Happy Monday. 

Just two House items today. I got the back steps built and printed and installed an electrical meter/mains hookup.

I also put together a 2 yard Waste Management Dumpster to put behind some of my businesses. I found specs for this online and then drew it in SketchUp. I printed it in two pieces; base and lid, and then glued them together with Med CA.

I have a Waste Management graphic that I will convert to a decal and apply after I paint it.

I have a laser cut kits to make wooden open steps from Rusty Stumps models. It consists of laser cut stringers and treads and a resin cast jig to hold the stringers in position during glueup. I needed to put a positive stop on the jig to keep the stringers aligned fore and aft. I tried gluing the stop onto the resin, but glue didn't stick to it. It probably is coated with mold-release. I then drilled and pinned the stop and that worked well.

As I usually do, I started using Aleen's Tacky Glue and followed it up with thin CA. The CA cures quickly in presence of the water-based PVA glue and then holds everything while the glue dries at its own pace.

I then notched the top and bottom steps to accept a piece of square stripwood and glued them in place. I topped it with a scale 1 X 3 and made a workable railing.

The electric meter is a print that I used before on my Appliance Store, but the foundation is a little taller so I went back to the original drawing and modified it. I also put a rib down the back of the conduits so they would be flat on the build plate eliminating overhangs and the need for supports. I printed it 8-up knowing that some would be scrapped. I actually only got two really good ones. I only needed one. Some of them had delamination in the thin parts. That's why I always print a lot.

After post-curing, cleaning it up, using Bondic to create the meter glass dome and then painting my "Galvanized Steel" mix, the piece was ready for installation.

I painted the steps neutral gray which is similar to the porch color. In this image it's just posing for the camera. I won't glue it in place until the House is set on its base. The utilities hookup is glued in. With a meter, the House can get its Certificate of Occupancy...

The steps are sitting a bit high and I'm going to shave some stock off the bottom of the stringer to lower it. The first step is taller than those that follow so there's some stock to remove.

With House building part behind me, I started, but did not complete, a major shop cleanup and some reorganization. I have a couple of workbench mod/build projects that I want to do to streamline some of the tasks I do. I want to move all the 3D printing stuff to a newly reconstituted table with a shelf above that will hold all the chemicals. I'll finish all of this over the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I'll be building the base for the House vignette.

I got some good news today. The editor of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine told me my Engine House article is in the to-be-published queue, and he agreed to accept an article on this project with a caveat. It must be a single part article of 2,500 words and only 20 images. I can do that, but it won't be easy for me. I am, if nothing, verbose, and it's a very complicate project. Wish me luck.

Okay;

       Listen, verbose or not, you will figure it out. I have faith in your abilities!

I appreciate your support. I'm writing the article now and I will conform to the editor's requests. It's not easy, but it will fit.

As I usually do, I only really clean up the shop between projects. I'm terrible that way. As a shop teacher I wasn't much better. I'd get engrossed with the kid's and the bell would ring. I would think it was the first bell. It was the second and they would all drop what they were doing and scoot out of the shop. It happened a lot. My lead teacher in the wood shop, would stop in my room ocassionally and just shake his head. It thought I was a total failure. I found out later, after I had left teaching and was working in industry that my students saw it completely differently. My shops were where the coolest stuff would happen. It's a shame I didn't know it when I was actually doing it.

I cleaned up all the benches and reorganized a bit. I'm going further with some bigger bench modifications which will happen after all the House work is done.

I have got a lot of modeling stuff!

After the cleaning I got to work in earnest making the base plate for the house. Before I had made the paper template. Today I transferred the design to some 1/8" Masonite. I made a seam past the House's foot print so I can work on the Garage portion on its own base. 

After cutting the pieces out with the saber saw, I was going to glue it to an equal thickness piece of foam core to build up to the correct thickness to give a proper curb. But before I did that I stopped, took a breadth and decided I better test fit the Masonite in the space on the layout before gluing on anything. And sure enough, it was just a tad too big. Maybe about 1/16".

