Ackley, Iowa Layouts, Prototype Topics, Railfanning & MuseumsLeave a comment

No. 107: The Ackley Layout – Rebuilding the Bump Out, Part 1

Golden1014

I was looking at old photo sets the other day and went through a folder I shot on the CSX lines in western Illinois in 2004.  The photo below was taken on the old B&O main track between Shattuc and Carlysle, about 30 miles east of where I lived in O’Fallon.  I thought it was interesting because of the way the siding track was sunken into the ditch, and have always thought it would be interesting to model.  The standing water, line poles and jointed rail add to the cool factor. Nearby, in a junk yard in Centralia, there were … Continue reading No. 107: The Ackley Layout – Rebuilding the Bump Out, Part 1

Prototype Topics, Railfanning & Museums1 Comment

No. 106: Petersburg, Virginia on the Seaboard Air Line

Golden1014

One of my all-time favorite railroads is the old Seaboard Air Line, which ran from Richmond, Virginia to Miami, Florida and a whole lot of places in between. I grew up in Georgia and researched, railfanned and modeled the SAL for decades.  When I bought my first house in 1992 I set aside a small bedroom to model the SAL route through Petersburg, Virginia, which I thought was a perfect prototype for a small, one-town model railroad.  I collected a lot of information about Petersburg over the years and I thought a blog post about the place would be inspiring … Continue reading No. 106: Petersburg, Virginia on the Seaboard Air Line

Layout Visits2 Comments

No. 105: Jeff Kuebler’s L&N Layout

Golden1014

In July, while I was in the U.S. to help with St. Louis RPM, I invited myself to Jeff Kuebler’s house in Columbia, Illinois for a layout tour.  Jeff is one of the finest men you could ever meet, and is part of the St. Louis RPM crew, and he’s also an accomplished L&N modeler and historian.  We had a couple of beers and a great visit. Lately Jeff and I have been trading e-mails on tree-building and I thought this would be a good time to write something about his layout and show how he’s making unique trees for a … Continue reading No. 105: Jeff Kuebler’s L&N Layout

Ackley, Iowa Layouts, Freight and Passenger Car Modeling1 Comment

No. 104: Modeling Projects, Fall 2018

Golden1014

It’s been a busy couple of weeks at work and at home.  I took a new job and have been working about 50 hours a week, and the kids–12, 14 and 16–are going 100 mph with school, sports and active social lives.  There hasn’t been much time for modeling lately–maybe an hour a week. Meanwhile, over the Columbus Day holiday weekend, I took the family on a short trip to Belgium and the Netherlands to relax in one of our favorite European cities, Maastricht.  When we arrived on Friday evening I took my son’s Boosted Board–it’s an electric-powered skateboard–for a long … Continue reading No. 104: Modeling Projects, Fall 2018

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No. 103: Illinois Central’s Belleville, Ill. Station Area

Golden1014

Thanks to work and family there hasn’t been much modeling happening lately–none, in fact.  To keep the discussion going here is a story on a nice modeling site near my adopted hometown of O’Fallon, Illinois. – Near my adopted hometown of O’Fallon, Illinois is the small city of Belleville, Illinois.  Illinois Central’s busy St. Louis main line ran through Belleville, and while I was visiting St. Louis this summer I spent a few hours railfanning around the old station area.  I’ve always thought IC line through Belleville would make an interesting one-town layout.  Belleville grew up as a small industrial … Continue reading No. 103: Illinois Central’s Belleville, Ill. Station Area

Ackley, Iowa Layouts5 Comments

No. 102: More Details for Ackley’s South Side

Golden1014

In my last post I mentioned that my friends Lonnie and Mary Bathurst were visiting Europe, and last week they came to visit us in Kaiserslautern.  My wife and I met them at the Hauptbahnhof and took them to our favorite German restaurant in Hohenecken for lunch, beer and conversation.     After a hearty German meal we went over to Ramstein Air Base for a pre-arranged C-130J tour.  There was no rain in sight until we made the long walk out to the ramp.  Despite the weather the boys from the 37th Airlift Squadron gave us a first-class tour.   They even wheeled … Continue reading No. 102: More Details for Ackley’s South Side

Ackley, Iowa Layouts4 Comments

No. 101: Building the Carver, Minnesota Grain Elevator

Golden1014

My friend and St. Louis RPM co-host Lonnie Bathurst is on a trip through Europe this week and I met up with him and his wife at Rudesheim, which us about an hour drive from my home.  That’s Lon on the left.  We had a nice dinner and caught up on things.  After dinner we went out to the main street–where our photo was taken–which faces the railroad and the Rhine River.  We set ourselves up at a nice German restaurant so we could have a couple more frosty brews and watch trains.  The weather was magnificent.  Deutsche Bahn did not … Continue reading No. 101: Building the Carver, Minnesota Grain Elevator

Ackley, Iowa Layouts8 Comments

No. 100: More Southside Scenery Work

Golden1014

I’m not a streetcar guy but I was in Milan, Italy on Monday and was surprised to see a whole bunch of old trolley cars running around downtown.  I managed to get one halfway-decent photo shown below.  I read online that these cars have been around since the 1920s and were built to an American design.  The most interesting thing about these cars, apart from their cool early 20th Century design, was that they are loud!  Modern trams running nearby are quiet and comfortable, but these cars clank along and with every turn of the wheel there is a creak … Continue reading No. 100: More Southside Scenery Work

Prototype Topics, Railfanning & Museums1 Comment

No. 99: The Swiss National Railway Musuem

Golden1014

On Friday I took my family on a long Labor Day weekend trip to the Ticino region of Switzerland, close to the Italian border, for a weekend of hiking and swimming.  On the way we stopped in Lucerne, which is about a 90-minute drive south of the Germany-Switzerland border at Berne, and visited the Switzerland Transportation Museum. The Swiss Transportation Museum is small but breathtaking.  As you can imagine it is clean and perfectly organized.  The museum devotes a separate building to automobiles, trains, airplanes and shipping, and has a lot more going on, like a planetarium and a chocolate museum, … Continue reading No. 99: The Swiss National Railway Musuem

Ackley, Iowa Layouts3 Comments

No. 98: New Scenery for Ackley’s South Side

Golden1014

I came home from St. Louis RPM full of motivation to finish up some important things on the layout. The primary area of concern was the south side of my 16 x 2-foot layout.  I was unhappy with the photo backdrops I was using so while I was in St. Louis I took a couple of hundred pictures out east of the city in the farm country around Litchfield, hoping that some of those photos would work for backdrops.  Below.  Here’s what I started with when I came back home.  I removed all the trees, buildings and detail parts from the layout and got to … Continue reading No. 98: New Scenery for Ackley’s South Side