I have used thin Masonite in the past. Being a frustrated artist I put the Masonite rough side out. Paint adheres better to the rough side - at least that's my opinion  Then I painted it with cheap blue house paint mixed with white - how blue is a personal matter. Any cheap paint will do.

Once that is  dried I'd sketch in hills, mountains and the like with charcoal. For painting I used artist's acrylics. The advantage of using the housepaint first is that it is way cheaper than tubes of acrylics and it gives a nice clean light palette.

The beauty is that if you mess up or improve your painting skills, all you have to do is repaint.

Do what I frequently do - look at the clouds, note the colors. I've have seen clouds that have a tannish color and shades of purple are often prevalent.

Thinking about matte medium, I believe there may be different kinds and what we used to use was the acrylic variety which didn't get brittle. We used to dilute it with water and apply it with a dropper. The Elmer's white glue, even diluted, would make the ballast brittle.

About the price - thinking back I used to get a teacher's discount at a local art store so that is why I remember the matte medium as being cheaper than white glue.

I'm sure there are other treatments to keep ballast in place.

Getting back to John Allen, you must remember that he was working in the Lionel era where all the track plans had straight sections and curves  and very toy like operating accessories. He showed that model railroading could be a lot more realistic.

Okay, so he used dinosaurs as a joke. What made the layout great was that there was switching as opposed to running long trains. I think he was a member of the Baker coupler fraternity and they weren't the best for switching so switching must have been a chore.

Another "great" model railroad was the O gauge layout of Frank Ellison. He emphasized running with time tables. He also had whimsical names for places. For example, there was an over the counter medication called Carter's little liver pills. On his layout he had Carter's little river mills.

At an NMRA convention I saw a film of John Allen's third layout in operation. The scenery was spectacular. One of Allen's innovations was the use of mirrors to make an area look larger.

Give Allen's memory  a break - he was a pioneer. His layout was great in that it influenced people in adding scenery and operation to their home layouts. And the Varney ads were terrific!

I found diluted white glue to be too brittle. I used to use diluted artist 's matte medium. It worked great and was relatively cheap.

The ballast in the photos is really nicely done. 

I don't know which is better - the models or the photography. Kudos for great work. I grew up looking at cars from Canada. How about a  CP box car - the one with the "CP spans the world" slogan in script writing and, if I remember, there was the outline of a steamship.


Speaking of the CP, Canada once hosted the renowned British steamer the Flying Scotsman. I remember seeing picture of it with a big old bell mounted on the front platform. This coming month the Scotsman will reappear as the preservation group has the loco ready to go. It is the first locomotive to go 100 in Britain and to tour three continents. I'm sure that Bachmann UK is firing up their OO models (if they already haven't!) I read where it will be restored to it's former LNER paint scheme. A great locomotive saved - it only took beacoup Euros!

Wayne - lots of useful information. However let me caution you about using MEK. A good friend is a research chemist. I asked him once to get me a little bottle of MEK. He made a face and hemmed and hawed. He told me that it was nasty stuff and made me promise to make sure I used it in a well ventilated area as the fumes are harmful. He even suggested I wear a protective mask over my nose and mouth. This was also the case for xylene which was the Floquil solvent.

I still have my little bottle of MEK - well sealed. I doubt if I'll ever use it again.

I Googled Gainsville Midland Railroad and came up a history sight dedicated to the railroad. There is a link to the same movie featured in the Hank Snow song but there is extra footage including a SAL Baldwin switcher in the old black and red livery.

Of interest to folks with a Bachmann Russian decapod - GM engine #208 is a Russian decapod and is on display in downtown Gainsville.

In the video I refer to, the train is running along then all of a sudden there is black smoke. I know from fan trips I have taken is that most of the time smoke isn't that black. The fireman was throwing sand into the firebox to make the smoke for the camera. What would the EPA say!

Happy New Year to everybody - I'll visit this site again next year.

Well, since I last looked at Yardbird, they are slowly going out of business. My Bad. They have an Ebay store where they are selling off all the parts.

There is a website called Yardbird trains: www.yardbirdtrains.com. They have a lot of parts and out of stock items. I bet they have rivets. I got rivets in a parts grab bag that some guy had on Ebay. I paid about $15 for the collection but there were many good parts. I give them away - I can't be bothered shipping a dozen 2-56 screws.

This website is interesting all by itself. Browsing it is always interesting.

Hey wounded bear: Hank Snow did a song called Canadian Pacific. He sings about fishing in New Foundland and Nova Scotia and wanting to return home to the west. So he takes the CP.

That was a "real" bad typo on my part.

Just think - when the Virginian merged with Norfolk and Southern, that was a big deal.

Bloomberg news reports that Norfolk Southern is going to be purchased by Canadian Pacific. NS board turned down the first money offer. That will make one big realroad.

Roundhouse steamers were good kits. A friend re-motored his 2-8-0 and got a really nice running engine. I know from other people that the switcher, an SP prototype, performed well.

I found a solution for those broken steps on zamac frames. Use plastistruct parts and make a step - if you have to, take off the remaining step and do a pair of steps.. Epoxy or ACC the step in place and you won't know the difference. The plastic may be a little thicker but then the whole die cast engine is bulky!

I bought a Varney Old Lady after Varney was sold to Life-like. What a sorry kit that was. Life-like used some cheap motor and the parts barely fit. I understand that Lew English of Bowser wound up with the dies. The zamac engine era has passed but the kit engines were a significant part of the hobby for many years.

My southern relatives all watch Nascar - it is hardly noticeable as a sport up here. Baseball has really gotten slow that's why so many schools are into, dare I say it, soccer.

Thanks to the Bachmann people for letting us stray off topic. If Bachmann has been making engines when I was really active in HO I probably would have one of everything they produced (except Thomas).

I agree about Bachmann - especially this board which often goes far astray from Bachmann products. I wish there had been something like this when I started in HO.

I went to college in the Bronx near Van Cortland Park and there was a hobby shop that sold all sorts  of things - like kites. They had a back room with HO trains. Sitting in a case was a Penn Line Mikado. The owner told me that it was the last of its kind and he wanted to get rid of it. I was a fairly regular customer, buying Laconia, Main Line and Red Ball kits. So the guy told me I could have the kit for $20 - quite a sum for someone who had just finished college and no job. Anyway the day I returned my cap and gown to the college I went and bought the mike. I read the instructions on the bus on the way home.

To make a long story short that kit got me interested in HO loco kits and I think that after almost 50 years in the hobby I built about 30 kit engines.

I love to read the descriptions of these old kits on Ebay. Most people have no idea of what they are talking about.

Well, off I go to the local beauty shop to have them paint on a happy face because, as usual, the NY Mets are the underdogs and it's hard to smile!

Roger - the term box car red is like saying "a big dog." Once I saw a Southern boxcar that was a pinkish color due to the weather and I remember seeing CN cars that were more brown than red.

My concern with spray cans is the paint attacking the plastic. I can recall old old Floquil xylene based paints that would destroy plastic.