NMRA Civil Certificate

I have been working on my NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) Civil Engineering certificate. As previously posted, I am hand laying track on a small shelf section, and below is the progress I have made since the last post.
This is the left half of the shelf, showing the gauge separation turnout on the top. This is where the dual gauge track, 30" and standard 48-1/2" gauge track separate. The gauge separation turnout is complete, and works well, see video below. (I hope the video works, but it is my first attempt at uploading a video) Being HO scale, the whole shelf display is about 9" by 30".

This it the right side of the module, and has a 30" gauge turnout and a crossing between the standard and 30" gauge railroads. I have the easy part done on this side, with all the small pieces still to go.

For comparison, we have a standard gauge HO scale freight car truck and a 30" gauge HO scale freight car truck.

Here is a video of the standard gauge side of the gauge separation turnout, with a truck running through it, and below is a video of the 30" gauge side of the turnout.

Until next time, which should be only a few days, since I have lots to post.

Three posts in November, if you include slicing my finger

This is an equipment issue, a bulldozer and machine shop equipment. The dozer is Woodland Scenics white metal kit (pewter with some lead in it). I really like the white metal kits, and I am working on a trailer to haul this. Should have it ready to show in the next entry.

Next we have some machine shop equipment. Speaking of machine shop equipment, I sold my 9x42 South Bend metal lathe last week. I had it for 35 years, and almost never used it.

I picked up this HO scale machine shop equipment with some other stuff on ebay. This was just a bonus. Painted them equipment gray, and did a little highlighting. Now I have to build a building to go around the machines

Next time I will an HON30 flat car or two, and Kansas City, Fort Smith and Gulf caboose.

Open Loads for HO flat cars and trucks

I really like open loads. They really add interest and texture to the scene. Here are several pictures of open loads I have crated or palletized for open loads. The loads themselves are just pieces of junk I had laying around.

Gotta put some straps on this one.

Thanks for looking. Next time a bulldozer and some machine shop equipment.

Hobby Knife Safety

A picture is worth a thousand words, and I ain't much for writing anyhow.

Laying track, by hand.

It has been a year since I started this blog, and I must say it has been fun.

I started working on by Civil and my Electrical certificates to become an NMRA Master Model Railroader. Many thanks to Brad Morneau for tutoring a group to keep us on task. I spiked my first rail a few days ago, and I must say that Brad was right when he said, "people who hand lay all their track need therapy". After I get this little diorama done, I hope to do as little hand laying of track as possible from that time forward. Above is a track plan I drew in Google Sketch Up. The pink rails are the rails that I have spiked down to this point. MANY hours of spiking and aligning. When finished this will be a dual gauge interchange diorama, with four hand-layed track elements (you have to hand lay three elements for the Civil Engineering certificate). Starting in the upper left, the first element is a gauge separation turnout. A 30" narrow gauge track comes in from the upper left and goes completely across the diorama. The standard gauge line comes in at the lower left and does the same, but there standard gauge turnout that allows the standard gauge freight cars to switch up to some dual gauge track in the center top part of the plan. Just enough room for one standard gauge car. So really, on the left side, I have a standard gauge turnout, a gauge separation turnout and a crossover, all in one small area. In the upper right is a 30" right hand turnout that angles off to the upper right and also allow narrow gauge trains to cross the standard gauge siding in the center bottom of the plan. The crossing will take 24 individual pieces of track. It took me two hours to lay the four I have done so far. A lot of time aligning and gauging, then checking as I spiked. Somehow I feel like this is keeping me from modeling, cause it is too much like work. I do need to trim some ties, as I got them a little long is some areas. I also need to finish staining the ties. Besides the stained ties, the gray ones, I used three different spices of wood: Basswood, Aromatic Cedar and Western Cedar. The cedar ties I cut myself, and they are not recommended, as they are hard to spike. I pre-drilled every one of the cedar ties that I spiked to keep them from splitting. Note that I used mostly Basswood ties for that reason. Considering that I am modeling Southern Missouri and Northwest Arkansas, both of these would be native species. Basswood is certainly easier to work with. I need to go buy some more rail, but I am glad I am out, so I can get back to modeling ;).

Back to model railroading...

October already, where did September go?

Lots of work time in August and September, so not a lot of modeling got done. I have LOTS of projects going on, including a couple dioramas, and another one I am starting this week. Why finish anything, just start more projects. Just started a static baby articulated 2-4-4-0T. My first attempt at anything steam engine related.



This is a Greg's Garage solid resin casting of a 48-53 Chevrolet with a bed I scratch built out of styrene. The palletized earth mover tire is from the junk box. The pallet should have been set on the bed 90 degrees from the way pictured, as it would be hard to load and unload sitting that direction, but I have unloaded worse messes.


