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”
Several months ago, Perry Squier shared photos of a scale test car he was building for his Shawmut layout. He shared photos and notes of the finished HO scale model recently. It is frequently used in his operating sessions. Here’s Perry with the details.
I model the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern RR (the Shawmut) in 1923. The railroad at that time had three scale track locations: St. Marys Yard, Prosser at the junction of the Olean Branch, and Moraine at the junction of the Wayland branch. All of these locations are included on my layout but I never modeled the weigh scales.
Continue reading “Shawmut scale test car”
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 recently attended the 2022 Layout Design and Operations Weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I signed up to operate on three layouts and to present on Prototype Inspiration for Manageable Size Layouts. I had a blast!
Continue reading “Take me back to Tulsa”
I journeyed to metro-Philadelphia last week for the RPM Valley Forge railroad prototype modeler meet. A winter Nor’easter was threatening but passed through a couple days before the event. I arrived on Thursday afternoon to participate in an operating session that evening.