A small group, of which I am a member, are currently building an On30 modular layout with a Central American theme. At present I am working on "Asilo". This is a wayside station on a module which is, appropriately, 30 inches long.

Model Railroad Hobbyist Issue 2 is almost here!

Issue 2 releases for download to subscribers on April 11th. Non-subscribers will be able to download the magazine two weeks later on April 25th.

I planned to build a 3x9 layout that I had started a few years ago when space was tight at my old house.  I thought it would be a chainsaw layout now, so I was going to complete what I had started.  At each turn, though, I kept thinking that I wasn't going to get all I wanted to try into this plan, so I finally thought, "well, I have the room, I'll just add an extension."  The layout below was born...

Here are the latest pics of my Lionel Display layout under construction.

I am looking for anyone out there who may be interested in some railroad timetables, rulebooks and misc. paper items. I am trying to sell off part of my collection to raise some money for our (my son and I) new HO scale layout. If anyone is intersted, drop me a line to szabko@roadrunner.com and I will forward you a list of what I have available. I have about 1000 pieces available from many different railroads dating back to the 1890's.

(Destination web page has been deleted. Keeping this thread since the comments below about S scale are useful.)

I’ve spent a good portion of my evenings & weekends the past couple of weeks finalizing the installation of lighting on my layout as well as sorting out some really frustrating wiring issues (but more on the latter in another post).  I recently upgraded the lighting in my basement as even though I have two outside exposed walls my basement is….well, a basement!  The previous owner had some overhead lights installed that provided decent light for a playroom or workout area but better lighting was needed if I was going to use this space for my layo

Thanks to all of the great tips and comments, I'm a lot happier with the 'micro pike' now.  I went back and got a more natural paint color and recoated the top of the layout.  (Now it's a stylish two-tone.) One suggestion was to leave some of the darker brown show through.  That was a good call.  I really like the effect that creates.  I believe that after I apply ground cover this will create a real depth. 

The Main question is Where to start This RR & it is driving me crazy. I had quit a large amount of my basement Railroad bench work started then I removed all the work I had done when I had everything but the electrical inspection by the city on my joint venture RR building in the back of my main house thinking I would never get the smaller Railroad in my basement as well as the club RR I was trying to start anywhere near finished for under a few thousand dollars I don't happen to have so, I disassembled the basement RR.

My little beginner project is no longer 'plaster white'.  Now it's brown. Excuse me, 'Chocolate Kiss'.  It seems you can't buy 'brown' paint at the large, chain home improvement store that shall remain nameless.  The paint match computer can accurately and repeatedly duplicate 'Mocha Java Cream' and 'Roman Sandal Leather', but 'brown' is apparently far beyond it's capabilities. So I stared at the giant wall of color sample cards and picked what I thought looked like brown dirt.