Many of my pieces are somewhat like the memorial and witness stones the Patriarchs of the Old Testament would set up from time to time after God had moved in their life in some way. I have cars, locomotives and vehicles that are specific and special reminders of the people I know and have met through this hobby , for whom I pray for from time to time as they are brought to mind. This particular locomotive stands in place for all my wonderful Canadian friends I have met and modeled with, the paint scheme ensures that they are not easily forgotten.
The mold for this has bounced around the industry for many years, last showing up at Life Like, both open and covered.
I received this in a lot dropped by the club. It was part of a evidence haul at the local police station that they needed to get rid of. None of the members was interested and I'm no good at saying no to free model trains. I weathered it and put new wheelsets and Kadee couplers on it.
Let it never be said that I do this blog as a way of promoting the idea that, "By golly, Jesus is really cool cuz you can still play with trains and models and stuff."
My model work is an added blessing from my Father in Heaven and my right of entry into your home to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His revealed Word as found in the Scriptures. May God open my eyes to the first moment even the slightest shadow of this hobby comes between me and Him. I'll toss it out into the street just as I did so many years ago and never look back.
But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness and handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.---2 Corinthians 4:2
Here again is seen the glaring discrepancy between Biblical Christianity and that of present-day evangelicals, particularly in the United States....
To make converts here we are forced to play down the difficulties and play up the peace of mind and worldly success enjoyed by those who accept Christ. We must assure our hearers that Christianity is now a proper and respectable thing and that Christ has become quite popular with political bigwigs, well-to-do business tycoons and the Hollywood swimming pool set. Thus assured, hell-deserving sinners are coming in droves to "accept" Christ for what they can get out of Him; and though one now and again may drop a tear as proof of his sincerity, it is hard to escape the conclusion that most of them are stooping to patronize the Lord of glory much as a young couple might fawn on a boresome but rich old uncle in order to be mentioned in his will later on.---A.W. Tozer, Born After Midnight, 17.
One of those cases where I inadvertently made an uncommon car rarer...
I found this at the bottom of a box of junk cars at the local railroad museum. It was complete with no broken steps but, per my modus operandi at the time, I chucked the toy train wheelsets, clipped the Talgos and body mounted Kadee #5 couplers. Had I been a member of the Tyco Forum at the time, I might not of done that...
I built this some years back, one of the first online tutorials I ever did, spurred on by of all things the rack of antlers on the headlight. Someone needed a rack just like that to put on his loco's headlight and I cobbled a set together using some parts from the scrap box. Before I knew what hit me, the rack had to have a headlight which, of course needed a lokey to adorn. The rest, as they say, is history...
The locomotive was built onto the mechanism from a Model Power RS15---not a wise choice for such a model if one wishes to run said model. Poorly engineered from the start, Model Power diesels did their best work as static displays and not as working motive power. In the end I had to reluctantly make a flatcar load out of it---a great model still but not what I had originally intended.
The flatcar is a Revell model from the 1960s and includes the original sprung trucks. I added C70 rail to the deck, eventually I'll chain it down...eventually.
After years of thumbing my nose at ready built buildings and trees, I have to say I was rather impressed with this product from Rapido. I've run my own t-pole wires and still have a tick in my eye from the experience. At 35 greenies though, I doubt any will be showing up on my layout---not a complaint mind you, I just don't fork over that kind of coin for my hobby easily.
(1) But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
(2) For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
(3) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
(4) But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
(5) Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
(6) Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
(7) For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
(8) But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
(9) For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
(10) Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
(11) Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
(12) And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
(13) And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
(14) Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
(15) See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.
(16) Rejoice evermore.
(17) Pray without ceasing.
(18) In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
(19) Quench not the Spirit.
(20) Despise not prophesyings.
(21) Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
(22) Abstain from all appearance of evil.
(23) And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(24) Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
(25) Brethren, pray for us.
(26) Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.
(27) I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
(28) The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.---The first epistle to the Thessalonians was written from Athens.---
The flat is easily my favorite freight car model, the Athearn heavy duty flat being my favorite flat car. Its articulated trucks make for an impressive show in 40 scale feet.