Looking more closely you can see the very small area of overlap that I need to remove to be a perfect fit. Better too big than too small...

I trimmed the excess on my 4" bench belt sander. I tested it again took a bit more off and I know it's right. I put the pieces upside down on some kraft paper and sprayed it with 3M 90 Hi-strength adhesive. Unlike the more common 3M 77, this one doesn't let go over time. I wiped the pieces down with some IPA to remove any dirt and dust before gluing.

I bought the "erasable board" foam core. I glued it to the paper backside since I didn't trust the adhesion on the eraseable side. The glue holds like crazy and you don't let it dry first. You stick it together when wet.

I had gotten a bit of adhesive on the front side and removed it with GooGone. Tomorrow I'll trim the foam core to conform to the Masonite. I will drill the hole for the wiring and duplicate it on the layout. Then I will fully landscape the base off the layout. Splitting the base also makes it easier to handle the parts getting them onto the layout.

Sir? Sir?

 I only charge $10.00 dollars to mow lawns, even if they are an odd shape. Very Neat My Friend.

Thank you. I've written the article and did get it to 2,504 words and 19 images. I have another to add so it will be exactly 20 images. I hope the editor is impressed.

Today was an "out-of-the-box" kind of day. I spent a while cutting the foam core to conform to the Masonite. I located the power lead hole and drilled it and then tried the base on the layout. It fit well, but was too shallow. I added another layer of foam core to give me an adequate curb. 

I was still not happy with the house fit on the site or the viewpoint. While on my knees on the layout I looked over at the Idaho Hotel that sitting kind of isolated in a nice spot. I discounted that site because I didn't think it had the depth, but from my vantage point on the layout it looked promising. I went underneath, disconnected its light power leads and tried it out on the new base I made for the House. It sort of fit in two differnt directions.

One way:

Another way:

I took my House template over the site vacated by the Idaho Hotel and it fit nicely. Actually, it fit better than it would on Main street. The first view is from the rear.

And here's the new site from the main aisle.

It's a pretty neat location and gives uninterrupted view from the aisle.

I decided to put the House there! I cut another piece of Masonite and checked it out with the House's profile on it.

The set of transfer punches is serving as a gravity clamp on some road surface that delaminated and I'm regluing.

I then brought the house to its new location to see if I'm right.

The new site solves a lot of problems. It provides a terrific view of the front. It also is up against railroad tracks so it conforms to the title of Hopper's painting. And you can view it closeup and personal from the rear in the open middle of the railroad enabling folks to actually look in the windows and see some of the interior.

As seen in the above image, there will be some Sculptamold grading needed to blend the base into the landscape. I didn't even have to lose the trees that flanked the hotel. I'm very encouraged. Landscaping the new location will not take long.

But wait! There's more. I also tried the Idaho Hotel in the open lot at the front of the layout. It would face inwards, but It's not my favorite building being one of the few kits I built, and it looks pretty neat looking down Front Street. It looks appropriate next to Saulena's Cafe. I'll need to create some more sidewalk so the two buildings work together. BTW: That's a 56 Caddie Eldorado, which is one of my favorite cars of all time.

From the rear it has some interest with lots of windows.

There's some land behind and along side that will look good with some attention. Perhaps a Waste Management dumpster... Some parking on the side too. 

And the Gravely building will go back to where it was originally. I will cut out the new "old" base I did for the House so Gravely will drop into the space. It doesn't need the thickness since it's already on a base of the correct thickness. 

It's a win, win, win! And another reason why you should never, ever glue your buildings down. You never know what can happen to make you want to lift them off the layout.

Hmmmm;

 You did that just so I would only charge you $ 5.00 to mow yer lawn. Ain't gonna happen!. See! The story continues. You saw a lead to a more sensible location and solved a problem for both buildings. Great going! Love your work, by the way.

Builder: WOW!!! She turned out fantastic! I'd love to see some more photos of your layout, I wish I could visit! 

