- Bill Mosteller from Great Decals! Has a new O scale decal for the Ludington & Northern…
- New from John Wubbel and The All Nation Line: The All-Nation Power Truck Transmissions are back!…
- Joël Rasschaert from Chrezo sent us an update: This Consolidation was delivered to the French state railways from 1913 to 1919…
- New from Central Locomotive Works! The AAR Type B truck is now available in both OW5 and P-48…
- Tom Yorke has a new product for you narrow gauge modelers…On30/On3: Southern San Louis valley Diesel Loco D-500…
16 Riding the Rails In the Land of Pleasant Living
By Stephen Fisher
- …the Eastern Shore of Maryland, known as “The Land of Pleasant Living,” a place that is unhurried, a slower pace of life if you will, no rush, no problems. And so, starts the day, like any other day on the Deep Run Railroad…
38 House by the Railroad 1:48 Scale Rendition of the Edward Hopper Masterpiece
By Myles Marcovitch
- Several years ago I scratch-built two Victorian-era buildings with turrets and Mansard roofs. In one interior, I replicated Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” painting. For the other, I scratch-built a 2nd Empire town house based on a picture of one in The Bronx, NY…
51 “Punta Cayo” Part 2
By Jon Stetz
- A Tropical Railroad of a whimsical nature…A considerable amount of progress has been made on “Punta Cayo” these last few months
64 Livestock Business for the Mountain Electric
By George Paxon
- When the subject of stock cars comes up, our minds usually conjure up visions of cowboys and western railroads. But eastern roads had reasonable livestock handling business as well at one time…To have a livestock business on your layout, you need three things: (1) a stock car, or two, or three…; (2) a stockyard and/or a meat processing plant; and (3) an operating plan to move stock cars realistically…Stock cars did operate on traction lines, too…Adding livestock and related traffic and the essential allied services and facilities can result in a substantial increase in layout operations and is worth considering.
71 New Tracks: Where Mentors Help Modelers Build
By Contributing Editor Jim Kellow MMR
…find out about how the Association can be of benefit to you and maybe help you find a career as a professional model maker…I will be glad to talk with you. My email is jimkellow@newtracksmodeling.com. You never know where a little conversation may lead.
- “New Tracks” Modeling Announcements
On July 18, 2022 we reached a milestone by having the 1,000th modeler subscribe to our YouTube Channel, New Tracks Modeling.
“New Tracks” currently has two different shows which introduce talented experienced modelers who could become your mentor, or at least give you ideas to improve your modeling and the confidence to try new techniques.
We have something new every show, and try to make all our shows a unique, enjoyable learning experience one small step at a time.
Alan Rogers owner of New Creations Victorian Structures offered one of his kits, a Southern Pacific Handcar Shed that once stood at Woodford, California, in the winner’s choice of either HO, S, or O scale on our July 20, 2022 show. The winner was John Garaty in Queensland Australia.
We hope other manufacturers offer a door prize to help promote our shows and your company. Please contact me at jimkellow@newtracksmodeling.com to schedule a date for offering your door prize.
Sponsored by Narrow Gauge Modeling Company (NGMC)
On July 14, our quest was Lou Sassi with his three friends, Jim Murphy, Kip Grant, and John Burchnall. On July 28 Cheryl Sassi, aka “The Arborist”, was our guest with her three friends, Nancy DeGhetto-Murphy, Phillis Baker and Jack Dziadul. August 11th was Tom Farrell, with his three friends, Al Judy, Dan Rousseau, and Dan Wolschon.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, New Tracks Modeling, and ring the bell to not miss any of these interviews.
Everyone who watches our shows has a contribution to make. Offer your help in participating as a mentor, or help making and producing our Zoom and YouTube shows, or help with our website and digital marketing, etc.
Contact me at jimkellow@newtracksmodeling.com and let’s discuss.
Sponsored by Model Railroad Resource LLC
Participants from the month of July:
Alan Rogers, Greg Cassidy, Gary Shurgold, Bob Farquhar, and Jeff Jordan
- New weekly Wednesday Show Segments
This “New Tracks” segment will introduce the women who are talented model builders who could become your mentor and who are helping to make our hobby great.
…We will be inviting NMRA Divisions and clubs from all over the world to talk about what activities and mentoring opportunities they offer. If you hear something that sounds good, see if your local club or division offers it as well. If they do, take advantage of it!
Starting October 19th, Mark Poggendorf, a NMRA member working on his MMR, hobby manufacturer, owner of Poggies Trains and a member of the National Retail Hobby Stores Association (NRHSA), will moderate a monthly segment concerning common issues facing hobby shops and modelers.
- Remote Switching Layout Operation
On July 13th, Heath Hurwitz showed us his small, 48″ x 10″ switching puzzle he calls Human[c]ity Junction, a variation on John Allen’s Timesaver…starting on August 10th, and every two weeks thereafter, we will be offering our viewers the chance to operate on the layout with different puzzles at various difficulty levels. Operators of all skill levels are welcome. If you want to be a remote operator, please email me to get on the schedule at: jimkellow@newtracksmodeling.com
- “New Tracks” Build Alongs
Our “Build Along” modeling experiences give you a personal mentor. Join in for a great learning experience.
