'Ello

Sorry for not being on the ball. But "Hello" to anyone checking in on this blog as a result of my letter to Railroad Model Craftsman and mention of this blog. In my defence, the email was written back in March, perhaps even the end of February, so I'd given up on seeing it in print. Anyway a big thanks to the RMC chappies for printing it and sending you here out of curiosity.

So now you're here you should take a look around at all the things I've done and follow the links to all the other good T gauge stuff out there on the internet.

Keep checking back and I'll post more for you all later.

Here in my car...

CARS ARE HERE!
Today I received an email from TrainaidsA the US supplier of T.
At long last the cars (road vehicles) are available. We've been wating for cars for almost as long as we'd been waiting for the Hankyu 9000. Until now I've made do with 1:400 scale aircraft vehicles on Gonou.
I placed an order for both sets immediately and coincidentally a Hankyu 900 set as well.
I look forward to seeing them. My magnifying glass id at the ready

Tempted (by the fruit of another)

So goes one of my favourite songs of all time by Squeeze.
The song ran through my head as I reviewed this website.
http://www.electrarailwaygraphics.co.uk/
T scale UK outline overlays for your Hankyu 9000 body shells!
They look great. They really do.
Being a Brit I'm always looking at ways of building a UK outline model railway.
Perhaps this would work.
Just as I'm getting set to start work on a US outline layout that would involve a lot of scratchbuilding this comes along and makes building an English layout a lot easier.
Temptation indeed. (Temptation by Heaven 17 there's another favourite song...)

p.s. I could always build TWO small simple layouts, one UK outline, one US. I do like to make work for myself don't I?

excitement

The T scale world is on fire now.
I have just received word that Hankyu 9000's are here in the US and for sale! I think I ordered mine from Japan though, so why haven't I heard anything from there?
On top of that turnouts will be here in April too.
Too much excitment.
Then TrainaidsA has secured some KiHa and Hankyu units in a kit form for scratchbuilders to play with. I'll take some of them then.
Way too much excitement.
Mr Harai of K.K. Eishindo was in the US recently as the guest of TrainaidsA and announced an intention to manufacture US outline loco's and rolling stock! Typical, just as I start making my own...
Way way too much excitement . I don't know how I sleep at night...

Meet the press

It's good to see that T scale has made the mainstream Model Railroad press here in the USA. The March Issue of Railroad Model Craftsman features a three page piece as an introduction to the scale.

It's good to see such a positive piece written by someone keen on the possibilities for the scale. Though having read the article its seems clear that quite some time has passed between Tom Knapp, the writer, submitting the article and its publication though. The most obvious omission from the piece being the lack of a mention for "talking t gauge". Perhaps its only me but I'd think that if you're encouraging people to take up a new scale you'd want to tell them where you can find like minded individuals to share your experiences. In this day and age that is an internet forum. But like I said, this omission could still be a result of the time lag between writing and publication.

I have written to the editor to inform him of up to date developments in the scale.

I would hope that as a result of this article more folks are now aware of T and some of them want to have a go.

Doodlebuggin'

Well, the inspiration comes thick and fast on the doodlebug front. It's a topic that many folks on talking T gauge are interested in. Mainly because it is felt that it will be the easiest way to get something running in US outline. A page on trainweb lists a lot of online pictures and plans for Doodlebugs. Even a good selection of pages on the M &StL Doodlebugs. Honestly! You want to talk synchronicity? It's a bit difficult to argue against it currently.

Jason's model is not the first T scale Doodlebug. Oh no. It was most remiss of me not to acknowledge this fact earlier, but a T scaler who goes by the name of the other Lionel on his Adventure in T scale blog he shows some pictures of his project. Which rather than making a new body to slide over the Eishindo original he just added bits of styrene to the Class 103 body. It's a great example of what can be done by a creative mind. You can see it a short way down this page of his blog. Once again it's brilliant. A really clever use of bits and pieces.

But wait that still isn't the first one. A short way down this talking t gauge page is the Victorian Railways DERM built by Paul.

Would you believe it? I'm still not finished with railcars. One of the first projects detailed on talking t gauge was the construction of a Budd RDC. You can follow the entire project on this thread.

Seeing work like this makes me proud to be associated with such a creative bunch.

Synchronicity?

syn-chro-nic-i-ty (n) coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related.

Now I don't know about you but I don't think I'd ever even given such things a passing thought, apart from that album by the Police back in 1983....

But here's the way things are playing out.

1. Feeling somewhat disappointed with T scale my enthusiasm is re-awakened by Jasons magnificent models.

2. Whilst at the Minnesota History Centre this weekend I was taken with a book "The Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway a Photographic History" by Don L Hofsommer. I always flick through railway books you never know what kind of inspiration you'll find in them. I was right. Plenty of inspirational photographs. But nothing that I could justify starting a totally new layout over. Then I turned a page an there it was, a picture of a GE Doodlebug not at all dissimilar to that created by Jason. It wasn't just one picture. Oh no, from then on it was page after page of GE Doodlebugs. It's like someone was shouting at me to create a T scale model of a Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway scene. I hope it wasn't Sting...

So there you go. I don't know if I should listen to that voice. In fact I agonised about buying that book overnight before I finally decided to purchase it. But the book is bought now. So I guess the pictures will scream at me until I do something about it.

Will I? Won't I? If I do, how long will it take me? Will new T scale stock from Eishindo materialise before Christmas?

Too many questions to answer. But what it does seem to show is my T scale days are most definitely NOT over.

New Header Photo

Now that layout is almost finished I thought it about time to add a new updated header photo.
Do you like it?
I sure as heck do. When I look at it I feel pretty proud of what I have achieved in T scale I don't mind telling you.