The mouse is celebrating 50 years of his theme parks and the lead up to today has been in the local newspaper for months. I thought I'd post a couple of videos about Walt's background in model railroading.
 
The first is a film of the small layout mock-up of the intended live steam railroad he built in his yard and the second is the actual live steam layout.
 
Amazing what a little money and an imagineering department in your company can do for a model railroad.

Enjoy.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_y61Vf4bs
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK7grVAeRSA

Morning all.....the forum site was down earlier this morning???


Actually got in 2 hours modeling .....I'm on a roll.....

Yesterday was a very sad day for Pegi and I with the loss of the four legged members of our family after 15-1/2 years of wonderful companionship.

They were cairn terrier sisters from the same litter and have spent their entire lives with each other and with us since they were 8 weeks old. They were really close and were a joy to be around and observe thru the years. As terriers, we nicknamed them the "Hooligan Sisters" as they were always getting into mischief and having a great time with each other and us.

I know this is not a loss on the scale of what Curt and John are going thru, but it is not an easy process to go thru. All the little critters that we have in our lives are truly a member of the family and as such, not having them around is quite a jolt in our lives.

Treas developed health problems last year, but it was held in check with medicines. Aidan joined her in a slow decline a few months ago and prompted the hard decision Pegi and I had to make a couple of weeks ago. Do we continue to keep them alive for our sake or let them go to a happier place where they can be as happy as when they were younger.

We have gone thru this type of loss before, but it doesn't get any easier. Unlike our other dogs, which were taken unexpectedly, we sadly watched as they declined to a point that it would be wrong, cruel and thoughtless of us to allow them to continue to struggle everyday.

Like all pets, they worm their way into your heart and make this an extremely difficult time. We will heal with time and a conscious effort to remember all the happy times we spent together, but that does not make the present any less difficult.

Those of you with dogs and other pets, give them a hug and a treat and take a moment to reflect on all the joy and happiness they add to our lives and thank whatever higher power you believe in that he has let them come into our lives and given us such boundless joy and unconditional love.

Below is a picture of The Girls on their 1st birthday.....Aidan is on the left and Treas is on the right.

Happy 4th to all here.....

It seems that we are having a rash of FSM builds on the Forum and I will be adding to the mix with this build, the Fine Scale Miniature kit #130.....Ezra Cooper's Garage.

I got this kit, along with the Rail Car Shed and Flagstop Station about 5 years ago when Bob Butts had a fire sale of a few of his FSM stash that he didn't think he would ever get around to building. Thanks Bob, these are fun kits and some of George's early works that I missed when he originally released them.

I had intended to rifle these kits for the castings to use on other builds, but after the my less than satisfying results with the CCK Low Company kit, I think this kit can be better used for practicing on my structure building skills. Also, none of the kits that I have ever built have the number or level of detail as the castings that are in this kit and it will be a new adventure for me.

So here goes.....obligatory box & content photos.

Exhibit #1 - (ECG-001)


Exhibit #2 - (ECG-002)


To demonstrate how the kit should look as completed, I have included a photo of Frank Baker's build. I don't remember getting this from you Frank, but thanks for the photo and beautifully done.

Exhibit #3 - (ECG-003)


To begin.....I made copies of George's templates and instructions. I then checked the templates to make sure they were the exact size as the original.....sometimes when they are reproduced, the process can make the copy a bit smaller or larger.

I started with the wall framing on the rear wall. The structure has post and beam type construction and I mostly followed the instructions as George wrote them. The bottom and top plates and studs are 6"x6", however, I thought that since the local of the scene on the layout will be in the Rockies, the top plate should be more substantial too handle the snow loads, so a 6"x8" was specified instead.

I checked in the stash and I have everything but a 6"x8" size.....what to do? Only one choice, call my LHS and inquired if Mr. Langford had that size in stock. As luck would have it, he had an unopened bag in his stash from 30 years ago. Thanks Tom.....

The other change I made was to the horizontal blocking for the siding. As you can see in the photo of the template below, George didn't include the blocking required for nailing the vertical siding onto the framing. The wall scales out to 11'-6" high. When nailing on vertical siding a minimum of 4' center to center spacing is needed. In the real world, using 2' on center is a better choice, but for a model in HO, that seems to a bit of overkill.

Exhibit #4 - (ECG-003b)


I struck parallel lines at 4' and 8' from the bottom plate and used this as my guide for the blocking placement. Note the thicker 6"x8" top plate in the photo.

