Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
Summer projects and tasks have kept me away from the workbench but I found time to make progress on a Westerfield Models HO scale Baltimore & Ohio M-15b box car kit. There are four ladders to install and they are cast onto a resin sheet with other details. Here’s my preparation process.
Continue reading “Resin ladders”
The previous blog post on gondola kit builds featured HO scale Pennsylvania Railroad GRa class cars. That was the main focus of the group kit build project, but the door was wide open for our Pre-Depression Era railroad modeler group to build a gondola kit they had at hand. A few more models came off the workbench!
Continue reading “More gondola builds”
About a year ago, a few Pre-Depression Era railroad modelers embarked on a group kit build. We chose a Pennsylvania Railroad GRa class composite gondola kit, but we opened the door for other gondola models that fit the era. It’s time to share the progress!
Continue reading “Gondola builds”
I’ve been noticing various types of cranes in prototype photos of team yards and tracks. They do not show up everywhere, but cranes are a detail to consider when modeling a scene in the 1900-1940 years. The 1923 image above documents passenger cars parked at a team yard in Washington DC for a Shriner’s convention. They aren’t easy to spot. but there are several cranes in the background.
Continue reading “Cranes”
Many aspects of model building are repetitive. These might be details or processes used across several similar models, or many of the same details applied to one model. Sometimes I will procrastinate completing a model because of all the same small details that need to be installed. Like installing 36 small brackets on a gondola. Those are the brackets in the lead image.
Continue reading “Repetition”