Weekend Update 9/20/26

[up1950s]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Texas_%28locomotive%29#/media/File:Texas_after_cosmetic_restoration_at_Spencer_Shops,_NC_Transportation_Museum.jpg

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https://www.jimpearsonphotography.com/category/new-mexico-railroads/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIW19IlSNLG/

https://indyencyclopedia.org/railroads/

https://rlhs.org/WP/railroad-history/

https://scenicrailroadusa.com/railroad/north-alabama-railroad-museum-mercury-and-chase-railroad/

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Oerlikon_-_%27Gleis_9%27_w%C3%A4hrend_der_Geb%C3%A4udeverschiebung_2012-05-23_15-38-40_%28P7000%29.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original

https://pleasureinsimplethings.com/appreciating-the-season-by-steam-train/

[CR4100]

I'm having a Smurftastic weekend.

I used AI to upscale and sharpen an image I found online. The area behind the decal is painted silver which gives a nice 3D effect when the light hits it right.

The car is a Thrall 3000 cf hopper, same as the original.

[randgust]

OK, this is from last weekend at the Altoona N Scale Weekend and I didn't build the module or even take the picture!

This is Ed K's rather groundbreaking Seidelmann Run module - the 'shadowbox' Ttrak concept with self contained lighting, backdrop, and 'dead season' scenery.

The locomotive and train is my rebuilt Trix Decapod with DCC, a Kato five-pole, and sound, pulling the 1914 Cole Bros circus train; that's a Dietriech elephant car up front (laser kit).  Ed's taken the winning shot of that one, it ran pretty well this year.

The ONLY modification I made to Ed's shot was cloning in some more water across the front.


 
Ed got good 'green' Conrail shots on some of mine so that was fair too.   What a great weekend.  The combined Ttrak module layout was 7 scale miles of main line and hard to say how many modules.

Ed photographed all of them and then ran a 'hi rail trip' over the entire layout.

[chuck geiger]

I have Griff on this weekend and he loved Altoona and saw the Ed work of art. He is going to joing Railwire.

[nickelplate759]

Painted the pink foam.   Went from this:



to this:



I didn't paint over track center lines I already had laid out - they'll get covered with track anyway.

Roadbed and track laying starts this week!

[kiwi_bnsf]

Over the last three weeks I've spent more time that I'm willing to admit developing a bunch of extensions to the ProtoThrottle firmware:

• New Stack mode multi-step variable brake for ESU decoders
• New always-on airbrake simulation with prototypical main reservoir and compressor behaviour
• New scale speed display on the main screen
• New Operations Mode main screen with two extra configurable functions
• New 2-stage horn, function on emergency, and headlight improvements
• New Shared Loco Configuration store allowing throttles to share configs wirelessly (including PC import/export)

I'm not sure how many ProtoThrottle users there are on The Railwire, but if you are interested — I've put together a YouTube presentation with a deep dive into all the features with demos:

Everything is publicly available on my GitHub at:
  https://github.com/tim-benson/mrbw-cst
  https://github.com/tim-benson/mrbw-cabbus

If you have any questions/feedback — I've started a thread in the DCC section:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=61506.0

Cheers

[muktown128]

I have Griff on this weekend and he loved Altoona and saw the Ed work of art. He is going to joing Railwire.

I met Griff and his wife railfanning in Cresson on Friday.  He's originally from Jersey.  I had a really nice chat with him on Saturday and gave him a couple of cars I purchased at the show (Bluford Wabash dented gondola and Athearn CB&Q covered hoppers that Lombard was blowing out) to weather.  I wish I attended his clinic. 

Scott