Having recently received yet 2 more rail bus sets that refused to run 'out-of-the-box', I decided to scrap the mechanical bits of all my busses and use the bodies as a basis for a coach.

Bashing the trolleys was great fun and produced some really nice coaches imho, so I'm taking the same route with the busses.

I use two bodies, either the motor car or the trailer and will cut (*) them to form an eight window coach. Luck has it that this new body has the perfect length for a flat car !

After being grounded by a torn muscle I spent some time playing with the layout webcam, printing out various shots and gluing them together to make a panoramic view.

A web search led me to the Hugin software http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ and I found it reasonable easy to use.

After setting up my EOS 60D in the center of the layout room I made a couple of shots and this is the 2nd try with the SLR:

A Bachmann flatcar with a 'key chain' cam taped to it's deck takes a ride down the 5% grade on the F&B RR.

cheers, Leo

Produced and directed by Rene Wolf http://www.wolfscreek.nl/

cheers, Leo

I went to Rail 2013 yesterday, a Dutch train show.

Lots and lots of hO and N for sale, even a fair amount of US models, brass included.

Sorry to report virtually no On30  :-(((

So I spent my €€€ on tools and scenic supplies:

cheers, Leo

just ordered a 4 band rubber stamp with 0 to 9 digits and a pad with quick drying white ink.

With so much rolling stock to number I thought I'd give it a go, see how it works out, total investment about $25.

The stamp looks a bit like this, digit height is 1/8", will post pictures when I get the stamp.

cheers, Leo

I won a bunch of Bachmann On30 trolleys on eBay, they'll end up as coaches behind a Porter or Forney loco. Removed the mechanism and put in a wee subframe to hold archbar trucks. The wheelsets are not the original On30 size, but H0 replacements:

The car drops about a ¼", looks better imho ...

just received a drill set via the mail, and thought I missed a bit. That was until I made a photo of the set:

Guess it's time to get a new pair of reading glasses !

cheers, Leo

Must say I'm very pleased with formats of the Feb. issue of MRH magazine !

Now I can use the landscape format on my laptop and the portrait on my 8" tablet, purrfect !

cheers, Leo

trying out how much a 6 truck articulated car with a 5" long payload would swing out:

Radius is only about 15", maybe a bit smaller, and even then it swings out less than an inch.

But if an inch proves too much it's fun to hook up the two units close together and just haul it to another job :-)

cheers, Leo