Hey;

 I just noticed. Is that a 59 Caddy parked out front of the Hotel?

Yup! A 59 Caddie Eldorado. I was partial to 1950s Eldorados, or so it would seem. If you really want to see what my railroad is all about, there are two routes you can take. The first is my 8-year continuously running saga about its construction with literally all the gory details. It's up to 91 pages so it's a heck of read, but it's all there. You can access it here.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/continuing-saga-of-the-pandampprr?page=1

Additionally, I've taken a number of YouTube vids about it over the years, from the first running a train until last year. It's interesting to see how it fills in over the years. It's under two names, Mylesandmore and myles marcovitch

https://www.youtube.com/user/mylesandmore

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=myles+marcovitch

Between all of this you will know more about my railroad than you've ever wanted.

Happy New Year.

Awesome thanks!!! Will check them out this weekend!

And Happy New Year to you sir!!!

Happy Monday!

Started to work the new site for the House. Instead of using a ton of Sculptamold to fill in the back slope, I cut some foam core to fill the bulk of the space. I used 3M adhesive transfer tape to quickly and securely hold the three layers of foam core together. They were stair-stepped underneath to snug up to the slope. Notice I scribed and painted the four-scale-feet wide pavement on the street-sdie of the base. I also drilled the hole for the lighting wires and a corresponding one through the layout below.

I wrapped the base plate with Press-N'seal to keep the Sculptamold plaster from getting all over the base, and making the base removable. I glued the foam sandwich to the layout using Liquid Nails construction adhesive.

While this was curing I started fitting the scale railroad tie retaining wall parts in place. Before the wall can be actually built, I will put a bed down of sculptamold so the ties will look like they're actually set in the dirt. I ran out of time for the plastering, but I did mix some raw sienna artists tube acrylic in the water I'm using for the plaster to pre-tint it. This way, if it gets chipped it doesn't show bright white plaster. I used railroad ties in the distillery building next door as well. It makes a realistic and reasonable retaining wall and let me extend the backyard a bit since as it was, the back steps wouldn't fit.

Some really good ideas on how to emplace the house on the layout- clever!!! 

And thanks again for the links! 

Glad you enjoyed them. Just how far did you get on the OGRR Forum thread?

I got the sloppy stuff done today. I created all the grades with Sculptamold and embedded the first course of the RR Tie retaining wall into wet plaster so it will provide a realistic base for the wall.

As you can see I got the Sculptamold to a pretty good dirt color. When dry it will be lighter, but it won't be white. It still needs a coat of paint to glue all the ground cover in place. I also splurged and bought some complete floral pieces of Scenic Express. I normally don't do this, but I want it to have a garden with some color. This is a real focal point for the railroad and needs some special treatment. Sculptamold is a mixture of plaster of paris and some fibrous material. It adds bulk and formability to the mix. My mix might have been a little wet, but I was able to sculpt it reasonably well. I made it level with the Masonite baseplate.

Here's another view of the plaster as it was laid in.

And a closer look at the base of the retaining wall.

I'm not a big fan of landscape work. It's a little too sloppy and imprecise for my sensibilities. It's funny since a young boy I would play in the dirt for hours and had some great earth moving machines to do the job. I kind of grew out of it.

When the plaster set up a bit so it wouldn't slump I pulled the baseplate. I didn't want it to be cemented in, since, as you'll see, I'm going to do more work on it.

This is from the inside-layout view.

And a view from the aisle.

After pulling the base I masked off the areas where the house will sit so I can use a thin layer of plaster so the house beds down a little. As I noted some time ago, the porch lattice and front steps are a little proud of the foundation. Having an 1/8" of plaster will let the house settle in and even out the mismatch. The house just sits inside the mask line.

I will taper the plaster up to the mask, featheing it down to the edge. The edge matches the STM so I don't want to create a step. The house will be glued to the baseplate, but the baseplate WILL NOT be glued into its socket.

