Wilesco factory tour...

Krick Model 2 two cylinder marine steam engine...Part V, the fire-up...

Mid South Model Railroad Club, Baton Rouge, LA...

I like this layout--but--I detest sound systems...yeesh.

Miniatur Wunderland...

...if you find yourself in Hamburg, please go there in my place...

The Delmarva Model Railroad club...

...glad to see they're getting it back together after a very hard year...

Pennsyvania Railroad engine crew fire control video....

Nothing wrong with this HO scale 4-8-4 Mountain...

...start with a good running mechanism, a empty six pack and some hand tools...woo hoo...

The 'Twilight Zone' meets "Mister Rodger's Neighborhood'...

...hands down the best model train video yet.

Model this...

Sweet...Cars 2 preview in Legos...

The downfall of Unitrack....

...from a fellow modeler with a great sense of humor and way too much time on his hands...

How about some models?

...Russian translation not necessary...

I'm back...

...but still too lazy to type just yet.

How about a video on a working, 1:450 scale cantilevered grade crossing signal?

Yep...

...been on the road again...

Lionel VISION 2-10-10-2 Mallet...

"Jazz with a General problem"

Transformers and stop motion photography...too cool...



UPDATE: ...just so you don't go traipsing all over the web and eBay trying to hunt down a General Lee Decepticon (like I did...sigh...), check this out...

The Arrows - "In the Words of Satan"

Just keep moving on if you're easily offended...



I used to be in the Christian Music industry and one thing I can attest to is that they only get two out of three right...it is music and it is an industry but it certainly works hard to be anything but Christian. In light of my experience I rarely jump on a new group's band wagon and, in this case, am only posting the one video as it is a powerful, bare knuckles picture of the Prince of the power of the air.

Their other song is typically veiled, with no direct references to God, Jesus or the exclusiveness of the Gospel Message. How well I remember a Stryper tune that could just as easily be sung to a prom queen in the backseat of her date's car. As with other groups in the past, I'll wait this out to see what kind of fruit falls from the tree, before I go recommending them to anyone.

The sad truth is that most Christians are as celebrity oriented as their unsaved neighbor...the mere mention of God and the fact that the music doesn't contain a vocabulary that could peel wallpaper seem to be the only qualifications for CCM sainthood nowadays.

Model Power/Mantua Classics HO scale Southern Pacific 2-6-6-2 Mallet, Part 2...

The model is finished...welll...mostly, there's some wiring to clean up---it was set up for DCC and I'm an old school DC powered modeler---and the boiler sits slightly to the left coming out of a curve. That doesn't affect its operation but it is a minor cosmetic issue that I figure may be related to the fall it took. The frame isn't bent or anything like that, it swings to and fro just fine, it just likes to settle just to the left coming out of a curve. The forward engine is only held in place by a drawbar between it and the rear engine, and a flexible tube between the front and rear gear boxes. Therefore, the tube itself could be the culprit as it is not a flexible as it could be. I have a line into NorthWest Short Line for replacement universals that should straighten this out.

I successfully reseated the loose driver by cleaning the axle and hole with denatured alcohol, then scoring the surfaces with an Xacto knife to give it some tooth for the JB Weld to grab. If you do this, make sure you understand that the quartering of the driver is critical...a variation of more than a degree or two can hinder the operation of the valve gear and, once hardened, JB Weld is NOT forgiving---it will not come loose...


It runs flawlessly in both forward and reverse, clock-wise and counter clock-wise on my test bench...


All in all a deeply satisfying project that takes me further away from the RTR, plug and play drone I had become all those years ago. A picture of the finished locomotive is on the way...

Model Power/Mantua Classics HO scale Southern Pacific 2-6-6-2 Mallet...

I finally found the round tuit necessary to finish this little beastie. It took about 8 hours and required that I reassemble it without the benefit of an instruction sheet. It was given to me for the price of postage on the condition that I don't part it out over Ebay...no way that was going to happen as I've wanted to own one since I was 14.






The valve gear shown were incredibly mangled but straightened out easily with a pair of pliers. The only real damage was a broken crankpin that I managed to cobble together from a jar of small screws and a small bushing. Here is a video of the first test run on the bench after I fixed the crankpin...


The only problem I'm having right now is that the geared driver on the rear engine managed to break lose in the fall and goes out of quarter easily...I'll see if JB Weld will fix that. All in all a very nice runner with amazing pull for such a small motor---you'll notice that the flexible coupling mysteriously shortened itself between Pic 2 and Pic 3...that's because the motor rung it in half when the driver locked, before I could cut the power.

PROTO 87 guys...eat yer heart out...

Questions: Where's the tender? Looking at the worn finish, how old is it? Can it still fire? Who made it? ...oy...