Today was the setup day for the National Train Show, so I didn't make it to any clincs at all. On the other hand, I got to see many hobby manufacturers and retailers as they set up their displays and also many of the modular layouts being assembled - there are two very large FREEMO layouts as well as a huge N-Trak layout.

Take two: I was almost done with this entry, when apparently I hit the wrong "mouse" button on my laptop... and goodbye it went. Sigh. It's been a long day.... a fun one, but a long one nonetheless. Also, I popped a Nyquil a little over a half hour ago, so I expect to be unconcious before long.

Welcome back to my experiences at the NMRA convention - and it was a pretty busy day.

The  first clinic I went to this morning was by Donald Harbin, titled "The Roots of Making Trees." Donald has discovered that the root structure of a 1 to 2 year old Ash sapling (grows in most states) makes a fine armature for building deciduous trees on. His layout is in the Fall time period, so he ends up with some pretty colorful trees:

Wow... I'm tired. This morning started at 3am Pacific to catch a 6:15am flight from Portland to Milwaukee, via Denver.

It's now 9:15pm Pacific... but my body feels the 11:15pm Central it is here.

Okay, I think I may have goofed, rather expensively, here. When I bought my two new Trainman GP39-2 locomotives I thought that Atlas had converted over to using the new Gold Master chassis with speaker ports in it exclusively - just putting extra weight in when they didn't actually install speakers.

This is how my non-sound MP15DC came.

So when I bought a QSI Revolution-A to put in one of them, I was happy that it came with a 1" speaker. No problem!

Take out the couplers, pop the top off... problems.

I've been practicing "turtle railroading" lately - slow but steady is getting quite a bit accomplished. In the last few weeks I've done the following:

1. Completed a new swing bridge across the entrance aisle to the layout:

(early photo - roadbed for the siding is being glued down with AZ Rock & Mineral ballast as weights)

My layout, in a rather convoluted fashion, describes a big loop. Basically I did this because:

1. I wanted continuous running for when I was showing it off; and

2. I didn't think I had enough room for staging at both ends of the layout... so both ends became the same end.

As a result, I have tracks that jump an aisle. The first version of these involved a major passing siding terminating in a curved switch, at which point the track continued across a rickety (1 layer plywood) side-hinged bridge spanning the aisle.

ExactRail just announced on their blog the availability of two new cars in their Signature Series - the HO Scale, PS 50' Waffle Box Car and CP Rail 65' Mill Gondola. They will be available for sale on the ExactRail website at Noon on April 13th. 

BLMA has a new car to announce - the ACF F89-J 89' Flat Car. Based on a Trailer Train prototype, it was produced between 1966 and 1968 and many remain in service. Walther's is pricing it at $34.95 MSRP.

Click graphic below to go to the BLMA website:

While I was at a local swap meet earlier this month I ran into a guy who was selling bundles of a years worth of MR for $2 a bundle. Not bad for 12 issues.

I grabbed the one from 1992, since that was a date I know I wasn't in model railroading and thus would not yet own any of those issues.