I'll work on the baseplate tomorrow. STM takes a long time to fully cure. The plaster of paris sets in hours, but the fibers retain moisture for days. Before you paint it with latex paint to hold the ground cover, you need to have the STM fully dry. It takes patience. I don't think I'm going to use STM on the baseplate. I stay will basic plaster for a smoother finish.

Well actually I didn't get beyond the first page... I need a little time to work though the 91 pages!

Neat work on working her into the layout.

Keep trying... I regularly change the intro to reflect what's currently happening. I also change the title to reflect this. It was requested by one of my many followers to change the title so folks would know something new was on the thread. The House will be done soon and I'll be working on the Bradley. So another post will be forthcoming from me, but on the modeling topics.

Today I got the retaining wall in place today using Aleen's Tacky Glue. With the first courese firmly glued in the STM it was pretty easy. If I hadn't retained that first row, I would have had to pin it with brass rods like I did with the Distillery retaining wall. 

You can see some of the STM is fully dried (the lighter stuff) and some thick parts are darker and still wet. By tomorrow it should be dry enough to paint and put on ground cover. I will add some weathering powders to age the ties a bit. They look a little bit fresh. I didn't get the platform done becasue my wife and I were distracted by the sedition taking place at our capital. I don't know about you, but I found it terribly upsetting and made making models not my first priority.

The first layers of Sculptamold (STM) is dry and I decided that I'd just use it again to do a finish coat that would fill in the gaps and level the backyard. It's still a bit rough and I might put a skin coat on it to remove some of the irregularities.

I also used STM on the House base. I realized that the fancy masking i did was unnecessary. I wanted the plaster to be under the House's edges so the house would embed in it. I pulled off the tape except for the small part from the sidewald up to the front steps. I then slathered on a layer of STM making it thickest at the house foundation edges and feathering out to the edges do it would still conform the plaster on the layout base. It will be dry tomorrow. This too might need a skin coat of regular plaster before the grass goes in. Consider all this as "rough grading" before the top soil goes down.

The end is truly in sight.

Hmmm;

 How much longer do I have to wait to move in? I need to get my trains set up in the Study.

Be patient young Padewan. Soon... very soon.

First thing I did today was work to get the House baseplate to fit into the socket on the layout. It took about 20 minutes of cajoling and sanding with a Multi-tool to relieve the tight spots and get the plate to slip in. The arrow shows the area of most interference.

It finally slipped in.

And here's the reverse view.

With the plate finally fitting, I needed to improve the surface finish of the applied STM. I used DAP Spackle that goes on pink and turns white when dry. It worked as it should and filled most of the low spots so the grass will have a nicely graded topsoil on which to grow. Before I did this I had to figure out why the steps were sitting almost a scale foot above the base. It turns out that there was globs of plaster underneath the house and porch that was pushing the building upwards. I had to resort to chisels and putty knives to remove the errant plaster.

I applied spackle liberally to fill the House's base.

And then did the same for the layout portion of the base.

And again the reverse view.

As an aside, while this was all drying, I was working on some other small detail projects. Included in them are two Waste Management dumpsters that I scaled from their documentation on the web, and two parking self-ticketing kiosks that I also found on the web. Both of these I drew on SketchUp and 3D printed. The printer's running great! That said, my next print is most definitely going to bomb. In Yiddish it's called giving something a "Kin-o-hurah" (sounds Irish), meaning enticing bad things to happen. All of this is 1:48 scale.

The dumpsters are a two-part print and the kiosks as single part. I produced the decals from images also found on the web and scale in CorelDraw. It's a several step process to do all this, but it's fun.

I had to create separated decals to fit inside the depressed section housing the keypad. With a 3D printer, some graphics software and access to the Internet, the sky's the limit in what you can do in modeling in the 21st century.

If I had Known;

     When you took those Kiosk pictures I would've gotten out of my Nomad and given you a big smile-LOL;LOL; If I had known a camera was pointed my way! Looking Good My friend!