Exhibit #5 - (ECG-004)


The vertical siding, furnished in the kit, is a scale 1"x10". I stressed the lumber and cleaned the pieces and began applying it to the wall framing, adding nail holes as I went.

Exhibit #6 - (ECG-005)


A decent start, but a lot to go, as the stick built wall framing and siding is a bit time consuming to cut and put together.....thank goodness for the ole' chopper.

Next time.....

Hello and welcome to the build thread of the Carolina Craftsman Kit #CCK1359 - "AD Low & Company".

It has been some time, a few years is more like it, that I have posted any build threads to the forum. I have been procrastinating about taking time to build kits and post because of business concerns, but I really need to get on with building some of the great kits I have accumulated over the years and time keeps marching on.

I have intended to participate in the challenges that Dan has started each year, but I just couldn't get moving on any one project. So this year, I thought I would start out easy on a smaller project and Jeff's kit fit the bill. So, a big thank you to Dan for giving me a good case of the ole' Jewish/Catholic guilt to get back to modeling and being responsible for getting so many great build threads going each year.

Also a big thank you to Jeff Grove for the kit. Jeff was in a generous mood about 4 years ago and sent Tom, Bob and myself a free kit from his ever expending excellent product line. It is a great, small footprint, structure that is adaptable for most any type of business that you would find in small town USA.

At this point, I'm not sure what that use will be, I just want to get started building again. I'll worry about what it will be when I get around to including it in the redesigned St.L&D Railroad.

Below are the requisite photos of the box and contents:

Exhibit #1 (ADL-002)



Exhibit #2 (ADL-003)



And of course, the box contents:

Exhibit #3 (ADL-007)


Exhibit #4 (ADL-008)


Stay tuned.....

Many years ago I had a brief thought about modeling the underground portion of a mine after purchasing a Campbell kit. It would be neat to come up with a way to show the hoist shaft and tunnels at different levels with all the shoring and details.....short of a dynamite blast to move some rock.

The idea surfaced a few years ago in chats with Capt. Mike when he was thinking about expanding his traveling layout with a permanent section that would feature the Deer Creek Mine by Stoney Creek.

I just came across the video below about building a diorama of exactly what Mike and I had been discussing. I thought y'all might find it as interesting as I did.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b25H-5BeWvY

Hi all.....I thought I'd start a thread where we could share railroad related videos that we have run across that would be of interest to the rest of us.

I'll start off with a historical video of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It is about 45 min. and has tons of background info on the NYC railroad and the building of the structure.

As a bit of background on this station.....I was involved in the restoration because of a client of mine from Yonkers. They had me do the structural steel, concrete, framing and finishes estimates when they bid the job back in the 90's.

I still have the huge role of blueprints from the project that shows all the floors, including the 2 levels of tracks.

Hope y'all enjoy.

Greg

Announcing The Outie Award for the Best Tale
in the category of "Structure Kit Purchases"
 
ReadingBob, PennsyJ1 (Bill) and I had a fun time on trip over to BLI in Ormond Beach a while back and had plenty of time to chat about the hobby.
 
One of the things we were chatting about was how the advances in computers and the internet has effected the hobby and changed it from what it was back in the Stone Age, when we were all kids, to what it is today. The forums have changed what was at times a very solitary hobby into a shared adventure with others. The exchange of information and ideas is so much greater than before and really helps us all elevate our work. And is a lot of fun too.
 
Another topic was our compulsion of buying kits (it's also steam locos for me) for our layouts. In Bob's case, buying kits for a layout he hasn't built. In my and Bob's, it's that age old problem of so many great kits, so little layout. I hesitate to mention the stash Tom has out in his man cave.
 
What, if any, is this disturbing habit many of us have of purchasing a kit that we know full well might never make it to a scene on the layout?
 
The more I thought about it, the more I thought that there should be some great stories out there. I also thought it might be entertaining for us to share a few tales and it might be interesting to all those guys that are selling kits to see how our convoluted minds work.
 
Since the first anniversary of this forum is coming up on or about the 17th of November, I thought this might be the right time and a fun way to celebrate. So here goes!
 
The "Outie" is a prestigious and coveted award that has been made possible by the high standards set by the group of miscreants on this forum. It will be awarded to the individual with the most entertaining and outrageous kit purchase story. All entries must be post marked by no later than November 12 and the winner will be announced on November 17.
 