This is a Keystone cast metal kit. It is an HOn3 model, two to a kit, and I have a couple more to assemble. Most logging railroads were marginally maintained, so I am planning on weathering all the logging and mining equipment heavily. In this case, the car numbers are hand painted.

Here we have an Ertl model of a 1949 Peterbilt. I bought it as shown, with a nice weathering job

The gazebo is a Woodland Scenics white metal kit. It was damaged, so I had to pin a couple of the spindles. Oh no, a fourth diorama, I am going to build a park, gotta have some place to put this.

Next week I will have several open loads for flat cars, a caboose and two HOn30 flat cars, along with a tracked loader and a lowboy trailer. Happy model railroading

Greg’s Garage Vehicles

Recently, picked up a bunch of Greg’s Garage solid cast resin vehicles.  I believe they have been out of production for about 20 years, and, by today’s standards are crude.  And, the casting quality is not up to today’s standards.  Greg did make lots of different models, and MANY that have never been produced in HO scale.  The 87thscaleinfo.com web site catalogs 160 models that were available from Greg.  Many are probably not suitable for foreground display, but they are the only model available of a particular vehicle, so I think they are valuable to help set a scene and time frame.  Most of the models I received were already painted, and all the models pictured here.  I did a lot of touch up, but there is only so much that can be done with the solid castings. I also wanted to keep them reasonably original, as they are rather rare.  Here are a few of them. 

They are, left to right, top to bottom: 1931 Hupmobile, 42 Nash, 41-47 Dodge Pick-Up, 39 Lincoln, 37 Fleetwood, 37 Cord, 36 DeSoto, 33 Imperial (Blue), 33 Imperial (Tan/Brown), 34 Marmon 16 (Brown), 34 Marmon 15 (two-tone Gray), 35 Packard, 35 Plymouth.

Central Concrete HO Scale Trucks

#9, Fort Smith

Central Concrete #9 was built from a diecast model from an unknown manufacturer. I picked up the models Trainland in Springfield, MO, and they have no markings on the as to who the manufacturer was. Besides the painting and custom decals, I added the ladder and related equipment along with the details on the rear. I also added a wrap of styrene to the mixer cylinder to make it a little larger. The wheels and tires are from the junk box.

#11, Joplin

This model is a kitbash of a Stoney Mountain 1938 GMC cab to a Matchbox Lesney Foden mixer. The Matchbox model had no details on the back...nothing but an open cylinder. I used Mini-Lindy wheels and tires, added mirrors, tail lights and other details.

#12, Joplin

Another model from the unknown manufacturer that I used for #9. I believe the front tires and wheels are Magnuson, the back ones are from the scrap box.

It is HOT, so I am staying in to do Model Railroading

It has been really hot here for a couple weeks. Getting in as much modeling as possible, and finished up a few things.

Kelso Feed Stake Truck
Below if a Varney, I think, stake truck. The cab portion has Varney stamped on the bottom, but it looks like maybe the bed was added. The bed is poor enought quality, it probably is a Varney. I added a tail light, ourside rearview mirror, rear differential, and tail pipe, along with painting,

lettering and adding a load to the bed. The bed had previously had a load in it from the previous owner, so it needed something to cover up the scars. The signs on the side of the truck were photoshopped from a feed bag image I found, and the bags in the bed are decaled with products that would have been available at Kelso Feed in beautiful Pittsburg, KS. I also added seats, a windshield and steering wheel.

NV #5, 44 Ton

This is a Bachman GE 44 Ton switcher that I painted and decaled for my Nirvana Valley Railroad. I will be finishing up any projects for the NVRR and from now on, the vast majority of the standard gauge private road name items will be labeled for the Kansas City, Fort Smith and Gulf Railroad (KCFS&G). I have a couple more of these, and I may kitbash one to a 3' narrow gauge loco.

Farm Truck with Hay Load
This truck is a kitbash of a cab from an unknown manufacturer and a Maisto military truck. I think I used the cab from the Maisto truck on one of the Central Concrete trucks. The hay bales are made from glueing little piece of sisal twine to blocks of wood. One of the projects you think

is only going to take fifteen minutes, so, your are going to make a lifetime supply, so you don't have to do it ever again. Then you realize that you can only glue hay to half the sides at a time, as the bale has to lay on one dry side to let the other sides dry. And cutting all that twine takes a long time. Hate to think how much time I have involved in those hay bales, but I did make plenty, so I should not have to do that again. I added a tail pipe and the usual mirrors, licience plate and tail lights to the vehicle.

Holly Passenger Car

I built this a decade ago, okay more than that. I had it out for some reason, as I am working on another passenger car to which I want to also detail the interior. In particular, figureing out how much room I needed for the restroom. I have not built very many passenger cars, but I currently have four in the works along with a drover caboose. More next week, as it looks like I will have a couple evenings free this week to finish up some model railroad projects.