The new generation

One of the first things I did on my return to the T gauge fold was to order a chassis with the 3rd generation motor. Oh Boy! Is that a world of difference! There's a degree of control here that hasn't been there on the previous chassis'. The unit will run at varying speeds and even stop and start up again as controlled. This is a far cry from the days of the first class 103 units where you pretty much had one speed. Fast, and that only when the track was perfectly clean.
Colour me impressed and excited to carry on some more.

Hello again...

It appears that I might be back.
It all started back at the good old Granite City train show at Easter. I had been chided (once again) by local Radio personality Bob Hughes for not bringing any T scale along to the show in a while. This time he did it on the air and I found myself saying that I'd more than likely, very probably, bring some T scale along to the November show.
In the intervening few weeks I've been familiarising myself with developments in the T scale world in the 18 months since I dismantled Gonou. I see there is a new 3rd generation motor as well as a PWM controller available. This should improve running qualities. There's been some very nice modelling done, and the explosion of 3D printing means that skilled computer types have been able to produce all kinds of structures, locomotive bodies and freight stock. It's quite incredible really. It does get you a little excited to do something. 
So, over the holiday weekend and because I was something under the weather I sought out my T gauge stuff and see what was what. I even found I had a 24" x 14" baseboard ready to go. So I laid a "kidney oval" on the baseboard and tried the stock. After a quick track cleaning the stock was running as well as it had done when I packed everything away. All very heartening indeed.
So, as they say, "watch this space"...

Gonou Gonou... gone

The deed is done.

As true as my word I've just finished dismantling Gonou.

Everything on the layout was saved. The petrol station, the lighthouse, the bridges, the entire lot.

The task only took about half an hour and in that time I managed to strip the layout all the way down to the cork noticeboard base. The layout has stripped down pretty cleanly so perhaps the base can be used on the sucessor layout.

Where to next?

Watch this space.

Deflated

(posted from small model railways)
Here today in the USA its National take a model train to work day. The organisers bill it as a great chance to spread to word about this great hobby. A great idea. When you consider that computer gaming is all the rage. A down to earth low tech hands on presentation of the hobby seems like a great idea.
Until you get ridiculed at work.
Like me.
I though people were better than that. I could take it when I was a kid at school. You know kids don't care what they do or say. But in this world of mature responsible adults, especially here in the USA where political correctness and respect for all is preached from all angles of society. To be greeted with derisive laughter is kind of upsetting. Deflating to say the least. It definitely bothers me otherwise I wouldn't be posting this.
I was really on a good high with the hobby after the success last weekends Granite City Train show so this idiots reaction is doubly painful.
I might just take a break for a while...
Still it is only one idiot.
But still...
I don't know...

Granite City Train Show with video

Once again I return stoked and inspired, full of enthusiasm for T scale. The Granite City Train show seems to do that for me. The trains ran perfectly.

Incredibly so.

A few days before the show I had cleaned the track and coated the rails with the Energizer/Stabilizer pen available from TrainAidsA. If you have not bough one of these yet. Do so. Especially if you are running the regular battery pack. The improvement in performance is marked. On previous trips to the show I had been cleaning the track pretty much every hour to 90 minutes or so and went through up to four sets of trains, the wheels would get so dirty. However with the rails and wheels given a coating from the magic pen, I never cleaned the track. This is amazing for I even clean the rails on my HO scale and Gn15 layouts during shows in the past. My Z scale layout was alongside Gonou and I had to clean sections of that during the show more so as the day went on. The trains themselves ran so much better too. I only used two units during the show. My KiHa 47/48 and a CCE models RDC railcar on an unmodified KiHa chassis. Incredible.

So for those of you who've never seen Gonou in the flesh, so to speak enjoy these videos, shot on my iPhone at the show .

So what now for the future? Gonou has been seen three or four times locally so I think its time for a change. Something new. What will that be?

I don't know.

You'll just have to keep watching the blog. One thing is for sure it's not going away just yet.

Tested

This weekend Gonou was tested. The track was cleaned and given a coating from the magic electroconductive pen and trains were run.

Perfectly.

