I am looking for a few people in the North East Indiana to exchange layout visits with and maybe some op sessions. I am getting close to being able to run a small op session on my layout and am hoping to get a few ideas on what might work. I have read all the methods in the mag's but have never actually done one. I am a euro railroader but I don't see that this would make any difference, an industry is an industry and a station is still a station only the trains and buildings look a little different. My RR is HO steam based Era I-III and DCC using Easy DCC.

Well, after several weeks of waiting, we FINALLY have a table on which we can place the layout.  Now that we have the benchwork pretty much in place (well, maybe a few minor tweaks are needed), it's time to get crackin' with the pike and bring it to life.  But how?  Well, the train party we had with my cousins went well and we got a lot of good ideas out of it, but now we have to figure out what can go on, and where....  Decisions, decisions!!  We have a few kits, we ordered a star

After I finished the Hustler drive I came a cross a British web site that used friction drives for very small engines. I figured I'd give it a try and these are the results. After I had finished the drive and proved to myself that it would work I was unsure if I wanted to add a super structure to it. But after running a cross several prototype pictures of such small engines I decided to build a superstructure on the frame. Here are the results.

The prototype:

 This contest will be ending March 31st. I have several designs and have narrowed it down to Two. So if you

are working on a design please get it submitted by the end of the month. $100.00 prize to the winner.

Posting this in case anyone would like to enter. I have tried to design my layout but I'm not too good at it. So I have a contest going on the XTrkCad Yahoo users group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/

Wow!  Just found this website.  Maybe I can dump MRC now.

It is with sadness that I announce the beginning of the end of the Richlawn Railroad.  We have decided to move back to Florida to be near our family and have started the process of getting quotes from movers and listing with a realtor.

All construction on the railroad has been halted and I'm now thinking about what to do with all of my railroad stuff.  If I resume the hobby in Florida (in an apartment) I will definitely change from HO to N scale.

Thank you all for your support, comments, input & encouragement.

Rick

Enjoy switching operations in and around Vanadium Mine

I have been working on my module pretty regularly and I have finally got the wiring completed so the module now has power!!

I would shoot a video of a train going across, but the module is a little short and pretty high up. Instead I grab a couple of shots of one of my cars with interior lighting...

More photos on my website:

Here is a Panoramic view of the train room.This will be an On30 layout. About 16' x 17' and 9' walls.I have two recessed areas. Also have two doorways. The tall one is the entrance. The other doorway is space under the stairs. I think this will be the computer/Dispatcher area. The short wall to the left of the entrance door will have a few tunnels through it leading to a helix in an adjoining room. I plan to have three levels on this layout.I have all of the benchwork stored in another room. Benchwork came from a guy that was getting out of the hobby.

Well tonight I started yet another build for the JL&T.  Although this was all done in the relative comfort of the house and not the layout shed.

A little while ago I purchased several Walthers Cornerstone - Modular Kits (they were on special) well an entire box load actually.