My layout is based on Iain Rice’s “Port Loleta & Mad River RR” plan (from a Model Railroader supplemental booklet entitled “8 Great Track Plans for Small Spaces”), adapted to model somewhere on the New England coast waterfront in the late 1920s. The yet to be named railroad (probably be a somethingorother Railway & Navigation Co) is a freelanced line powered mostly by geared steam locomotives, but the president and gandy dancer has dreams of a bit of traction… (there is a GE steeplecab kit waiting to be built)
Prototype inspiration is varied, stemming from the Boston & Maine railroad in the vicinity of Boston and Cape Ann, MA, Boston’s Union Freight Railroad, Mystic Seaport Museum’s recreated seafaring village in Mystic, CT, and New York harbor’s tugboats, carfloats, barges, and other rail-marine operations.
As of this writing (Feb. 2012), the main project is a wharf along the front edge of the layout, to carry track through a transfer bridge to a car float barge, which will provide staging and interchange tracks.
Structures will be mostly from craftsman kits, and boats (a tug or two, a schooner, a steam passenger ferry, a barge or two, etc) will eventually populate the harbor.
A great afternoon of traction – Ben Rechel, Josh Cohn, and Wilfred Roberge at the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, CT on Dec. 29th, 2011, followed by more railfanning at New Haven Union Station (Amtrak, Metro-North, and CT Commuter Rail) and delicious pizza!
We are excited to announce that website articles will now be printed in the Hotbox! Writing for the TAMR newsletter has never been easier: all you have to do is log in or register with the links on the right of this page (you can even use your Google or Facebook account), click the “+ New” button on the top of the screen, and write your articles! You can submit your stories, photos, and guides here, in color, with links, and then be published in the official newsletter every TAMR member receives bi-monthly without any extra effort.
Also, the website will now feature future Hotbox articles. Check in to see your favorite photographs from the newsletter in glorious full color, and search through articles with Google or the “Search” bar on the right side of this page.
Even the Class-1 railroads sometimes derail a few cars.
The Pivot Pin’s email address and “email directly” form on the contact us page of this site were both broken; the form has now been fixed. If you tried sending an email to him with these any time in the past few months, it likely did not reach him. The webmaster’s contact us form has always worked, and still does. You may email the pivot pin now, and it will likely reach him. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
On the plus side, we’ve just added President Josh Cohn to the contact list, and yes, this time we tested.
Welcome! It is our pleasure to present the new TAMR website, which offers members and teens another way to share their model railroading and railfanning knowledge with others who share their interests.
This website still needs a few runs on the test track to work out the bugs. It may be taken down at times. I will make an announcement on Facebook, this blog, and the Yahoo! email group when the site is stable. Until then, don’t hesitate to write articles — stay tuned for more features in the coming weeks!
Mostly, it was streetcars, however, there were some very old freight cars, and diesel engines, particularly engines used in mining. They also had 2 of 3 of the Western Pacific steam engines. I would recommend going there if you have an interest in modeling the late 1800′s, and early 1900′s, or streetcars. It was very informative.
So, I’ve been trying to build a model railroad since I was four. We were just starting when we moved, and I started school, and my train was forgotten. However, ten (almost 11) years later, I have begun work on my train, starting with completing the benchwork. My next step is adding shelves for storage underneath the layout. Later, I may add a guide about shelves. I have planned out an HO scale layout, and I hope to post showcase videos later, when I have completed it.
So now that I’ve finished changing all of my couplers, I moved on in fixing the broken rolling stock and locomotives that I’ve inherited. I noticed when putting them away that some were missing guardrails and ladders where they should have had them. I decided to add them myself, which prompted a visit to a local hobby shop for supplies.
TOOLS:
You will need several tools to make this possible. A pair of pliers for bending tricky sections of wire, a sharp tack with a large head for making holes in the styrene (you will need something stronger for metal and brass locomotives and rolling stock), Cutters/Nippers (Since I’d recently purchased a rail cutter, I decided to use it. It was overkill, but it worked), and some glue and a toothpick. (White glue does work, but model glue is the best) For the actual guardrails and ladders, I used .015 inch music wire.
In my case, I decided to add a guardrail around a Tyco Coco-Cola tanker, because A) I needed to add them, and B) the tank material is a softer styrene than a locomotive’s or even many boxcars’.
Your first step is drilling a hole that is more or less in the very center of the tank car’s side with the tack. This is where the guardrail ends will go. You will need one of these on both sides.
Bend the wire into a 90 degree angle, and insert the end into the hole. Then make your way around the tank car, bending it at the ends until you get to the other side. Make a bend right above the hole, and clip the wire so there is about a half inch sticking out. Insert this into the other hole. Then add a dab of glue:
You’re half finished!
Repeat on the other side:
Bend the wire, insert, wrap & bend around the car, clip, and insert the other side. Then glue both holes shut, and add a dab of glue on the ends:
And you’re finished:
On a related note, I began adding a guardrail to my UP Dash-8 which lost it’s front guardrail in a crash, and I lost it. The guardrail looks crooked now, but when the glue dries, I will straighten it out with pliers, and add another beam down to the deck, as on the left. What’s nice with replacements, is that the holes are already there, you don’t need to make them.