 
The above is a photo of the award as manufactured by B.T.S. that will be sent to the winners.
 




The above is a photo of the completed kit.

 
The entries will be judged by a prestigious, blue ribbon, select panel and by the members of this forum. 
 
AWARDS:
 
There will be two (2) Outie Awards awarded in this contest. The first will be determined by the prestigious panel mentioned above. The second will be a Mr. or Miss Congeniality award voted on by members of this forum.
 
RULES:
 
1. Each entry must be submitted, on this thread, with a narrative of the logic and/or compulsion behind said purchase.
 
2.  Each entry must be submitted with at least 1 photo of the box of the kit.
 
3.  This "Outie" will apply to only kits of structures, no others will be accepted.
 
4.  All entries must be submitted on or before Nov. 12, 2014. No entries will be considered after that date.
 
5.  Voting for the Mr. or Miss Congeniality award will be submitted to me by e-mail on or before the Nov. 12, 2014 deadline. Each vote to be sent to demayoind@aol.com, with "The Outie Award" in the subject line and each voters real name and forum name in the body. Only votes by members of this forum will be accepted.
 
6. Winners will be required to post photos of the completed structure in a timely manner, which will be determined by agreement between the sponsor or this contest and the winners.

I want to scratch-built some structures for the St.L&D, but I want them to patterned after real life buildings. I found a bunch of these books with all kinds of railroad related information from construction and labor costs to track, signals, operation, locomotives and rolling stock and tons of other great stuff.
 
I love most of the kits from the major kit manufacturers, but there are a lot of structures out there in the real world that will probably never be made into kits because of the difficulty or economics of translating the real world into the little people's world. Many of these real world structures could add a lot of interest to a layout if it were possible to translate these rough plans into a drawing that could be used to scratch build a model.
 
To find this information, I have been researching railroad related stuff on the internet for last few years. One of the first books I found and downloaded was:
 
  Buildings and Structures of American Railroads
  by Walter Gilman Berg, C.E.
  published by John Wiley & Sons, New York - 1893
 
The website I found this book is below.
 
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=free+books+of+american+railroads
 
Another site with more railroad related books is below. Many of these can be opened as "pdf" files, then you can save them to your computer and read on screen or print selected pages to keep for reference.
 
http://books.google.com/books?q=related:LCCN15025569&lr=&id=raVyq4jzQQMC&output=html&sa=N&start=0
 
The idea is to draw the floor plan and elevations using AutoCAD and the buildings in these books as a guide, scale them down from 1:1 to HO, then use these as templates for building the structures.
 
In order to get these plans onto the forum, I purchasedf Adobe Acrobat, which allows me to easily save a "pdf" file made from the cad drawing into a "jpg" file that can be viewed.
 
The first structure I selected for this exercise is an agent's dwelling from the Spokane & Palouse Railway that was connected with the Northern Pacific System. The structure was designed by C.B. Talbot and intended to be used in a northern climate. It is a 576 sf, 1 story frame building elevated above grade with a 100 sf on-grade woodshed attached off the kitchen on the left elevation.
 
The first 2 exhibits are the pages of the dwelling from the book. The last 2 exhibits are the CAD drawings from these plans.
 
Exhibit #1 - (page 1)

 
Exhibit #2 - (page 2)

 
Exhibit #3 - (Floor Plan)

 
Exhibit #4 - (Foundation Plan)

 
continued.....

Late Breaking News ...Flash...Extra...
Press Release...Whatever

The St. Louis & Denver Railroad build will be moving to this forum in the very near future.

As soon as Doug and the gang get the issues of photo sizing and photo placement resolved, I will begin adding the posts of the layout build from the beginning to the present.

Hello All........

I told Slim that I would be building this kit after the holidays, so I thought I'd get the requisite photos out of the way so I can get back to Xmas shopping for Pegi.

First up is the box.

Next is the kit contents.

Finally there is the instructions. Jimmy has them online and they need to be downloaded and printed. No objections here as he sold the kit at a very reasonable price.

See y'all after the holidays with the first photos of the build.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all !!!

I thought I'd open this board with a couple of pictures of an old western narrow gauge railroad, the Crescent Tramway. It's whats left of an ore bin from the Crescent Mine in Park City, UT.

I also got some shots of the plaques and thought y'all might enjoy the history.