No, I don't know why I haven't weathered the trucks on the C&NW car...go away.
...of the last DCC chips in my fleet. Not my best editing, but it was fun to do nonetheless. Credits to Bachmann Turner Overdrive for the bumper music...
As an aside, it's amazing the engineering that went into those articulateds so that they could traverse an 18" radius curve. They relaxed a bit here though, my broadest curves are 20" radius.
I get my circuits from cheap toys and children's shoe boxes. I use a standard two cell (usually AAAs) battery clip in regular freight cars and scratchbuilt button cell clips for my pig trains and other cars with a high center of gravity. The SPST switch runs $1.29 at Radio shack. Filing down a 3mm LED into a small rectangle then wrapping it in shrink tubing makes a respectable FRED and creative wire routing sets it properly on the coupler, something those $39.95 cars don't do.
The flash rate of most cheap circuits is a bit high but a real life flash rate just isn't as effective in my opinion. A slower flash rate can be made from this circuit Bakatronics offers. It's easy to assemble, is adjustable and no mean trick for a newcomer to substitute an LED for the bulb.
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him love....---Ephesians 1:4
Sin is a disease. It is lawlessness. It is rebellion. It is transgression--but it is also a wasting of the most precious of all treasures on earth. The man who dies out of Christ is said to be lost, and hardly a word in the English tongue expresses his condition with greater accuracy. He has squandered a rare fortune and at the last he stands for a fleeting moment and looks around, a moral fool, a wastrel who has lost in one overwhelming and irrecoverable loss, his soul, his life, his peace, his total mysterious personality, his dear and everlasting all!
Oh, how can we get men and women around us to realize that God Almighty, before the beginning of the world, loved them, and thought about them, planning redemption and salvation and forgiveness?
Christian brethren, why are we not more faithful and serious in proclaiming God's great eternal concerns?
How is this world all around us ever to learn that God is all in all unless we are faithful in our witness?
In a time when everything in the world seems to be vanity, God is depending on us to proclaim that He is the great Reality, and that only He can give meaning to all other realities.---A.W. Tozer, Christ the Eternal Son, 48.
I can't remember how I came about this photo, it proves there's a prototype for just about anything, even a freelanced electric locomotive I scratchbuilt 15 years ago and never got around to painting.
Nothing beats a 9 volt battery with a couple of alligator clips attached to help diagnose whether that old Tyco or Bowser has any life left in its motor. Just touch it to the wheels, 9 volts is enough to goose some life out of all but the worst motors. It will take a little experience to know which wheels, as a general rule, touch the left drivers/right tender wheels on steam models, on most diesels it's usually pretty obvious which ones pick up power.
Though no scale is specified, I find they meld in perfectly as foreground models in HO scale. They were put out as a series in the mid 90s at roughly $30 each but now can be had for around $5 at most yard sales and flea markets. The only real discrepancy I've found is that the tandem axles track about a scale 9" wider than other trucks of similar size, hardly worth losing sleep over unless you are in the PROTO 87 crowd**. My only desire would have been less chrome, especially in the wheels but, for the price, one can flesh out a terminal or team track really quick.
These represent part of my early era fleet and are suitable for up to the very early 1970s settings.
**I have nothing but love for my PROTO 87 brethren.
(1) ---To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.--- I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
(2) He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
(3) And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
(4) Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
(5) Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
(6) Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
(7) Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
(8) I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
(9) I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
(10) I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
(11) Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
(12) For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
(13) Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
(14) Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
(15) Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
(16) Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
(17) But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
...is my newest addition to my modeling links, found by Nelson over at the Tyco forum. Originally only in Italian, thanks to the hard work of Angelo S. Giusti and Dario Romani, we Rivarossi fans on this side of the pond can enjoy the story and other models of Alessandro Rossi, the founder of Rivarossi.
Time to march out my big three again, click on the picture for its story...
I had a blast with this while it lasted. I bought a color camera and mounted it to the front truck of a Tyco F7. With a slight downward tilt, I got a fantastic view down the track with a very realistic panning action to the side as it approached curves. Sadly, I found they do not like having their polarity crossed and the camera succumbed to the dread "Magic Blue Smoke" that, until then, had only been the bane of my motors and DCC decoders.
