting marks on it and patched the red KCS on the long hood. I wanted to cover up the entire KCS in red but it hard to do with white trim film. So I'm going with a faded KCS maybe with a stripe across it. This is common for short line units that I have seen. Here's a prototype: BB GP40-3 An example would be this model I did for the Buckingham Branch Railroad:
This was a loco I did for a customer back in 2011. Based on the prototype still running in this scheme.
I went to a train show last weekend and my sons talked me into a n scale layout. My oldest had been all over this for about a year now. I was not sure that he was ready, but I took the plunge and bought a huge lot of Kato Uni-track and loco and a couple of cars. This past Sunday, we build a "L" shaped layout in their room.
Simple construction and doesn't take up much space.
Definitely got the Detroit Tiger theme going on in here!
Here the GP38-2 the boys picked out. Good runner and right now we are sticking to DC. It can be converted to DCC if needed.
Here are the 2 cars the boys picked out. Nicely detailed and they run well.
The overall scene. Got to get some fascia for the background and a few more turnouts. Not bad for a few hours of work on Sunday afternoon.
Hear is the Ex-KCS SD50 that will be working on the Midland. The 6 axle power is a new trend on the VMID. A tsunami was installed in in and being a Proto 2000 loco, it runs and well and is very heavy.
Here's another 6 axle power loco. It's a Kato mid-production run. Picked it up at the RPM meet for a great price. It too will be patched for the VMID.
On a different note.... Today, like so many of us, I was checking my emails. Usually I get the occasional spam, business newsletters, questions from customer and the occasional joke. Today I came across a real news story from England I just had to share. I posted it on our Facebook and Twitter pages and I am posting it here because I know some of you guys don't like or have either of those.
The Headline read: UK firemen called to rescue cow stuck up a tree. LONDON | Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:51am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - A cow had to be rescued by fire services in northern England after it tumbled down a 30 meter river embankment and got stuck in a tree.
Fire crews in Cumbria were surprised to receive a call to rescue the cow, which had toppled 10 meters down a slope of the river Leith before a tree broke its fall.
The bruised bovine was discovered after its farmer noticed one of his cows was missing.
The animal was sedated by a vet before being winched out of the tree by firemen using specialist equipment.
"(Fire crews) had to wear body armor in case a stray hoof lashed out at them," said a spokesman for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service.
"The vet checked the cow over and it seemed reasonably happy and relatively unscathed," he said.
(Reporting by Alice Baghdjian) Link :http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/29/us-britain-cow-idUSBRE87S0T220120829
Do you have an interesting story to share? What are your thoughts on this article? Please share with us, we would love to hear from you.
People have been talking about Huberts Model Railroad Mfg Corp (http://www.hubertsrr.com/) a bit now, and I wanted to weigh in on the topic.
