Tag Archives: seeing

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – March 2

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Yesterday I focused on David Ballie’s Victorian Railways scratchbuilding site. In keeping with that theme (and who knows March may end up being the month of scratchbuilding and kitbashing – scratchbashing anyone?).

Site 1: Peter’s Model Railroading

In the scratchbashing vein I’m going to point you at Peter’s Model Railroading (link here). Peter is an S Scale modeller and is working with radio control (using DCC chips in the locos). There are articles and how-to articles on a range of topics. Take a look around and enjoy his range of articles on scratchbuilding.

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web, YouTube

Site seeing – February 28

Introduction

Hi my name is Andrew, and I’m a YouTube-a-holic.

It’s true; I love YouTube. In the same way the Internet has changed the way we read about the hobby due to the explosion in E-Zines, how we consume our train videos has changed too.

YouTube has become my go-to place for rail fanning vision. Today’s ‘Site seeing’ reflects the best of railfan video.

YouTube site 1: Delay in Block productions

There’s a great choice of documentary length videos here. Some switching related, others location related. Some are only 6-8 minutes in length, others like this one (Offsite Link) run to just under an hour and show a lot of freight action.

YouTube site 2: Distant Signal

Danny Harmon’s a railfanning machine. He’s been producing railfan videos for a long time (view his website here to buy his DVDs) with some of his earliest videos from 1995.

His recent series on the CSX signalling display and head indication (speed signalling) has been great to watch. Based in Florida he manages to have a great volume of vision and all of it interesting. As he says, he’s a railfan, not a modeller, and his videos reflect this. With great production values and a melodic voice, the Distant signal ought to be on your favourites list.

Look in the resources section for a bunch of links to Danny’s videos.

Other thoughts

We are 1/6th of the way through the year, and tomorrow we’ll be at the beginning of March. In Ballarat (and the rest of the southern hemisphere) it’s the beginning of Autumn. We’ve just had a big cool front blow through with rain and thunderstorms. 2015 is rocketing forward and before we know it winter will be on top of us. Thanks for reading along with me during February. I’ll talk to you next month.

Resources

Delayed in Block

· Fall Freights: NS, CSX, and the World’s Worst Railroad Tracks

Danny Harmon (Distant Signal)

· How to Read Signals On the CSX – Part 1

· How to Read Signals On the CSX – Part 2

· How to Read Signals On the CSX – Part 3

· How to Read Signals On the CSX – Part 4

Layout Design, Layouts, Liked off site, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site Seeing 18 February

Introduction

The IAIS Grimes Industrial Line

1 – The IAIS Grimes Industrial Line

In my site seeing post yesterday I mentioned the publishing bonanza we’ve inherited thanks to the internet. One of these great sites is the free (as in Beer) internet Model Railroading Magazine – the Model Railroad Hobbyist (Link Here).

Apart from a great magazine that I’ve read since issue number one, there are the modellers blogs that are associated on the site. Among the best of the blogs is the Grimes Industrial layout blog of JFMcNab (Link Here).

You can also see a range of photos from his layout on the Unofficial IAIS Railfans website (Link Here).

Take some time and take a look around and discover the Grimes Industrial Line. I think you’ll enjoy the Grimes Line sites.

Resources:

Watch one of James’ videos from his YouTube channel:

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing 17 February

Introduction

I love the internet publishing phenomenon. What Gutenberg did for the printed book, the internet has done for the publisher. We now have more access to more information than ever before. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the information provided, in general for the modeller the publishing boom has been a godsend.

We now have access to more free, high quality photos of areas, industries, locomotives, railroad operators and rolling stock than in any time in the history of railroads. I could not create the prototypical layout designs I do without this access.

If you’ve not read this blog before, I live in the Western Gold Fields of Victoria, in the fair city of Ballarat. The city is steeped in our country’s (albeit short) history. Primarily Ballarat’s history focuses on the Eureka stockade and the beginnings of the Australian democracy movement. Geelong our nearest sea port (and Victoria’s largest Regional centre) is a short 88 kilometre, 60 minute drive south. (Unfortunately there is no direct rail service there at the moment.) But I digress…

Site 1 – Rail Geelong

Today’s site seeing tour focuses on our nearest big regional centre Geelong, and its railways. I only discovered the site thanks to T-Trak Ian’s blog with a link from there to the Sadliers photo page (Link Here)

There is a lot of photos there, and even though I am relatively short drive down the road, I’ll be using Marcus Wong’s site for quite a bit of research in the near future.

You can visit Marcus’ excellent site here: http://www.railgeelong.com/

Diesel Rail Cars, RDC, Site seeing, Sites of interest

Site seeing – February 13

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There are some who believe in Friday the 13th as a bad omen. I like to think of Friday the 13th as a good time to get things done while everyone else is cowering under their beds, waiting for the sky to fall.

Site 1 – Clear Iron (YouTube)

I just got through posting about the new Rapido RDC-1. If you are unfamiliar with this little cracker of a design enjoy this video from 1952 about the RDCs.

Site 2 – Trinity Railway Express (YouTube)

When we lived in Austin Texas we’d head on up to Dallas and Fort Worth every now and then so I could indulge my railfanning needs, which to be honest I never could really meet in Austin.

Of interest is the ex- B&M 6110 RDC-1 heading the consist of 3 RDC’s. TRE #2005, TRE #2006, and TRE#2007

Site 3 – US Budds (again from YouTube)

This much longer but just as interesting video takes a look at the US operators of RDC-1s including:

  • Belfast & Moosehead Lake,
  • Connecticut DOT/Amtrak (SPV2000’s),
  • Metro North,
  • Bellefonte Historical RR,
  • North Shore Scenic RR (Duluth),
  • Trinity Rail Express (Dallas area),
  • Reading & Northern, and
  • Cape May Seashore Line

Enjoyed a massive storm through Ballarat tonight, and now the temperature is dropping away. Hope the day has been great where you are.

Layouts, Site seeing

Site seeing

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Hard to believe that we are at the end of January already; 1/12th of the year has already sped by.

While tooling around the web I found the following sites of great interest, and hope that you will find them useful and informative too:

Brian Fayle’s website (http://www.brifayle.ca/2abaseshadows.html) – I’ve followed Brian’s website since late 2003. I especially enjoyed his unique approach to figure painting. He starts from black and builds colour up layer upon layer, ensuring that shadows are a part of the painting process. Follow the link and enjoy a really good read. While you are there, take a look around at his range of layouts built over the years.

A new layout found on BigBlue Train forums: Bushwick Terminal (http://bigbluetrains.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=6560). Some really great ideas on layout design and the layout itself is going to be really good to watch come to life.

All the best on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

Andrew