KiHa 40, 47/48 and Hankyu all ran fine. Which surprised me as the 47/48 and Hankyu were on their last legs at the Easter show with dirt on the track and wheels. The electro-magic pen must work.

So I'm looking forward to more amazed comments from show goers on November 12th. If you read this blog and come along say "Hi".

"T" minus 35 and counting

Days to the Granite City Train show that is. I received a new railcar set from Train Aids A today. The KiHa 47/48 two car train. Very nice it is too. Basically it looks to be a two car version of the KiHa 40 single car unit that I already have. It's the kind of train that is perfect for the Gonou locale. Having spent some time working on my 1:1,000 scale Nano trains I can at last say that this stuff looks BIG!

The other item I received was the energizer/stabilizer pen. Sounds very high tec doesn't it. What it is is a dispenser containing some kind of electrically conductive fluid that you put on the rails and the wheels of your trains to improve performance. Those who have used it have spoken quite highly of it. Running trains in a dusty exhibition hall takes its toll on the running quality of the stock so any trick I can use to improve performance I'll take.

So clean the track spread on the magic fluid and I'm good to go.

Wanna see the show?

The Granite City train show is coming up soon I think I'll get Gonou out again and show it off. People like it.

So if you're in Minnesota and want to go to a good train show you can't do any better than this one. See you there.

Rumours of my demise...

... are greatly exaggerated as the quote goes.

I'm not dead, or like the Norwegian Blue* just resting. I'm still modelling, just not in T. Plus its summer and no self respecting person would shut himself in the basement and model unless the temperatures felt like 115 degrees. Which it did a couple of times.

I've passed through the T scale world every now and again and came across this posting from David K Smith on his blog. Very disappointing news if it turns out to be true. There is a lot of very exciting stuff out there. I guess things will remain available for a while. But new things? It doesn't look good. I was feeling quite depressed.

Then I saw this, another David K Smith tiny project. Moving cars in T? This is fantastic! This kind of fires me up again. I feel the need to build a small layout with a train and moving roadway on it. I've ordered a couple of kits of parts to see what I can do with it. I have plenty of road vehicles to try it out on.

What will happen?

We'll see...

*Dead Parrot sketch - Monty Python

Adding to the display

I shall be adding a new layout to My T scale display in the near future you can read about it here where I explain a bit about the history and reasoning behind it.

Grain elevator comes along some more

Bit of a progress update on the Grain Elevator Project. The model has been painted, though the weathering spray is a little bit over scale. The pipework adds some character to the model.

Some inspiration

Something a little special. Not Model Railroad related mind you. But inspirational nonetheless.

Whilst away in Red Wing this weekend I was browsing in a secondhand book shop and I spied this Chinese Cork picture on one of the shelves.

I was immediately captivated by it. It is no more than 3 1/2 inches wide but is incredibly detailed. Just look at the tiling and the latticework on the pagoda, the leaves on the trees.

It's amazing to think that this was all carved by hand out of cork.
What can I tell you about cork pictures?

Very little really. There is almost no information about the art on the internet. All I can tell you is that the elements in the scene. The trees, the cranes, and the pagoda shelter are all standard elements of the art. They eminate from the Fujian region of SE China and seemed to have started in the early 1900's and that's about it. So if anyone knows anymore I'm all ears.

What I do know is that I find it very inspiring to think someone did this by hand. Perhaps when I'm struggling with some T scale items I'll look at this and be spurred on.

Research Pictures

Safely returned from Red Wing. Here are some pictures of the Grain elevator. Though I found plenty of pictures on the internet that got me started on constructing the model. It was very useful to see the real thing. I discovered quite a bit that I couldn't see from the photographs, but I could also see that it didn't really matter if I missed them out or not. There are a lot more windows on the structure than I could see in the photos. As I plan on adding the windows as decals after I've finished painting I don't have to fret about cutting them out now.

This picture above clearly shows how much narrower my head tower needs to be compared to the prototype.
It clearly would be folly of the highest order to try and get all that detail in the cyclones shown here in T scale but there is no reason why I can't recreate them somehow with a selection of styrene rods and tubing and strip with a little bit of filler and some filing here and there.
There's several nice long down pipes there worth modelling and there is a part of me that wants to recreate those tall folding doors...

