1st Operating Session & Subsequent Improvements
In October, the Aspinwall Belt hosted the first “official” Operating Session. For the uninitiated, this is essentially a bunch of grown men pretending to run a real railroad, when obviously it isn’t. But that’s the last time you’ll hear me admit this. I set up some documentation for the group, including an overall train plan, […]
Conrail 8110 GP38-2 in HO
[singlepic id=21 w=320 h=240 float=center] After the baby was born, I received the most awesome of gifts from a close friend of mine: a Life-Like Proto2000 GP38-2, painted as Conrail 7993. These engines are wonderfully detailed, out of the box, and they run really well. Well, I’m modeling the early-mid 1990s, and by then, this […]
Conrail’s Aspinwall Belt track expansion
In August, I posted an outline of the so-called “temporary layout”, Conrail’s Aspinwall Belt. I thought I would share some layout progress and additional thoughts. As I mentioned last time, the goal of this layout was to quickly get to the point where the kids and I could run some trains. This way, Dad can […]
The Aspinwall Belt
I have always been troubled by having too many hobbies, and never time for all of them. Consequently, I go through various phases… As a kid, HO scale model trains (along with a few military aircraft for good measure). High school was mostly music, with a bit of railroad photography; college was about the same. […]
More Model Trains
I often get the question “Do you have model trains, too?” Well, sorta. I did as a kid, and I’ll focus on that for today. When I was in fourth grade, we bought a house in Allentown, Pa. After about a year, my Dad showed up with a 4×8 of plywood, which was the beginning […]
Model Trains
A couple of weeks ago, Lou Capwell and I spent the weekend with our friend Peter to help him resurrect his HO Model Railroad. While I was in high school (mid-90’s) I did all of the electrical work & control panel for the layout, and was faced with having to recall what the hell I […]