I’m getting WAY ahead of myself as I’m in the track laying phase and not scenery construction, but I’ve been thinking about an approach to modeling power lines. Specifically, modeling power lines that hang realistically. I’ll need to model power lines on my layout and I want the actual lines to hang like the real thing – not dead straight like many applications I’ve seen by other modelers. 

After about a four year wait, Intermountain Railway Co. came through and delivered their GP10s. All I can say is it was worth the wait. They are beautiful!

I can’t comment on their run quality because I will be installing Loksound v4 decoders with iPhone speakers later, but I’ve already seen a YouTube video that shows them running and they look nice and smooth. 

The two units I purchased have engine specific details such as varied Horst filters, etc. Sweet stuff!

This hobby has a lot of facets. One I enjoy is the graphic design aspect with all the varied railroad heralds, paint schemes, and assorted signage – even graffiti. 

The railroad I model, the Iowa Interstate, has a retro look in that they use the old Rock Island herald shape with spiffy colors of black, red, and yellow. I looked into what it would cost to have a custom neon sign made and discovered it wouldn’t be that expensive. So, I had one made and today I mounted it in the layout room above one of my work areas:

I have started hand laying my track after several false starts. I decided to use silver bearing solder to "weld" the points to the throw bar but was having difficulty stopping the flow of solder on the outside of the points. After going through a couple throw bars I decided to Google the problem to see what other modelers did to resolve this issue. 

I visited my friend and fellow IAIS modeler, Joe Atkinson, yesterday. Joe is in the process of converting his entire diesel fleet to Loksound decoders and we got together to try and upload some of the sounds into a few of his decoders and engines. We didn’t get very far with installs, but we learned more about the Lokprogrammer and had a good time catching up and eventually enjoyed running one of his converted engines around the layout with Loksound’s Full Throttle capability. 

My friend, Joe Atkinson, and I need to model several ballast hoppers for our layouts. We’ve been researching the different cars and found models to recreate the rolling stock, but one critical component missing were four ballast gates required for each car. 

We were told Shapeways may be the answer and indeed they were. We were able to find a dealer, Boxcar Models, who had exactly what we needed. We placed the order and within a couple weeks Joe received the gates. 

Sometimes it pays to revisit things we’ve tried in the past but didn’t particularly like at the time. And, sometimes it also pays to beat back perfectionism and take a compromising, albeit better, path.

I just got back from an enjoyable time at the RPM Chicagoland in Lisle, IL. Mike Skibbe and company put on a new and improved show and I think the attendees were appreciative. I’m new to RPM meets so I’m not a good judge, but from what I could tell everyone had a great time. 

Yesterday I met a retired IAIS engineer, Jay Ellis. Jay worked for the IAIS since it’s inception and had a railroad career that spanned over 40 years. Amazing! He worked for the Rock Island, CNW, and finally the Iowa Interstate. 

But what was even more interesting to me was that Jay held the engineer spot on the Milan branch for many years, including the year I model the branch – 2003. We spent a very enjoyable day talking all things Milan, toured the branch, enjoyed lunch, and forged a new friendship. 

Google created a automatic movie using video and static images that I had in my Photos and Video account. They even added visual effects and music and took out my hand shake. Pretty cool. I never knew they provide that service.

Anyone else had a similar pleasant surprise?