Gallery 8 features my latest shots and due to space limitations may change over time.

FYI: The train board is located in the middle of a den surrounded by computer furniture, plants, a sofa and chair, a coat rack, a laundry area, and lots of windows. It's a tight squeeze in this room, but it allows me to work on all sides of the layout. Adding a backdrop now would make no sense. I've retouched the images to remove the background clutter.

January 2005 brings in a few new additions as well as some revisiting of older items.

I pulled out my old Rivarossi Heavyweight ATSF passenger cars (with MTs) and my Bachmann Spectrum ATSF 2-8-0 Consolidation and took a few photos. Back in the 60s/70s I owned a set of the PRR Rivarossi Heavyweights so I guess I'm sort of re-living the past with these. They were one of the first eBay items I picked up and the first MT coupler change-outs I did.

I thought it would be interesting to attempt some 'sepia / pantone' type B&W versions. I'm still experimenting with these.

I've been running my trains a lot lately since I got an Aztec Predator cleaning car and gave the layout a serious cleaning. I've added an Atlas UP H15-44 (DCC) and pulled out my UP Kato F3's, LL UP 2-8-8-2 Mallet, and my Kato UP RS-2 and been enjoying my UP Transition period stuff again. Photos to follow...

Just a few quick shots this month. We've all been very busy. Looks like the den will be painted and the floor redone. This means I'll have to figure a way to move the train board without destroying it. I'll have to rig up a lid for it and find a way to fasten the styrofoam down... currently it rests in the wood frame and is not fastened done. The board weighs a ton and will need to be turned on its side to make it out the door so I'll need to add wheels to the lid also.

Painting hasn't hit yet so I'm still enjoying the current road and transition period. Here's a few new shots.

It looks like this is it for this layout for a while. I've packed up all my paints and detail parts to make room for other endeavors (painting/flooring). All trains / autos / misc. movable details have been removed from the layout. The flower gardens have had an extra drenching of scenic cement to hopefully keep them attached when the board is moved.

I'm still working on securing the (Styrofoam) layout portion properly to the wood base so I can tip the board on its side to move it. This thing weighs a ton.

Thanks to all of you who have emailed me over the last few years. I'll be taking new photos at some point when things settle down...

Just some quickie shots. Its not pretty... and I hope this will do the job. I've added wheels to the back (bottom) and handles to the sides. I've also used some metal strips used in home construction (1.75"x5") which I've bent into an 'L' as a fastener to hold the Styrofoam down when the board is tipped upright for transport. I've included a scan of a sketch of the board.

Looks like this weekend will be the big move for the layout. I'll post the results. I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping that this will work.

It was a challenge but (with the help of my wife and my son) we managed to pull it off! My hands are still sore from gripping the handles. Everything worked out fine... the train board is now in the garage and only a few minor pieces fell off.

The wheels were a great help as the board was heavier than I expected. We tipped it up on the wheels, retracted the legs, and were able to get it out to the patio through the den sliding door
where we re-righted the board and extended the legs again carrying it around the backyard to our garage. Now my den can be painted and new flooring installed.

Work is in progress and my layout is buried deep in the recesses of my garage. Painting has been completed. Flooring is now being installed.

It's BACK! After what seemed like forever I finally got my layout back inside the refinished den. A couple of months in the garage (un-air conditioned) required a serious Goo-Gone session with my Aztec Predator rail cleaning car. Other than one flex track curve connection everything is running great. I installed a Digitrax DN163K1B in my Kato AC4400CW and found it derailed in one direction at this connection. Guess the expansion from heat did it in. I also got a Bar Mills Borden's billboard.. since the company I work for sells a type of this milk I thought it was a nice addition to my town.

Wow. Where do I begin? No posts in September due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. My family was very lucky. We sustained property damages do to wind and rain but no flood damage. My brother lost everything. We had rain(wind-driven) water inside my den area which messed up my new flooring that had just been installed. My layout was untouched. We stayed in West Memphis, TN , Addison, TX and in Crowley, LA before returning to Harvey, LA a couple weeks ago to start the clean up. Here are some pictures I shot at the end of August just before we evacuated.

I got a new release Intermountain CA-3/4 caboose. Unfortunately its unusually heavy and it 'rolls' poorly. Its been causing derailments since its creating a serious drag on my consists. I've tried changing out the metal wheels with some Micro Trains plastic wheels (no luck - it didn't run at all). I've taken a shot of it as well as a Micro Trains caboose to compare the quality...

I've included some photos of the TomyTec Car Collection #1 I recently obtained. This set is 50's/60's based. I find them pretty darn decent for plastic models. They are listed as 1/150 scale (yet also N-Scale on the box). They work for me. I got them off that 'auction' site and they shipped from Japan. As with other car sets there are duplicates. I also got the #2 Collection which is 60's/70's based (which I haven't setup on my layout yet).

Here's a few extra shots including some new Classic Metal Works tractor/trailer trucks.

Its been really difficult trying to line up repairs on my roof/etc and flooring after the storm. Looks like February for the floor repair so I won't have to move the layout back to the garage for a few more weeks.

Here's a few shots of UP 3039 'rounding the bend' of the southeast side of the layout.

Home repairs keep getting pushed back so I added a backdrop to the layout this month. I originally thought of producing my own digital backdrop from photos but decided to try a product available from InternetTrains.com that came in sheets. The background sheets come in 38"x13" sections @ $9.99 each so I needed two full and a portion of a third piece to create a rear backdrop to cover that green wall.

I bought a few of the styles but the mountains worked well with my layout. Anything with a farm or a house seemed too big. They sell a fall mountains set (with no pictures available on the web site) that ended up being over sized for n-scale use because of some trees included on one of the two sheets available.

I goofed on one thing however. I tried using some cardboard project board (that I already had) to mount them on and used a little too much white glue causing the cardboard to warp slightly over time. (The mfg suggested a spray glue...) These are really pretty nice so it will be worth the effort for me to do it again and get things right. I'll probably use plastic or thin wood as the backing material next try. When I do I'll detail a little more on how I attached this to the back of the layout (removable).

New on the roster is my Atlas DCC MP15DC. After a track cleaning it ran very nice. Although my LL SW9/1200 crawls a little slower it can't compare to the level of detail of the Atlas switcher. Here's a few shots making the rounds on the NSWB.

I packed up all my rolling stock and moved my layout out of the den so we could pull up the Hurricane Katrina damaged laminate flooring and clean the moldy floor base. We hope to get a new (ceramic tile) floor installed in a few weeks. I'm also still waiting on some new backdrops so I can replace the 'cardboard' version with a more permanent (and stable) version. For shots 3-5 I placed the colorful forest mountain backdrop against the side. On shot 6 on the left middle you can see one of the clamps that I installed to hold down the layout when moved.

I managed to take a few shots of my new Kato ATSF Super Chief Set A before the move. My Kato E8/9 A-B-A set will have to do for motive power...