I made a simple tray out of sheet aluminum and epoxied it to the truck after filing about a 7 degree bevel to it. The camera was held in place and easily adjusted further by using poster gum to hold it in place. The 9v battery fit very snug in between the screw posts to the fuel tank.
I cut a "smiley" into the nose of the F unit but, looking back, a simple widening of the door on the nose would have been enough. The antennae was fished through a hole drilled just ahead of the horns on the roof. I installed a 3mm super bright LED in the headlight to light the way through tunnels and passes that was quite effective. I have video somewhere that I'll post in the future.
Just a Believer who happens to model trains on a very tight budget, providing a place to showcase my own model work as well as the work of others, regardless of type. Considerations for posting are always welcome. Please check out the modeling links I've put together as well...
Less than God could not have borne your sin so as to put it away; but the infinitely glorious Son of God did actually stoop to become a sin-bearer. I wonder how I can talk of it as I do.
It is a truth scarcely to be declared in words. It wants flame and blood and tears with which to tell this story of an offended God, the Heaven-Maker and the Earth-Creator, stooping from his glory that he might save the reptiles which had dared to insult his honor and to rebel against his glory; and, becoming one of them, to suffer for them, that without violation of his law he might have pity upon the offending things — things so inconsiderable that if he had stamped them all out, as men burn a nest of wasps, there had been no loss to the universe. But he had pity on them, and became one of them, and bare their sins. Oh, love ye him; adore ye him; let your souls climb up to the right hand of the majesty above, this morning, and there bow down in lowliest reverence and adoring affection, that he, the God over all, whom you had offended, should his own self bear our sins.
Though thus God over all, he became a man like unto ourselves; a body was prepared for him, and that body, mark you, not prepared alone, and made like to man but not of man. No, he was not otherwise fashioned than ourselves, he came into the world as we also come, born of a woman, a child of a mother, to hang upon a woman’s breast; not merely like to man, but man, born in the pedigree of manhood, and so bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, yet without a taint of sin. And he, in that double nature but united person, was Jesus, Son of God and Son of the Virgin; he it was who “bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Death For Sin, And Death To Sin," delivered November 16, 1873.
Men, protect your daughters....
“Picture this: Some 17 year old snot nosed punk comes over to take out your daughter, and you say, 'No you aren't worthy of her.' (Immediately everyone is up in arms over your 'judgmental' and 'harsh' position, and for 'breaking your daughter’s heart.') Ok, so let's put it another way now: You have a beautiful, brand new $200,000 Ferrari Testarossa in front of your house, and a snot nosed 17 year old punk comes over to take it for a spin. Would you hand him the keys? See, what your problem is, is that you value a car more than your daughter. Men, protect your daughters!”
My sole purpose for this blog is to lift up the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified on a no nonsense, no ad platform showcasing my work and the work of other modelers, and to practice my hobby with the world behind me, the Cross before me and Kingdom of God in sight. All Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible as I have found on my own that there is none more faithful to the original languages. Unless otherwise noted, all text and photographs are mine. Old ads and product reviews are respectfully posted in good faith that any copyright privileges are not being infringed upon, with no intent to profit or disparage in any way and will be removed upon request of their respective holders.
I am not sponsored or endorsed by any hobby vendor or publisher, thus my faith as presented is my own and not to be inferred on them or on the owners and modelers presented in any way.
I do not accept solicitations for links. Videos are linked from You Tube and Photobucket and are the property of their respective owners/producers. If any of the videos or pictures used are yours and you do not wish to have them associated with this blog, please notify me and I will remove them.
LITIGIOUS SOCIETY DISCLAIMER:
Because life's lottery has unfairly distributed technical skills and knowledge among folks, leaving more than a few with the mechanical aptitude of a grape, and very few with the fortitude to take responsibility for their actions, you take your life, family and house into your own hands if you follow through with any technical advise offered on this blog.
To European Union readers, as far as I know, no cookies or other data are gathered here, nothing on my part anyway.
No, I don't know why I haven't weathered the trucks on the C&NW car...go away. 
