Category Archives: Publishing

Anything to do with publishing by me or about me

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

It’s Choice Joyce!

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It’s not often that you get great service. Most often you get frustration, not satisfaction. Rarely if ever do you get to be pleased, surprised and delighted. This week I can report however, that after much frustration and a lot of emails I was very pleasantly surprised when not only did a vendor fix my problem they knocked me over with their offer to make it right.

Before I provide the details I want to make it plain that I receive no support, endorsements or other business related freebies from this vendor. This was a case of simple customer service, done very well, and thoughtfully resolved for a customer who was having trouble with some video downloads.

I’ve mentioned Model railroad Hobbyist here in the past. As a free (as in beer) online monthly model railroad magazine they set the bar for what an online e-zine in our hobby should be. They provide great content and have outstanding columnists and content each and every month.

The other side to that enterprise is the commercial video store. You can buy videos for download on several subjects. In the past I’ve mentioned Mike Confalone’s Allagash Central and the excellent modelling involved in the layout. I like his modelling ethos and style so much I’ve bought several of his videos. The most recent his weathering videos on locomotives and freight cars. It was during the download process from the Model Railroad Hobbyist store that I noticed I had some problems with the files.

Joe Fugate the proprietor could have said “righto here are some replacement files” and left it at that. I’d have been happy with the service and moved on. What prompts me to post is what happened next. I got another email from Joe telling me that no one has ever had this many problems with downloads. He supplies me with new links to the source files in the Amazon cloud and offered a 6 month membership to their flagship Train Masters TV offering.

This came completely out of the blue; like a bolt of lightning. I was literally thunderstruck. Not stupefied however. I took Joe up on his offer and yesterday got my free six month membership started. I’m not trying to get you to join. I don’t want you to give over your hard-earned to Joe and the team on my say so. I do want you to know about the excellent customer service I’ve experienced and think when next you go to purchase hobby related items about the customer service you get.

Will I continue to give my money to MRH and their video store? You bet. The story above is the reason I’ll continue to do so. It’s old-fashioned customer service. Making right what’s gone wrong and then adding a bit more for your trouble. Thanks Joe and the team at MRH for your support in getting the problem resolved and for the sweetener too.

 

Site seeing, Site Updates, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

Site update – 14 November 2016 – A new Kendallville Indiana image gallery

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A big thank you goes out to Charles Malinowski who recently offered me photos of the Kendallville Terminal Railway Co to post here on Andrew’s Trains. I’ve added a new gallery page in the USA Gallery section for his photos of the line. I’m hoping that there are more to come for this great and very modellable shorty shortline railroad.

Update 1: New Gallery Page

charles-malinowski-image-4

The new gallery page link above takes you to Charle’ image set, at what appears to me to be West Rush Street. The image above is full of Autumn (Fall) detail and I just love the time worn look of the railroad. There does not appear to be a single straight piece of rail in the photo, great stuff. Enjoy the link and let me know if you like Charles Malinowski’s images.

About, Ballarat Tramway, Museums, Site Updates, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

Site Update – 13 November 2016 – Ballarat Tramway #18 Page

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During 2016 Ballarat Tramway museum’s number 18 has undergone some major mechanical work to keep her running. Among the works being undertaken are motor rewinds, wheel reprofiling, work on the axles to bring them back into true, work on the Brill truck, journals and bearings. All of this is normally underneath the tram and out of the public view.

During our regular Tramway Tuesday working bee members have been involved in preserving the tram, and thankfully preserving the skills involved in maintaining trams like Grandfather used to. It is only one benefit of volunteering at a working Tramway Museum.

I’ve updated the number 18 page with a gallery for the work being undertaken. I’ll add photos as I take them over our Southern Hemisphere summer as she gets put back together. These photos are a rare and interesting chance to see under the skirts of a tram. I hope that you enjoy them.

Drop me a line or post a comment on the page if you find something you like.

 

1. Small, About, Inglenook, Layout Design, Medium, Operations, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Switching, Timesaver, Web

Site seeing – November 4 – The ‘I got track plans coming out my ears’ edition

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Small layouts are my thing. Like most modellers in Australia space here is at a premium. So a small space layout, offering lots of operating potential, is the way to go.

