An Operating Session

No everyone. My health is fine. Last night I was invited to an operating session at Don Leger's home. His railway fills a good chunk of his basement. It seems to me to be a point to point layout. It is operated with DCC. He handed Mike Hamer a clipboard and Mike and I took a train and did some pick ups and spots and then the other operators had a go at some trains. Later on I teamed up with Dave and we took our train from a yard and started our way around the layout, picking up and dropping off cars as our instructions stated on our clipboard. We got to the other side of the railroad and went to drop a box car and found out that we had forgotten it back at the yard. Ian took control of an engine and dug it out, coupled a caboose to the rear end and made his way to where we were, and dropped it off for us to spot at the appropriate indusrty. That was so funny and sooo much fun. A big thanks goes out to Mike Hamer for the invite and to our host Don Leger for a very fun evening of running trains. I can't wait to start running trains in my basement. Stay tuned for the journey####################################

Railfair 2009 Ottawa

Well this previous weekend, I attended the Model Railroad show called Railfair, at a local college. There were some great model railroads on display this year. Our local club ( HOTRAK ) had their railroad setup. It was really well displayed. I had walked by a vendor and noticed that they had Digitrax throttles for sale. I recently purchased a Digitrax system, and had done some research on the new throttles. I wasn't sure about purchasing a new throttle until, I had chatted with a Hotrak member. He explained alot of the capabilities of the throttle and I was sold. So I returned to the vendor and purchased a new throttle for my system.

I also met a gentleman face to face that I have been chatting with on the Railroad Line Forums, for around four years now. His name is Mike Hamer. Super nice guy and a really good modeller. He had some kits on display and I thought that he had done a really nice job of building these kits. He had mentioned a get together next weekend to learn about building kits made of plaster. So I will be attending this get together next weekend to see what it's all about.

I have basically been a lone wolf in this hobby for many years. It feels really good to be meeting new people and chatting with people with the same interests as me.

As well, I have taken all of my benchwork down and am getting ready to re-vamp my railroad. My initial idea was to build my railroad at a farily high level so I could watch trains roll by, at just under eye level. Well, doing work on a railroad that is fairly high, is quite uncomfortable. So I will be lowering it and I am thinking about going with 2 levels to get more trackage. We'll see. I have to replace a faulty battery in my camera, so no pics at this time, but stay tuned.

Thanks for taking the time to join me on my journey, with my railroad. Take care and drop in again and hopefully I'll have some new stuff going on...........

Brad

Happy Anniversary....

WOW!!! it has been a long time since I have posted here. Well today I celebrate 20 years of marriage to my best friend and beautiful wife Brigitte. When I look back at all of the things that I have done in life, I gotta tell ya, marrying Brigitte is by far the best thing I have ever done. We have alot of fun together. We travel to some pretty cool places. Man, I just can't get enough of her.

Now on to trains. Well, I haven't touched them in so long. However I am getting ready to change some things in my train room, so stay tuned for pics and descriptions. Some of the new kits have been advertised for the fall. SouthRiver ModelWorks looks pretty good as well as Scotty Mason's newest kit. I am patiently waiting for Fine Scale Miniatures and then I'll have to see what I will get for Christmas this year. It is going to be a very busy winter. My ( I would like to get done list ) is

Lower my benchwork
Re-vamp track plan
Buy and install Digitrax operating system
Do some scenery
Weather some rolling stock
Build more highly detailed kits.

I figure alot of this list is do-able. No T.V. this winter. I'll come home from work, hop on the treadmill for 40 minutes and then do some serious work on the railroad. On paper this looks really good, and hopefully I can accomplish these realistic goals. Well, take care and thanks for checking this Blog out.....................................................

Boy's Night Out...

The box has a message on it: Surprise! Anna-Marie said you will enjoy this one. Love ya! Brig. Xmas 2008. Well, Anna -Marie was right. This was a great build. My wife bought me this kit for Christmas, at CSS 08, last fall. It took about 40 hours to build. Note to self ( airbrush the signs, rather than hand painting). Do not ask me why I would make this comment. I have about 5 more hours to go on this kit with weathering, some final details and a base of some sort. Enjoy, and I hope the boy's stay out of trouble.............

Stress....

It is amazing how a bus strike can stress you out. Driving to and from work every day. The possibility of not finding parking down town, because 50,000 other people have to drive to work and find parking as well. I leave very early and take other peopl into work as well. When I get home, however, I work on my railroad kits to De-stress. Thank god for a great hobby. My latest kit is a pile driver barge. This would have been used to drive piles into the water to make docks and piers in harbours. It is a Fine Scale Miniatures kit. This was a very enjoyable kit to build. It took approximately 40 hours to build. I think the weathering turned out very nice.