Submitted by Slambo on Thu, 04/20/2006 - 04:38
Did you know that Louis Brennan successfully demonstrated a gyroscopically balanced monorail in 1909? It was designed as a cheap method of building transportation infrastructure and the British military was interested but it did not enter production due partly to fears of the gyroscope failing. Model this!
Submitted by Slambo on Wed, 04/19/2006 - 05:01
Looking for another source of reference photos? Try the American Memory collection at the Library of Congress website. This photo of a Southern Pacific Railroad ferry in New Orleans circa 1905 was among the results of a quick search for SP materials today.
Submitted by Slambo on Tue, 04/18/2006 - 05:34
On prototype passenger trains, the cars are often switched so that the doors are all at the same end of the car to ensure that passengers don't have to walk more than half the length of a car to board it at a station. Since dining cars normally didn't have station side doors, the door ends usually faced the dining car in the middle of the train.
Submitted by Slambo on Sun, 04/16/2006 - 07:43
Who's waiting at the back of the cemetery for today's funeral?
Submitted by Slambo on Sat, 04/15/2006 - 06:41
Have you earned your Master Builder: Structures certificate yet? One of the structures you are required to build to earn this certificate is a bridge, but there is no requirement stated for the size or type of bridge to build. A model of this simple, small bridge in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, will do quite well to satisfy this requirement.
Submitted by Slambo on Fri, 04/14/2006 - 07:23
What color is green? When you're adding scenery to your layout, slight variations in the colors will help give a more realistic appearance. This photo was taken in late May 2003 from the back of the Algoma Central's er Wisconsin Central's um Canadian National's train through Agawa Canyon.
Submitted by Slambo on Thu, 04/13/2006 - 07:51
Okay, I need to make more updates here. Well, starting today, I'll be posting (nearly) daily updates called "Modeler's Moments". It's like the various "... Of The Day" features that you're already familiar with, but here the Modeler's Moment will combine a little bit of everything. Some days it will be a website link, others it will be a model photo or a model building tip, still other days it will be something about the prototype railroads or their history. Whatever it is, it'll be a way to get more model railroad information out to both of this website's readers, but in small enough chunks that it won't be too overwhelming.
So, let's start off with a model building tip that has to do with tracklaying....
When you're soldering rail joints, put the tip of your soldering iron against the inside of the rail and apply the solder on the outside of the rail where the two rail pieces and the rail joiner meet. If you're soldering flex track joints, solder the joint before you bend the track into a curve to prevent a permanent kink in the rail.
Submitted by Slambo on Tue, 02/14/2006 - 13:39
So you've built a module, tested and scenicked it and now you want to take it to shows to participate in larger modular layouts? Great! Before you head out with your module and a couple trains in the trunk (okay, in the back of your minivan), there are a few things that you need to remember in order to make the show experience a pleasurable one.
Submitted by Slambo on Mon, 02/13/2006 - 15:31
You've decided what you want to model and you know the size of the layout location. There's one more decision yet to make, and it's one that will affect your model building purchases for quite some time. You need to decide on what scale to use in your model building.
Scale vs. Gauge
First of all, there is one important distinction to learn, and that's the difference between scale and gauge. In short, these two terms can be defined as follows:
Scale
The ratio of miniaturization of an object.
Gauge
The distance between the rails on a section of track.
Submitted by Slambo on Mon, 02/06/2006 - 20:16
Think that making a mold and casting your own parts is too hard? Think again. The hardest part is what you already do - make a model. No, really, that's the hardest part! After that, you're just measuruing two liquids, stirring them together and pouring the mixture in place. Once you get to casting the parts, you don't even have to worry about insane calculations because it's a one-to-one mixture! So, let's get started...
Ethical considerations
The first thing that I need to tell you about casting your own parts is that you should not use this method to duplicate commercially available parts. The model manufacturers paid good money to develop a kit for you to use, and making a mold of a commercial part is not only unethical, the commercial part is likely copyrighted and/or trademarked so making a mold of a commercial part may be illegal (but don't take my word as legal advice, I'm not a lawyer). If you make your own master, not only will you gain a few extra points on NMRA judging, but you won't have to worry as much about the legality of copying your own work.
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