Recently a long time model railroad friend Shortliner Jack shot me several links over to look at. We’ll be coming back to look closely at those this month. For right now though let’s take a look at a downloadable and one of Shortliner’s links.

Site 1: Designing small shelf Layouts for operating fun

Presented back in 2015 at the NMRA’s Thoroughbred Limited 2015 MCR Convention in Kentucky I felt that this download (in PDF format) provides a great overview of small layouts and a bit of learning about the why and how along the way.

small-layout-handout

The details shown on the Inglenook drawing on page 4 are wrong (you can find out more about Inglenooks in this post); besides that however there are some exceptional small layout designs that should inspire the modeller in you to get out there and make something.

Site 2: Railroad Line Forum – Layout Design Ideas

This is the site that Shortliner Jack pointed me to as a source for his next layout inspiration. Being in the far north of Scotland, buried in snow for 9/10ths of the year, and surrounded by only boxes of Whisky for company he has a lot of time to work on layouts. One layout in Proto48 caught his eye specifically:

There are so many more designs in this thread large and small that you’ll spend several hours looking through and pondering them all. Great ideas and thanks to Robert Chant for sharing his design on the forum.

 

Acrylics, Paints & Painting, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing: 01 November – Model Railroad Hobbyist Painting EBook

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The nice folks over at Model Railroad Hobbyist have available for download (to MRH Subscribers only) the Guide to acrylic painting … in a post-Floquil world. Written by Joe Fugate, this 42 page PDF (zipped download) provides a means for railway modellers to work beyond the end of the Floquil model railroad paint era.

Designed to get you where you need to go when repainting Floquil railroad colours using paints from the following manufacturers:

  • Vallejo Model Air / Game Air
  • Badger MODELflex, and
  • Model Master

This guide provides a timely and useful map to help get the right colour for your next model rail painting project. You can find the download location at:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/forum/170

Keep in mind though that you need to be a subscriber. No payment required so if you are not already a subscriber, you really ought to be. Each month the MRH team produce an outstanding free magazine packed with great stories, information, and resources. Plus there are the forums. Yep you guessed it – I’m a fan and have been since day one.

 

1. Small, About, Layout Design, Site seeing, Site Updates, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

October 31 – A very big thank you to all

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It’s been a long road, with many changes since the original Andrew’s Trains site hosted by FotoPic went under. With files lost, and images gone, and an audience to rebuild it seemed a big hill to climb. After some time I’d gotten the HVL website (www.huntervalleylines.com) established, files and images uploaded and people coming back to visit and a lot of good press going.

Then change rolled around again and before I knew it the hosting company no longer supported my prefered image and blogging packages. With the loss of that support all the content I had worked so hard to upload, discuss and write about was gone.

In 2013 I made the move to the WordPress free version. It was a hard decision to start again for the third time but it seems that it was ‘the charm’. Sometime yesterday a visitor dropped in and viewed the site and helped to double the stats from 2015.

When I started this blog in 2013 I did so very quietly, to get my feet under me while I began transferring data across. 2014 was quiet again as I got used to the platform and my direction.

2015 was the year that things really took off. I had more time to work on the site and the content (though sadly I’ve been grossly under employed since this time in 2014 after being laid off).

2016 has made me very glad to have stuck with it, to get it done and rebuild. With more time to develop the content (the upside of being laid off) and less spent on the mechanics of the site, projects coming out of mothballs with the freeing up of a little money over the next 6 months, I look forward to what I can give back to you.

site-stats-october-2016
Site stats to October 31 2016

I’m a one man band. There are times when I just don’t have the energy or the time to post. Sometimes there is too much to post. I’ve done the best I can to make it all work. Thanks for being willing to come along for the ride. Small layouts are my thing. I enjoy the fact that they are easy to build, take up little space and allow you to operate when and where you are able.

In summary I just wanted to say thank you for your ongoing support, suggestions and comments. I love model railways, and small layouts in general. Mostly I like my fellow modellers who share their dreams, their schemes and even their memes about railway modelling.

All the best, and for those who like my family are Northern hemispherically influenced, Happy Halloween.

Acrylics, Oils, Pastel Powder, Powders, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Weathering, Web

Site seeing: 23 October – The weathering I’m not worthy edition

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Back in August I showcased the work of Martin Wellberg, from Borne in the Netherlands. He’s back after working on another set of large models. On to the visual feast.

