Model Railroading
7 Jan 2014
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, […]
J. Alex Lang
3 Oct 2013
[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 […]
30 Sep 2013
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 […]
4 Aug 2013
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. […]
Railroads
13 Jul 2013
As of late, many of Norfolk Southern’s famous Heritage fleet of 20 locomotives – modern diesels painted in historic liveries for 20 of NS’s predecessor railroads – have been passing through Pittsburgh. Many of these have been making long-distance trips from the Bakken Shale (in the Dakotas) bringing crude oil east to refineries in Delaware […]
28 Jun 2013
It’s been awhile since I’ve sent any sort of trip report, as it’s been awhile since I’ve been on any sort of trip. With baby Allison now at 7 weeks, my wife was ready to get me out of the house. I greased the wheels by cooking some good food, and making sure my wife […]
