The HO Fiddletown & Copperopolis station

I'm starting to scratchbuild the Fiddletown & Copperopolis station. I think this will work using two sizes of 6/6 Tichy windows. The trick with this structure is getting the roof pitch correct. I laid out a footprint (the white rectangle in the lower portion of the photo) and placed windows and an HO figure on it to see how it'll look, proportion-wise. I'll post a few photos as I work out the kinks and start to build this station.

New HOn30 MiniTrains

This is the new HOn30 train set from MiniTrains. I have two sets, this one which is all green and a second set with a black engine and brown cars.

Right out of the box this little green engine ran for 24 hours on my test layout. It never wavered. I though it might overheat but it didn't. I did lubricate it before I ran it. The engine has a can motor in the cab powering a gear train to the wheels. There's a flywheel in the boiler. These are DC only but I read where a fellow in England has installed a Z2 DCC decoder in the cab beside the motor.

Both sets are lettered for the fictional Fiddletown & Copperopolis narrow gauge railroad made famous by the Carl Fallberg cartoons which appeared in Railroad magazine.

These trains and more are available directly from the MiniTrains website.

This little HOn30 boxcar is also made by MiniTrains. It resembles many of the little cars seen around Europe and the UK. 

When I received this car it was stark white. I wanted to weather it a little while still retaining the look of a fairly new car. It just so happened that a friend received a copy of FineScale Modeler for Christmas. Tucked inside the plastic bag along with the magazine was a 2-page modelers tip sheet called "Using a Sludge Wash." The article was written by Paul Boyer and was aimed at military modelers. My friend sent me the tip sheet. I spent an hour fooling around with the sludge wash.

The wash consists of 5 parts water, 2 parts Polly Scale paint (I used Roof Brown) and 3 parts liquid dishwashing soap like Joy. These are gently mixed together and applied to a model. Paul warns in order for the sludge to work correctly the surface has to be glossy. What you do is brush it on, let it dry, and then remove as much as you want using a Q-Tip (lots of Q-Tips.)

The sludge seems to work best on new plastic or metal. I also tried it on wood that I painted, sprayed with acrylic gloss, weathered with the sludge, Removed the excess sludge, and then sealed the surface with a matte spray. 

The technique is worth a try to see what works best for you and all my experiments took less than 60 minutes!

Murry's Meats

This started as a little lasercut waterfront shack. I added the false front and a few details from my scrapbox. I hate the sign and will replace it when the structure is placed on the layout. BTW, old Murry on the porch is a Lytlet & Lytler metal figure that's over 40 years old!

My plan is to make it part of the western town on an HOn30 display I'm building.

More odds and ends...

Here's George Sellios' Franklin and South Manchester RR. I shot this photo while I was there many years ago shooting a story for Model Railroader magazine. At the time I lived close to George and visited the railroad almost monthly. George has made a lot of changes since my last visit.

I've posted a lot of photos of the Nantucket On30 railroad display. We built the display in 2008 and since then over one hundred thousand people have viewed it. 

The original Bachmann Forney lasted two years of everyday use. I removed the engine and replaced it with another Forney. It lasted two years. I replaced the second engine with the original engine which I had cleaned and refurbished. This week I retired the original engine and replaced it with the second engine. The next replacement will be a Bachmann American to which I added a SoundTraxx light steam decoder. It'll be interesting to see how long this light engine lasts in constant service.

For my On30 sugar cane railroad I built two Mt. Blue open observation cars. I had Atlantic Scale Models make the Rafael Freyre decals. This kit is fun and easy to build.

Planning Models

I've written a lot about building and using planning models. A planning model is a small model of a model railroad. 

The book I go to for many small structures is A.G. Smith's An Early American Seaport. The book is out of print but still can be found through used book dealers and at train shows. There are many other books like this one featuring other architecture and building styles.

I scan the pages, reduce them to the size I need, print them out, glue to a cardboard backing, and build them.

Here's the 1/2" scale planning model I built for the Sea Port display. The little structures are place holders showing the size and scale of a building in the scene. These can be moved around or removed to help determine how the final display will look. 

This is a valuable tool to use when trying to project your ideas to someone who "doesn't get it'". It's also a great "what if" tool.

Here's a more elaborate planning model of an 8' by 25' Lionel layout. The project followed the model closely.

The Sea Port Car Ferry

This is the car ferry ramp on the Sea Port Model Works display. The display was built to serve as a background for the Sea Port line of HO boat kits and built-ups. 

The ramp was scratchbuilt to fit into the front of the Sea Port car carrier. I raided the scrapbox for this one.

Here's the car ferry at the loading ramp.

On30 Maine-style Engines

Here are two Bachmann On30 engines Bob Hayden modified and painted to represent the Maine two foot motive power. These are on Bob's Elk River/Thatcher's Inlet On30 layout.

The turntable is scratchbuilt using styrene - based upon a Maine prototype.