Stupid Guest Tricks

How about web cams that give the prospective from the operator's position?

Zazu wrote:They are not integrated into the DCC system because of bandwidth limits -- can you imagine the bandwidth needed for 255 locomotives, even at NTSC resolution? Now imagine getting that signal over an unconditioned pair of rails with randomly located feeders, a somewhat parallel power bus, and the occasional track switch!

In this day and age, there is an easy solution: WiFi.

CBeilby wrote:

Oh dear ! Is that ZhuZhu pets track I see in the background? I hope your home is not infested with the annoying little hamsters! That very spiral slide is part of my daughters massive ZhuZhu layout.

BTW the Super Chief is really cool! I like the one car with the rounded end, the observation car I think. The Santa Fe Diesel Loco was my very first train set when I was a kid...except in HO Scale. N scale is hard IMO. Pretty small stuff you're dealing with there.

I don't have many soft spots for diesel, but the Super Chief and California Zephyr are really cool in my books, even if they are diesel. I even found an N Scale 11 car set of California Zephyr cars!

Freak, this is too cool! :D: I love model trains, but I seriously lack the patience needed for them. I really enjoyed the pics and the dialog; thank you so much for sharing.

^ Thanks! It's good to see folks enjoying the results of my imagination and work. :) I've always been fond of trains since I was a kid, but after working on/around them, it really sealed the deal. I'm happy to see that you guys enjoy the photos and think the custom work looks good. Personally I have a rather unsteady hand and it takes me some time to paint, especially on such a small scale (1:48). Sometimes they don't come out as good as I wish them to be...not to mention I've seen some real fantastic custom work that would make mine look like rubbish, so I try really hard to make these look good!

More updates!

Number 7 has had her smokestack removed! I found a suitable diamond stack that I'll be using to bring it closer to the locomotive I'm modeling. It hopefully will be here soon!


New arrival!


My new outside frame 4-4-0 "Modern" American class locomotive. #8 is a model of a "South of the Border" locomotive. This particular type of loco can be seen in Sao Joao del Rei – Tiradentes railway in central Brazil. I picked this locomotive because it has a chunkier feel versus its smaller inside framed cousin, and I'm starting to develop a liking for outside framed locos.. #7 is also outside framed.

You'll noticed #8 is sparsely decorated. No roadname or anything. I ran out of Dry Transer Decals..they only supplied 2 of each letter G T and 4 Rs, just enough to label one locomotive "GT&C RR" so I developed a backstory. #8 was accidentally delivered to the GT&C RR (much like how the Ernest S. Marsh accidentally ended up in a railyard in Pittsburgh instead of Disneyland) .

Originally destined to end up on a sugar cane farm in Brazil, this modern oil burning locomotive got misrouted and ended up with GT&C RR's regular delivery of spare parts for their steamers. Unsure if they were going to be contacted by the sugar cane farm, the GT&C RR simply numbered this locomotive as "8" and left it inside the roundhouse for some time. The foreman has long since lost the delivery paperwork, and has no way of contacting the farm. After awhile, they pushed #8 into service sharing work with #7. If they don't hear from them soon, they'll quietly add the GT&C roadname onto the tender of the locomotive. :p:



Just a size comparison to a Jackson & Sharp combine. Looks big enough to haul some coaches.

The locomotive came with spare goodie parts, and I started work on a true scratchbuild:

It's looking to be a mid sized ore car that one of the smaller engines may pull around...or I might stop here and make it an old rusted out remains of an ore car...not sure yet.

By the way, I'm surprised these photos turn out this well. They're actually taken with my Blackberry Curve! It's got a pretty good camera on it!

#7 as it currently sits. Won't do any more work until the stack shows up. Added some green to make it resemble the KBF Forney. Green got a little sloppy though (my unsteady hand) so I had to do some touching up.


Engine #12. Nicknamed "Lelinda" after a friend of mine. Little beat-up thing, the lokie is still in service at the mines. Outlandish paintjob thanks to the Miners and quite a bit of whiskey. It was a good idea---at the time! :p:

Any of you going to the Train Show at the Anaheim Convention Center? I think it is this weekend ;) I saw the commercial,and instantly thought of this thread.

Suddenly my Monday-Tuesday days off aren't as fun anymore!

*Note to self--get a better line with better days off next time!

Sorry for the double post..

I also learned some things about what's gone on @ Knott's since I left. The Forney which was refurbished was sent back to Cedar Point, and Cedar Point dropped off ANOTHER locomotive to be repaired:

Say hello to "Jennie K," a locomotive from Cedar Point which has fallen into disrepair since about 2002. Apparently Knott's Railboys are going to be refurbishing Cedar Point's locos? On top of caring for their two C-19s and Goose...

Sort of interesting, but it fumes me that they do all this work on the locos only to see them shipped out and they have to start all over again with another beater loco. After Judie K, I wouldn't be surprised if Cedar Point sent their other beater locomotive "Albert" who's been sitting out of service for some time due to framework required. So there was never any intention of keeping that Forney. Humph. :mad: