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.....and if I'd have taken that job in 1980, I'd have been super-wealthy (or dead from overwork) inside of five years! BillS

CRikies! Shamus certainly is the..... CReme de la CReme in our CReative CRew of inCRedible CRitter Crunchers. Or something like that..... BillS

I should also have mentioned the Yahoo group, Traintools. One way to possibly beat the costs mentioned by Russ, is to find a model loco that has a lot of similar parts. Drivers, for instance, plus lots of fittings that might be close to the ones on the loco you want to model. Then buy a...

A couple of good places to start are the Yahoo forums "Scratchbuilding" and "Brasslocobuilders." Down through the ages, but mostly prior to the 1960s, Model Railroader had a lot of scratchbuilding articles. Many of them related to brass, but there were even some on building with wood...

Actually, by 1900, there weren't many U.S. roads still burning wood. If you go back to the 70's and 80's though, many western roads still burned wood. In all the photos I've seen, it appears that the tenders were in fact loaded by hand. Usually from great woodpiles near the turntable, and...

That's a really interesting inspection engine. I've never seen one like it, and am looking forward to more photos. Most inspection engines of that period looked more like a coach body on top of the running boards and surrounding the boiler. This one would certainly have the advantage of...

Tyson, Tyson, Tyson..... What a pessimist! I stopped expecting too little of the high-tech industry about 1984. You see, in 1980, some guy named Steve Jobs had called me and wanted to fly me up to San Jose for lunch to talk to me about running industrial design for his little company. What...

I often see or hear discussions about the future of model railroading, but these frequently center around what new models might become available. There’s a far more exiting prospect in the not-too-distant future that has the potential of eliminating one of the major PITA (Pains In The A**) of...

I'll second Steam Donkey's advice on Miniature World. I was afraid it was going to be "something for the kiddies" but it turned out to have some excellent dioramas --- and a terrific, fairly large scale, model of a sawmill. And I must say that I think Victoria is one of the really great...

Happy birthday Gauge! And ditto what Val said. BillS

Great looking stuff, Urban. Where is the club located? Prague? BillS

Any Sagitarian has gotta be a good person. Happy birthday. BillS

Incredible. I can just about smell the pines. But we expect nothing less from you, Shamus. You sure do set the bar high for us mere mortal modelers. BillS

I cannot speak from experience, but can pass along what I heard in the past from a couple of modelers who had real water on layouts. They gave it up very quickly for one reason only --- they could not deal with the extra humidity introduced into the layout room. (Now if this was large...

Getting back to street/road dimensions..... You could always send your mother-in-law out to measure them. Only trying to help..... BillS

Thanks. I gotta try that. Do you live in the Tyrol by any chance? I visited cousins there (Innsbruck) earlier this year. BillS

Again, my thanks. Since I've only got about another 25 good years left (and since they go by so futzarattzenfrassen* fast these days) I guess I'd better get off my glutious maximus (sp?) and start building on that last layout! BillS * "futzarattzenfrassen" is German for a word so awful...

If you have a digital camera (or for that matter you could use a film camera and have the images digitized) why not try photographing some shingles, or bricks --- or doors and windows --- or even whole sides of buildings. Edit the images, and print them on plain paper. Doing it...

#@%^## I was trying not to think about it! As (I think it was) Mark Twain said, "If I'd have known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." Actually, tho', I can't whine. I'm in pretty lucky shape for a geezer. Thanks, friends. BillS

Krokodil, That's a way of making boiler bands that I'd never thought of. Do you flatten the wire at all before putting it on the boiler and soldering it, or just leave it round? I'd appreciate your explaining how you do it. BillS