Aw C'mon;

 That is Franklin Mint? I didn't know they made them that small! Gotta tell you a funny. What would call a place where you pay for parking in a lot? There is a place not far from the Museum Building where they have to pay for parking. Many ask " Where do you pay for Parking?" And they are standing right next to the machine Clearly labeled KIOSK! LOL.LOl.

Well now you can pay for parking in my little town since the machine is installed.

And another view...

I also placed the first WM Dumpster behind the appliance store after I gave it a coat of DullCoat to seal the decal.

As precise and finicky building the House, putting on ground cover is the exact opposite. It's sloppy, crude, rushed and very inprecise. I really see it as a necesary evil and I'm not very good at it. But regardless, it's very forgiving and things in nature aren't that precise in the first place.

The rushed part is the way the process works. I did the base under the house first and then did the socket on the layout. When I bring the two together I will add some more cover at the seam so the House will look like it part of the terrain. I used some medium tan house latex paint as the base coat. While it's really wet I sprinkle the various colors and textures of the ground cover. I used fine turf for the groomed grass and coarse turf elsewhere. When I said "rushed" it's becasue the latex starts drying quickly and stops being sticky enough to hold the material. I then used "wet water" (water, a few drops of dish detergent and some IPA) with a pippette dropper and then follow up with Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement also applied with a pippette. The problem I had was not matter how smoothly I laid down the ground cover, nor as gently as I added the droplettes, I still pushed the "grass" outwards that left little blank craters. The more you mess with it the worse it gets. So you keep wetting and adding more stuff until all the gaps are sort-of filled.

I have a hairpin fence that's going on the house boundary and I have some garden goodies (shown further down the page). I started to add undergrowth and bushes, but quickly realized that I had to wait for all the previously applied stuff to fully dry so I could use the heavier viscosity W-S Scenic Glue without messing up the grass. I'll do that tomorrow.

Here's another view.

The above was shot when there was still a lot of wet glue around.

I then did the same thing to the socket. I ran the ground cover into the existing terrain and feathered it so it won't look like it's just plopped there. I also vacuumed off all the debris and redid the track ballasting that was very disturbed during all this work. I have some more ballast work on the top right corner.

The aisle view shows some bare plaster on the very front edge of the grass. I will have to retouch those areas, leaning far over the layout and working backwards. 

Like any construciton site with existing "old" trees, they can get disturbed and the one on the left is just about shot. I will have to cut it down and replace it. I bought some garden stuff from Scenic Express that will go in at the end. I bought roses, forsythia, and some violets. The roses are tall and I'm afraid that I might have to craft some trellises. We'll see how it goes.

  Hi;

          You could use Woodland Scenics Trellises or just take some Boxcar roof walks and cut them up and stand vertical in the line behind the garden!

All good thoughts. However, with SketchUp and a 3D printer, I took literally a few minutes, drew a trellis, and printed it. The print took all of 15 minutes. Took longer to clean it up than it did to print them. The design was very simple so drawing time was very quick.

Here are the printed parts during the cleaning process.

I simply stuck them into some floral foam and shot them with Krylon Gloss White and they were done.

I had trimmed some dried Oak Leaf Hydrangia blossoms a couple of years ago thinking I was going to turn them into trees. They had a pretty good shape and could either be deciduous or evergreen. I was discouraged since I thought I have to remove all the little un-opened blossoms before flocking them, so they just sat on a box on the floor. I was going to throw them out in my cleaning spree, but after looking at their shape again, didn't toss them. Then today I realized that those un-opened blossoms would serve as more surface area to glue the flocking. 

I had to clip the dried actual blossoms, but left all the un-opened ones. I then sprayed them with the 3M-99 and dipped the branch into a pile of medium and dark green coarse turf and the results were pretty decent. Of the pile of branches that I have, most had a pretty severe bend in the top branches, so I didn't use them. The bush has a bunch more dead blossoms and I'm going to collect them. They have a good branching structure that's better than the W-S plastic trees, AND THEIR FREE.

