Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
A recent discussion in a Yahoo email group centered on using prototype elements to slow down the pace of model railroad operations. I had a Wheeling Freight Terminal operating session on the calendar and wanted to add a twist for operating crews to work around. I recalled the above Jack Delano image that featured blue flag protection on several freight house tracks. A few of these markers were constructed and installed on the layout for the operating session.
Harold Oakhill sent an update on recent passenger car projects from his workbench. We haven’t touched on passenger car models, but they were an important element of the railroads into the 1940s. Harold models the Ulster & Delaware in 1924 and passenger cars were extremely important to move people to the Catskill resorts. Here’s Harold with his update.
I recently finished a project I have been working on for several months. These passenger cars are a trio of Ambroid coach kits from the 1950s that my father began building in the early 1960s. I don’t know why he never finished them, but I remember taking them out and looking at them from time to time as a kid. Mom sent them to me a few years ago (Dad has been gone ten years now) and I decided it was time to finish them.
It’s been a busy few months of 2016. Between working a temporary job, traveling to attend college graduations of four family members, and publishing weekly blog posts here and on the Resin Car Works blog, I haven’t worked much on my own layout. Work and travel have ended, to it’s time for the annual layout task survey.
It’s been a busy month on the road to see younger family members receive their graduate and undergraduate college degrees. It was wonderful traveling from coast to coast and spending time with friends and family in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and California. I did squeeze in a little railfanning and I even got to ride Amtrak around the Horseshoe Curve!
Nearly one hundred freight cars are in service on the Wheeling Freight Terminal. Several of these are undecorated cars, or painted cars that have not had decals applied. To use these models in an operating session, they need a unique tag so crews can identify the specific car on the inventory lists.