Okay, by now most of us know what a chainsaw layout is. I can't quite say that I've ever had one - and with the current size of mine, it isn't likely I'll be tearing it apart anytime soon.

But... my layout has a sublayout of sorts. As an excuse to buy Z scale equipment without totally changing scales (according to my very perceptive wife), I decided to put in a Railroad Park type railroad on my layout. It's definitely not 7.5" gauge, more like 15", but it's as small as I can get without having to rerail cars with a set of tweezers.

When you have a camera that doesn't actually have a manual focus, taking photos of couplers is diffcult - there are just so many other surfaces for the camera to focus on down there...

I got my couplers in the mail today (wow, that was quick!) and quickly installed the first pair on an Atlas Corn Syrup tank car:

I've got an Atlas Alco C-425 that I installed a Loksound 3.5 (with roughly the right sound files) in. The speaker I used was a double mini-speaker setup that fit inside the hood of the loco (unlike the large circular speaker that came with it).

This is what it sounded like then:

Okay, I've uploaded all three days worth of my Hartford photos.

Top level National Convention Album

    Shots from one of the two clinics I attended (how to turn a retractable pen into a turnout controller)

    Layout Design SIG Layout Tour on Wednesday

Okay, today was pretty much National Train Show prep. I forgot and left my camera in the room when I went over to the convention center, and while I saw some pretty darn nice things in the contest room, including Tim Warris' Bronx Terminal, I didn't get photos of any of them.

One thing I can say about the Train Show - a lot of the vendors and whatnot are going to be prepping pretty late into the night. There were a lot of still empty or being worked on displays when I left around 5pm.

  Yep , I'm in Hartford too - only for a couple of days though, I leave again on Friday.

  I only got to Hartford at 5pm Tuesday evening - late enough that registration was closed and I was counting on my MRH polo shirt to reassure people I was supposed to be there when I went to a couple of clincs that evening.

This week has been largely spent recovering from last weekend's major project.... which had nothing to do with model railroading.

So..  the stuff that did.... first there is one (of a pair, need to build #2) of Walther's Wet/Dry grain silos:

This is a very large model - fully 12" high.

Okay, after three days of working out how the track was going to bend and cutting, laying and gluing (and sanding) cork roadbed, I got the track laid tonight. Since I'd been fussing with it all week, it went quickly with only a couple of last minute adjustments.

The view from the north end - before I'd laid (but it's not glued) the boxcar track:

  Tweaking has two popular definitions - the first relates to methamphetamine use, which I have nothing to do with.

  The second refers to making minor modifications and improvements to something, in search of a theoretical optimum of performance or design. I'm dealing with the second definition here.

Back in July at the National Train Show I had the privilege of interviewing some people from Dapol, a British model railroad manufacturer. That interview can be found here. 

Last Saturday I took possession of my own copy of the Dapol Track Cleaning Car, marketed in the US by Atlas Model Railroad Co.