The other one is smaller so I put it near the other existing tree. Incendetally, I simply pulled the old tree out and inserted the new big tree in the same hole.

With yesterday's ground cover nice and dry and I added all the garden flowers. I laid down a glob of W-S Scenic Glue and placed the plants in nice places. Then I went around the two sides and placed W-S undergrowth in alternating colors around the foundation. 

It was time for the roses. I used a #53 drill and pin vise to drill two holes; one for the trellis and ther other for the roses. Another blob of glue and they were in. I needed my phone light to see the holes through the ground cover that wanted to fall back into the holes.

I placed the house back into the socket to take a status shot, but it's not fitting quite right and I'll have to remove it tomorrow and do a little more shaving. Some of the spackle found its way into the socket tightening up the fit a tiny bit.

When it's fully seated it's going to look really good.

I painted the laser-cut hairpin fencing while still in its fret. I airbrushed it with gloss black.

After clipping them out of the fret, I made a dilling jig to simplify the field work.

This is why I had the #53 drill in the pin vise. It the clearance hole for the fence posts. Here's the pile ready to install tomorrow. The distance from the steps to the left edge is exactly two fence sections. I don't know that the length is going towards the right.

I'll fit the fence tomorrow when the House is off the layout. I'll have to be careful putting it back in the socket, which is another reason why I need more slop in the socket. I don't want to force anything. Once it's finally in the socket, I clean up the joint gap, hook up the lighting power underneath and the HOUSE PROJECT WILL BE DONE.

Today, the House by the Railroad project is complete. My original project plan had completion on January 6. I'm exactly one week late. The new owners will be gracious and accept their house. The power was turned on today so they got their CofO.

Before the house could be turned over to the owners I had to finish up the fence installation, clean up the landscaping, fit the base into the socket and then landscape the joint. All was completed.

The trickiest part of fence installation was connecting it at the corners. Since this was laser-cut out of laser board it was effectively a two dimensional affair. This left the corners very insubstantial with effectively no gluing surface. I had to thicken the corners and create and end post since the sections had an end-post on one end, but none on the other. I used some thin strip stock which I doubled, used med CA to glue together and then re-shaped the mounting tab so it conformed to my #53 drilled holes. After assembling the fence I re-painted all this gloss black.

This was what the corner post looked like prior to touch up painting. The flowers had to protrude through the fencing, which took some careful manipulation with a tweezers to coax them through the fence bars.

After installing all the fencing which I had (as I noted yesterday, there was enough for the perimeter) I went back and touched up the landscaping at the edges in preparation for reinserting into its socket.

Here's a shot with all then fencing installed and re-painted. I did this work in the shop on my normal workbench.

I had to shave some spackle out of the socket area and sanded the house base to taper it a bit from the bottom layer upward so it fit more easily. It dropped in! Then I had to fill the gaps. I think I erred here. Some of the scenic cement got into the joint and it will effectively glue the house base into the socket making future removal difficult. I'll worry about that when I have to worry about that. Since the lights went on perfectly, and none of the furniture or people broke loose in all the manhandling, I won't have to pull it up for a long time. Probably when I'm gone and my wife or kids want to sell it all off.

So let's start with the only final rear view I made with the iPhone. I made most of the final pictures with my Canon using Zerene Stacker Depth-of-Field enhancement software. I added the steps which crosses over the socket gap. I also re-touched the RR tie retaining wall. The seam is effectively hidden on this view. I carefully added the scenic cement and sprinkled the ground cover, held with wet water and scenic cement to lock it all in.

Notice that the fence ends 3/4 the way back on the sides. I bought this fencing from River Leaf Models and I don't think Andre Garcia is currently running that business.

Now for the finished front shots.

