Weekend Update 9/20/26

[mu26aeh]

Yea !  Can't wait til Griff joins us.  He's been a great help for me in upping my graffiti and weathering game.  I spent more Altoona money after I left Altoona after attending his clinic getting more pens etc to use.

[R L Smith]

A couple of weeks ago I posted photos of my scratch-built Lackawanna freight house, when it was about 95% complete.  I have since added 7 exterior and 3 interior lights (Woodland Scenics Just Plug system), figures, and additional details. I plan to display it at the ELRRHS Symposium at the end of October and then will install it on the layout.

I had initially purchased fiber optic lighting kits and some lamps that were advertised as N Scale exterior doorway lamps, but the lampshades scale out to 6 feet in diameter!  That and other dimensional "challenges" led me to the much smaller WS lamps.













The desk is made from styrene strip, with a Tichy window used to simulate a hutch with pigeion-hole bins. (There is probably a name for that type of sorting rack.)



Ron

[jpwisc]

I wrapped up my new Fox River Valley caboose. I fulled in 12 windows, added brass grabs, and painted it up in its later WC scheme.
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[delamaize]

Nothing too groundbreaking this weekend. Installed some decoders, did some test running.
Went and did an ops session at Jim Younkin's MB&S.
Only got one shot thought

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[robertjohndavis]

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.

I hope shadowboxes become a trend in the US. I have seen some incredible ones in the UK. There’s so much to like about them, but my favorite attribute is focusing attention on the scene by blocking out the world around it.

[N Scale Train Boy]

I had a great weekend running trains all weekend up at the Op Around the Clock operating weekend in the Rochester area! Didn't take many pictures, but I got a few on my phone.

First up was a stop in at my Alma Mater of RPI to say a quick hello to my friends in the Rensselaer Model Railroad Society. They're doing well, and are beginning to make progress on their new layout, which is great to see.

Then to my host's house for a Garbage Plate for dinner and off to Mike Pyszczek's B&O Buffalo Sub 4th Division for the first session of the weekend Friday night. Took this photo of my B&CCS Traveling Boxcar passing a signal on a LCL freight.

Mike's layout, while featuring some switching, is more about having trains run over the main, with B&O trains taking the spotlight while Erie, Lackawanna, NYC, and Lehigh Valley trains run through and interchange with the B&O throughout the session - and the layout itself was beautiful as well!

Saturday morning I spent running Dale Oswald's Genesee Terminal Railroad, a freelanced terminal railroad between Syracuse and Rochester set in 1999 with Conrail/CSX and Amtrak running on the main while GT trains ply the local industries, with a fictional Loon Bay Transit Authority commuter job running along the line as well. While new to ops, and having only ever hosted a few sessions, Dale's layout has some good bones and a good start to becoming a well operating layout.

Finally, I spent Saturday afternoon at Paul Stamp's Finger Lakes Railway. Set in 2015, Paul models the FGLK jobs out of Geneva Yard, going to Auburn, Penn Yan, Solvay, Canandaigua, and NS trains into and out of Gang Mills to connect the layout with the outside world. Paul's layout is always a blast to run, and with his recent addition work to the layout (adding Auburn yard and track to Solvay) the ops scheme is better than ever. While Paul doesn't have a ton of scenery up yet, what he does have looks fantastic! Paul's session replicates 2 days on the railroad, and myself and another RPI alum took the opportunity (with Paul's permission) to do a little NEB&W reunion and photoshoot on the layout, bringing my NEB&W 468 and 2 bay hopper back together with sister locomotive 469 and a caboose.






I caught some NS power using the Corning Secondary bridge over the FGLK to Penn Yan as a yard lead out of Gang Mills on Day 2 of the session as well.



We had a group dinner Friday night, and I got a pano of the group - a great turnout for a great ops weekend.


And as an added bonus, I stopped into the Hemlock train show and picked up a few pieces of rolling stock as well. Fantastic weekend, and got me excited to get back to modeling this week!

[eja]

I also spent time building this Southern Tier Grain Modelers small hopper unload bucket conveyor for my fertilizer plant.....

Your elevator looks great.  Could you post dimensions, please.

[chuck geiger]

Yea !  Can't wait til Griff joins us.  He's been a great help for me in upping my graffiti and weathering game.  I spent more Altoona money after I left Altoona after attending his clinic getting more pens etc to use.

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Dave Vollmer's doppelgänger.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I hope shadowboxes become a trend in the US. I have seen some incredible ones in the UK. There’s so much to like about them, but my favorite attribute is focusing attention on the scene by blocking out the world around it.

Be the change you want to see in the world

[up1950s]

...and in go the first pieces of roadbed!


After 2 years I'm thrilled to get to this point.

All in all it's been a productive week for the NKP-ish.   My goal is to have at least one operable track around the layout by Halloween.

When the " In go " is as neat as that ,  I know the " out come " will be neater .

[John]

Be the change you want to see in the world

I like the concept also - it would certainly protect the scenery .. IMHO  problem I see is there would be a bunch of different sizes, (height) on modules. That might actually distract from the intent .

[Lemosteam]

Please help me find out where the red mustang came from? 

I need to turn that model into a Vert, to make it just like mine...Also my wife's nephew graduated for Rensselaer.

[N Scale Train Boy]

I'll check with Paul to see where he got the Mustang for you John!

[N Scale Train Boy]

@Lemosteam its a scale Hot Wheels apparently. https://www.ebay.com/itm/205973059713 for reference

[Lemosteam]

@Lemosteam its a scale Hot Wheels apparently. https://www.ebay.com/itm/205973059713 for reference

Thanks!