Quote from: Fred Klein on June 01, 2025, 04:09:51 PMP51, with the quality of modeling I've seen in your articles, all I can say is that I hope your hands stay steady and your eyesight clear because I've been inspired by your work and look forward to lots more inspiration.

Thanks very much, Fred.

Quote from: Fred Klein on June 02, 2025, 01:31:01 PMI'm really not too much into scenery but since I'm modeling a portion of the FEC Kissimmee Valley Extension which happened to run just a couple of miles from where I live (long before my time - the right-of-way was abandoned in 1947) and this is part of Florida's prairie, I don't have to worry about mountains and all that.

That sounds really interesting, as I have not even heard of many people modeling any lines in Florida.
I grew up along the old Seaboard mainline through North Florida (a very uninspiring place to grow up as a train buff) and I have never heard of anyone modelling that. Piney scrub flats would be really tough to model for scenery anyway, I'd bet.

Quote from: Fred Klein on May 30, 2025, 01:11:30 AMI also have used the bamboo skewers in the past and keep a couple of them on the layout. They work OK but tend to be somewhat "fiddly", at least for my shaky hands.

Fair enough. I'm sure I'll be there myself someday.

Yep, it rocked and was worth the wait. I just need to think of something to write about for the 2026 one. I'm getting Annual withdrawls!

Bamboo skewers have never failed, with Bachmann, Kadee or even Accurcraft couplers.

Quote from: ScottyB on March 04, 2025, 07:58:47 PMI've got em all. Might as well keep the streak going!

Yeah, once I got into On30, I went back and got the old ones, too. I've been lucky a few years with author's copies as these things are NOT cheap!
I also have a few of the HOn3 ones as well, the ones with ET&WNC articles.
Still, those annuals aren't cheap, but I contend they're worth every penny.

If you have model train shows nearby, I'd go there first and then eBay next. I usually see at least one of the Bachmann coaches at each model train show I go to.

I will always contend that an Army S118 2-8-2 would be a home run for Bachmann. Many were built in WW2 and used all over the world. Several are still running.
I'd also love to see (Lee Riley's favorite) ten-wheeler get put back in production...

It's either Peco or Micro Engineering as it is right now.
  *Peco is very sturdy but generally considered toylike
  *Micro Engineering looks great but it's amazingly fragile when you install it
I'd love a third option between the two (even though it's far too late for me as my track has bene in place for 10 years and it's not going anywhere).

A few decently noted modelers have passed recently.
Let's face facts; this is still an 'old man's hobby'.
I was born in 1969 and when I go to model train events, I'm usually the youngest there by many years.

Here's the only other ten year apart shot on the layout, of the first run of the mainline. The turntables weren't in at that time.
This is the same locomotive and cars.

Quote from: Fred Klein on August 15, 2024, 12:21:58 AMLee, your layout ranks among my top favorite layouts, right along-side with David Popp's Olympia, Dave Meek's Thunder Mesa and Garry Beatty's Puerto Borracho. I always enjoy seeing pictures of your layout and it continues to inspire me even after 10 years. Looking forward to seeing more articles.

Thank you very much, Fred. That means a great deal to me.

Maybe I'm risking a jinx, but oh well...
On August 12, 2014, I ran the very first movement of a locomotive on my layout, using ET&WNC # 12 on a small section of the layout with a spur in place. My friend Robert Scott and I started laying track from one end to the other and had maybe gotten 4 feet of mainline in at this point, on plywood bench work. I didn't have a lot of confidence in my modeling ability at the time, having been out of the hobby for many years. I didn't think much would come from this other than a way to have fun running my own trains instead of waiting for op session on other layouts.
Within two years of this photo, scenery was in place and I've been improving stuff ever since.

Ten years later exactly, here's the same locomotive. This area is more of staging area with scenery. But had someone told me the layout would be in almost two dozen magazine articles, three commercial videos (including a Blu-Ray) and many dozens of visitors over the years, I'd have told that person they were nuts!

It's been an amazing journey to get to where it is today. I am continually surprised at how well my work has been received over the years.

I made my own number plates as one of the few things Bachmann never got right about their On30 locos were the builder and number plates. The builder plates were black lettering on a bronze background, the opposite of how they should be. I made my own and printed them onto decal paper.
Did the same for number plates, and printed them onto cardstock or photo paper.

I finally got mine this afternoon. It was well worth the wait!

Just a few that come to mind:

• EBT 2-8-2 (with blind center drivers for the tighter curve types)
• Baldwin S118-class 2-8-2. That Army took those things all over the world and a few still run here and there
• Re-release of the Baldwin ten-wheelers, to include White Pass & Yukon 10 and 14 (formerly ET&WNC locomotives, the very same prototype Bachmann has already made)
• Release of current On30 cars for the ET&WNC road name applied to match the same 10-wheelers. They tank car is a darned good representation of their tank cars 600 and 604 as they are, just with different lettering