At the beginning of August, my family traveled away and left me at home alone for a while. After a very busy and very social summer, and a summer full of travel, I have the first 16 days of August to myself to catch up on some modeling work. This is the first of hopefully several posts on what’s happening during these 16 days. Below. Last week I took my son to Radovljica, near Lake Bled, and spent three days with him hiking and swimming. We hiked to this mountain hut at the foot of Mt. Triglev, which is seen … Continue reading No. 160: 16 Days, Part 1

Here’s a post with a decidedly British flavor. Modelu A few weeks ago I ordered figures from a vendor in Bristol named Modelu (pronounced Model You). The box arrived at the nearby Deutsche Post office, and my half-German wife dutifully went over there, paid the import tax, and brought the box home. Here’s what was in the box: How exciting! Modelu is a British vendor that makes finescale 3D-printed figures. A few guys on the Proto-Layouts list discovered Modelu online, and I offered to make a large order to try and save everyone some import tax. Six of us combined … Continue reading No. 157: A British Post (Modelu and Traversers)

Over the last weekend my daughter Kirsten and I drove up to the lovely German town of Boppard, on the south bank of the Rhine River, for a little Klettersteig hike. It was a fabulous, warm, sunny day and there’s no better way to escape the utter stupidity of covid than with a great hike along the Rhine. There’s no English translation for Klettersteig, but it is a method of hiking along rock faces in mountains along fixed-rope climbing routes. The routes are much better known in the Italian Alps as “Via Ferrata”–which literally translated means The Iron Way. Basically … Continue reading No. 156: Track Laying and Track Scenery on Hermitage Road

Last week I received a few locomotives I bought from my friend Jim Dick in Minneapolis. Here’s one of them: a second-run CNW GP-7 in as-delivered paint. I figure this model was run around 2003. That makes it–what, 18 years old? The paint still looks great. As soon as I got the engine out of the box I removed the original DC underframe and replaced it with another one I had rebuilt with sound/DCC that I’ve been using on a PRR engine. The 1601 will get a few prototype-specific details as soon as I can find the time. Earlier this … Continue reading No. 155: Turnouts on Hermitage Road

As of today, Hermitage Road is wired and mostly operational. The photo above shows the future SAL 1402, an engine leased–literally–from my friend John Moenius. John had two of the engines and wasn’t going to use them, so I offered … Continue reading No. 152: Hermitage Road Construction

I spent all last week in Mezraya, Djerba Island, Tunisia, leading U.S. participation in a small international airshow.  Djerba is a sleepy resort island in southwest Tunisia near the border with Libya.  It was a great experience and as always the Tunisian people were friendly, happy and grateful.  It was a long week—many 12+-hour work days. The photo above shows a few of the jets we brought down.  In the foreground is Air Force KC-135, at center is an Air Force C-130J, and farthest away—with the number 426—is a new Navy P-8.  The team and I flew down on the … Continue reading No. 140: New Turnouts for a New Layout

In my quest to find a great place to model, I’m refining my focusing on an area I consider to be “home”.  Home is the area between the south end of Minneapolis and the north end of Mason City.  I never lived there but I spent a month up in Chanhassen, Minnesota visiting relatives each summer.  I learned very quickly to love life there. The Milwaukee Road terminal through Mason City was cool.  The Milwaukee had all the basics in Mason City, some of which can be seen in the map excerpt below.  In addition to the small yard and … Continue reading No. 134: New Layout Considerations – The Milwaukee Road’s Mason City Freight House