I don't know about you, but it came out looking exactly as I foresaw it in my mind's eye. I wanted a garden in front, and there's a garden. I wanted an interior and you can see it from the front, and from the rear you can get really close. You can't see the dining room from the rear since you're looking at the kitchen, but you can see it from the front. It was singularly the most complex scratch-build project I've ever attempted. It all started being able to draw those Mansard windows. It couldn't have been donw without 3D capablility... a ton of 3D printing. The interior was a whim that was a load of fun. It's heavy and miraculously, I didn't break anything in all the moves I had to make to get it done.

I'm expecting that this will be an upcoming article in Railroad Model Craftsman magazine. No publication date has been given and it could be 2022.

Thank you all for following along. My next project will be the Bradley with BUSK.

Now;

      The finished home is gorgeous. Now what are the property taxes set at? After all, I need to be able to move my ever increasing horde of models and trains in there. I must say, following this build, although NOT in a model Rail Magazine is different, it has been a pleasure.

      I would love to live next door to you. You need to do a Vessel of Class( A Motoryacht ) of the period in that scale. Boy, could we have fun with that!, I now await the sound of the lonely steam engine whistle in the background! GREAT JOB my friend!!!

Thank you! I asked about where in FSM's forum would I post it and was told to do it in Dioramas. I think it was a good place to do it. There's really no difference between making a scale model vignette and building a reasonably scale model railroad.

Model railroading is such a vast hobby encompassing everything from creating a functioning railroad enterprise with timetables, freight bills, etc., all done in replicating a specific railroad in a specific period of time, to a toy train layout running around in circles with a little man popping milk cans out of a freight car. And everything in between.

My railroad is one of those weird hybrids combining scale buildings and scenery with 3-rail track and sort of running around in circles... big circles.

I chose 3-rail becasue it's just so much easier to wire and run. With a dedicated power rail track cleaning is much less of a big deal. There's that dedicated spring-loaded roller picking up the power.

With 2-rail, although more scale, power is picked up by a set of wheels on one side of the loco and neutral on the other side. This means that track dirt that normally gets on the wheels can interrupt the power flow. Then there's the polarity problem. 2-rail is DC so one rail is hot and the other ground. When the track turns back on itself in a reversing loop, the polarity would shift creating a direct short. Therefore; you need to insulate one of the rails as it rejoins the loop. All of this makes 3-rail much more forgiving. 

But because I have large curves, I can run big engines. 2-rail curves are always wider than 3-rail, which has it's lineage back to Lionel O'guage with 31" diameter curves to run around under a Christmas tree. With larger curves available in 3-rail, scale-length engines and cars became available in the 1990s and that's when I got back into the hobby.

The modern locomotives are all DC. When running on 3-rail AC, they have rectifiers inside to get the DC. And all of them have terrific sampled sound systems with computers equivalent to old IBM 386s. It was those sound systems that got me back in the hobby. I had toy trains as a kid with a permanent layout. I sold all the stuff in 1992 thinking I would never have trains again. In 1995 I got it all started again.

My next plastic job is the Meng Bradley with Busk and full interior. That will be started in a week or so. And I just put this baby on layaway at Scale Reproductions. It intrigued me as it's rated as the most complete helo kit ever. As I've said before, I tend to buy models on uniqueness, complexity, parts count, decal quantity and how big the instruction book is. This one ticks all those boxes. I haven't built a helo kit since I was a kid in the late 50s. And that's a long time ago, folks. So stay tuned for a build thread on this one. I'm going to search the FSM Forum to see if any have been posted before me.

I'm partial to kits with interiors and engines and this one has both. I'm going to detail the engine compartment since it's so much fun. Another reason for this kit was being able to pose it with blades folded. I don't have room for a 1:35 helo with spread rotors. So stay tuned.

Oh!

 You are a modeler like me! I just loved Submarines and other things like Planes where you can take one side and see all the goodies inside. If they don't have it, I build it! Now I will find out with the TreibFlugel how 1/35 kits other than Armor have come along. 

   I used to love Bandai's early 1/48 scale armor. Always a challenge to hide the seam where I opened it up to show the included interiors. Tamiya's ME-232? I loved thaat it was all clear. You should one .You can see all the greeblies I loaded it with!