Site 1: Martin Wellberg’s ‘Dirty Stuff 2’ on Freerails

I’m not going to write too much about this, this is entirely weathered train porn, it’s that simple. First let’s look over Martin’s HO Scale B&O Boxcar:

Second let’s take a look at what I consider to be the best weathered freight car I’ve seen:

Hope that you enjoyed these images. Thanks go out to Martin for being so willing to share his work.

1. Small, Layout Design, Layouts, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – October 19 – Small, smart and visual layouts

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One of my favourite past times is to travel to shops of dubious regard and seek out old model railway magazines. Most recently I’ve been seen haunting the bookshelf at the Ballarat Tramway Museum and going through the old model rail magazines. One issue of Railway Modeller (August 2003 no less) really took my fancy. Contained inside was a very small but very pleasing layout. Onto today’s site seeing.

Site 1: Rushby’s Railways – Shell Island layout

In said magazine I found Shell Island. A very small layout, two turnouts, end of branch line UK seaside, you get the picture. My adventure could have ended right there, but it didn’t. The images were mesmerising. They displayed a visual depth that made you believe you were only seeing what the camera could show. Great composition, colours and models.

Image linked courtesy of Rushby’s Railways Blog

As you can see from the track plan, this is no last layout effort. It is an end of the branch location, on the coast, with a little traffic and a mostly disused goods shed. And by the way it’s on the ocean.

Image courtesy of Rushby's Railways Blog
Image courtesy of Rushby’s Railways Blog

And that maybe all the difference it needs. It’s idyllic, industrial and ramshackle and yet it stirs emotions and my wanderlust wants to go here and see this little out-of-the-way slice of railway. It looks better on-screen than it does in the magazine too. I want to go to this place. I want to sit at the Cafe table, eat my fish and chips and take in the train action. Even if that is simply a loco idling on the weed strewn siding. I can smell the salt, the seaweed and hear the gulls calling me.

Image courtesy of RMWeb
Image courtesy of RMWeb

And that is a powerful skill for a layout builder. To stir in others a need to relive this moment in time, even if it is false, and never was. Neil – my hat’s off to you brother. You are in a class of your own. Read more about the layout, the builder and his other projects which are as good on his blog from the link above.

Resources:

More images of the layout can be found in the links below:

 

Layouts, Sites of interest, This Site, Web

Site Update – October 12

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I’ve created a new section for Track Plan Ideas.

This section is where I’ll be posting well thought out designs that I can’t be fussed putting into the various railway CAD programs.

Each is at the concept stage and I’ll provide an overview of the location, industries and an operating scheme for these small layouts. The first layout so covered is on the Vinson Lead in Austin, Texas.

If you’ve a moment head on over to ‘The Vinson Lead – small and simple V 1.0‘ and see if this fits your bill for a great little model layout. There’ll be more to come as I now have a new scanner (yippee!).

Hornby, Manufacturers, OO Scale (4mm:Foot), Scales, Site seeing, Web, YouTube

Site Seeing – October 10 – Hornby’s new Peckett W4 Saddle Tank

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First off I’ve got to give a shout out to Oly Turner and Chris Matthews’ blog for highlighting this model; one of their recent posts bought this little gem to light. Many of you may have guessed that I focus more on the North American and Australian scene in HO and O scales than the UK. However, I have a deep love of the UK industrial steam era and especially the four and six coupled locomotives that served these industrial railways for many years.

I don’t get very excited, very often about new releases from Hornby in the UK. I am getting very excited however by the release of their new 0-4-0 Peckett W4 Saddle Tank in 4mm ‘OO’ scale. If you are into small layouts, and or industrial layouts in a small space then I think that you should be too. And here’s the reason:

What’s not to like. It’s small, well proportioned and perfect for the type of small industrial layout that most of us can afford and fit in our homes these days. They are all DCC ready and would appear to be able to fit sound – if through a somewhat small speaker.

They look like they’ll be a red-hot seller. In fact I noticed that all the pre-orders have already sold out. Here’s hoping that Messrs Hornby ramp up production and keep this item in the catalogue for some time as it will form the basis for many conversions to come.

Like to see it running in engineering guise?

You can find out more about the development of the model from Hornby.