Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
It was a special day recently on Perry Squier’s HO scale Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern layout. He had been holding regular op sessions using the 1923 calendar. The most recent session coincided with the October 8, 1923, operating date. A one hundred year celebration was held to commemorate the moment. The first train ran with bunting and banners!
Continue reading “Celebrating a moment”
I attended an operating session on Perry Squier’s HO scale Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern layout earlier in January. I had participated in several sessions a dozen years ago, before moving to El Paso. It’s a thrill to see all of Perry’s smooth-running steam power and equipment set in 1923. Additionally, it was great to see many familiar faces among the crew and meet a few new members.
Continue reading “Boomer operator – Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern”
I often field question on how I prepare my layout for an operating session. The Wheeling Freight Terminal hosts a session nearly every month and I’ve fallen into a work pattern that minimizes the time to bring the layout ready for a session. The tasks fall into three basic categories; clean and lube, inbound and outbound car inventory, and fix previous problems. Let’s take a closer look at each category.
Operating model railroads with friends is one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. The holidays can be a tough time for crew to attend so there is a lag between sessions. I did host a December session on my Wheeling Freight Terminal but I hadn’t been to Mike Weiss’ Kingston Southern layout for a couple of months. It was great to kick off the New Year operating his layout.
The Wheeling Freight Terminal has monthly operating sessions. A message is sent to several interested modelers and operators in the area about a week beforehand. I’ve typically been operating on the fourth Thursday of the month and a layout in nearby Las Cruces hosts a session on the second Thursday. August was busy for the usual crew and only Robbie was able to attend the recent session.