Site report

Courtesy of a weekend away. I am writing this entry from a hotel in Red Wing, MN not too far from the site of the subject of my current structure modelling project, the grain elevator. Having looked at it and photographed it I have quickly come to the decision that the head house tower is too fat. It needs to be thinner. Not by much, but it is obvious to me that the proportions are wrong. Other than that things look pretty good. Got to see some angles that I haven't seen from the photos I have purloined from the Internet. I have Monday off work so I'm looking forward to finishing the model off.

Hop(per) to it

So, there I was, quietly contemplating a T scale model of Super Target in Rogers, MN when a totally unrelated discussion about graffiti on railroad cars reminded me about the well known, (well to Minnesota railfans anyway) Gondola car that plies its trade in unit trains between the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and the power stations of the Midwest. Lionel are even producing one in O scale. I shared this news with members of the outstate Minnesota Rail group on Yahoo and the upshot of this is that a good friend of mine Jim Ramnes suggested that I make one in T scale. Even going so far as to provide drawings of the Bethgon Coalporter.

I don't know about you, but I took that as a challenge. So, in a quiet moment this afternoon I sized up the drawing for a T scale model. It works out at 32mm long x 8.5mm high, quite doable, methinks.

The Whale paintjob however might be another issue...

Just popping down to Target

This post from David K Smith on his Z scale blog has always stuck in my memory. About using the internet for model railroading purposes. So last night whilst mulling over a new structure modelling project, once again this post jumped into my mind. So I opened up Google Earth and Bing Maps and "flew" around my locale looking for interesting large structures to model.
How about Superstores? They're big. Menards, SuperTarget, Wal*Mart, Home Depot, Lowes. All have a huge 150,000+ square feet of selling floorspace.
So I stopped my flight in Google Earth over the SuperTarget in Rogers, MN. A building I drive past at least 5 days a week and I measured it. It was some 500 feet long by about 350 feet deep.
Now in T scale we are used to buildings being small but do you know the size of this structure in T?
Thirteen inches by Ten. Not small. Not at all.
Then I thought about the height. No more than three quarters of an inch tall. A T scale model would look like a slice of bread!
I'm most definitely curious about recreating such a structure in T. I did think about a bit of selective compression of the subject. But that's not what T should be about.
NO COMPROMISE!
This is a structure that would be about SIX feet long in HO. Compromise there. But not in T. It might mean a change in the design of my new US Outline T scale layout, but that's not set in stone yet. I'll keep you posted with thoughts.

Grain elevator comes along

I've spent a couple more hours here and there working in the elevator project and I think its starting to look like the real thing. It's all styrene sheet, strip and tubing. The head house tower stands 135mm tall thats about 200' scale feet to give an idea of the size.

just for fun (part 2)

Did you guess what it was?

Given my location in the USA it was probably pretty easy to work out that it would be a large concrete grain elevator. This one in Red Wing, MN to be exact. The real thing is about 200' tall so should present a pretty impressive model even in T scale. I've made a start.

Here, just for fun is a picture to give you an idea of the size of the structure. In this picture you can see, from right to left: A kit of a US false front store made last year. Next to that is my rural wooden grain elevator from last year also. Then next to that is the progress on the Red Wing elevator. On the track in front is the ongoing RS-1 model if you can't see it.

Everything in Moderation

Earlier this week I was approached by T scale pioneer David K Smith owner of T-gauge.net and asked if I would consider becoming co-moderator of the Talking T gauge forum. As T scale grows in popularity and the forum membership grows he finds himself with less time time to watch over the forum. Not there is much to do. It is one of the most well behaved forums on the internet.

I was honoured to be asked. I'll see you over there.

Oh and behave yourself... :-)

Just for fun

Last night I embarked on a new T scale structure modelling project. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet.

All I will say is it is using three unopened packets of 12.7mm diameter evergreen styrene tube for starters.

In the words of the immortal Rolf Harris.

"Can you guess what it is yet?"