Starting July 13, we had a Two Step Modeling BUILD ALONG with Earl Hackett
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- Card Model with Paul Egri, designer, David Rarig and Fr. Ron Walthers
On July 23, 2022, a Build Along of a Paul Egri created a card model of a service station was started by both David Rarig and Fr Ron Walthers using different techniques. The FREE model can be downloaded
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- Special Card Design Along with Earl Hackett and Paul Egri
These segments will teach how to use MS paint to do your own card designs like Paul does.
The exact date will be announced in the near future.
Starting August 17, 2022, Bruce Nickerson, owner of Sea Port Model Works started building his Kit #H136W A Waterline kit of a 53’ Coastal Steam Passenger Ferry in HO scale
Starting August 24, 2022, Arron Piotraschke, owner of Apogee Locomotive Works, will build one of his (ALW) locomotive kits in a Build Along. The kit is the ALW 28-Ton Boxcab
Starting August 31, 2022, Richard Rands, owner of Berkshire Valley Models, will join with Martin Brechbiel, MMR to build his On30/On3 Ore car kit.
Starting September 7, 2022, Jeff Adan owner of Motrak Models and Greg Cassidy will team up to build the Alton Fire Station in S scale.
Starting September 7, 2022, Claire Gilbert, the owner of Sylvan Models, will have his CNE 1937 Boxcar kit built by Bill Davis.
Starting September 21, 2022, Mark Poggendorf, owner of Poggies Trains, will use several of his molds to build a rock wall and bridge.
Starting October 5, 2022, Kevin Macomber owner of the Narrow Gauge Modeling Company (NGNC) will begin a Build Along with Martin Brechbiel MMR of one of his Wagon kits.
Starting October 26, 2022, Jess Dozier owner of Hangman Creek Dioramas will build one of his kits.
Starting November 16, 2022, Alan Rogers, owner of New Creations Victorian Railroad Buildings will begin a Build Along of his kit, the St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church
Starting November 23, 2022, Michael Groves will begin a Built Along project using his Lighting Without Wiring system.
Starting December 7, 2022, Richard Rands, owner of Berkshire Valley Models, will join with Bill Davis to build his kit of the Walsh/Duncan Bay Window House
Starting January 4, 2023, Frank and Natalie Saladino, owners of Mudd Creek Models, will build one of their kits.
Starting February 22, 2023, Atlantis Models owner Peter Petri will build an O scale gasoline Truck.
These segments are meant for modelers who want to share their modeling efforts and discuss their modeling techniques so others can benefit. These segments can be for one or more shows depending on the details included for the model building presentation.
- “Ask Your Modeling Question”
These are segments where viewers can ask modeling questions and get answers from other modelers on the show.
Modelers build kits from our distant past that are either no longer manufactured or hardly available. Kits whose names we may have forgotten, but when we hear their name again, brings back great memories from our youth. These builds will definitely remind all of us what past modeling used to be like.
- Now, let’s meet some modelers who I know can can teach us all some modeling techniques:
Hi, I’m an Austrian modeller who fell in love with big American steam locomotives…I was totally blown away by the sheer mass of O scale and decided that it’s what I want…
I switched over to proto:48…successfully converted my first locomotive, the Union Pacific 9000, a mighty 4-12-2…Since then I tried to develop some skill in weathering and scenery…
Currently I’m designing 3D models of detail parts that can be printed in resin with today’s home printers.
I love the idea of sharing and helping…
Who I am as a modeler: A life long “maker” of things, essentially – and an incessant tinkerer…
I loved tearing into things to see how they worked, fixing them, and sometimes improving upon the original with some personal modifications…
In 8th grade I learned quickly that my shop teacher was also a model railroader – and would facilitate a number of orders through Walthers…
That fancy Athearn Blue Box GP-9 with Southern Pacific grey & red graphics I got through my shop teacher is still one of my favorites!
Then… college. I continued to design, build, make, create endeavor things – but now while pursuing a degree in Architecture…When in school in the late 1980’s we still drew everything by hand, but learned CAD on the earliest iterations of AUTOCad…I realized it was going to be ‘the future’.
How I learned to build models stems from those early years before college, then the architectural models…
There I learned to realize my vision for anything – how to draw, plan, design – pretty much anything…
I think I’m an obsessive DIY type and end up tearing stuff apart when it’s done, or almost done – as by the time I finish it I see all the ways to do it better.
I started in the hobby when I was a young person. I built my first layout in my early teens, and read as many books as I could get hold of. I experimented with many building and scenery techniques along the way, built numerous kits and did a bit of scratch building as well.
I was fortunate enough to have a mentor in the hobby. His name was Jim Ellis…always included me in his visits to many wonderful layouts. Jim and I worked on his home layout always trying to improve our own skills as we worked on everything from rebuilding brass engines, to every type of scenery construction imaginable, as well as, developing some of our own techniques as well.
I had the unique opportunity to work on the Little Canada Project for 6 years leading the scenery and land forms team in producing a model of Canada. If you go to the attraction and see the terrain, I probably had a hand in it; and when you see the Niagara Falls display, I not only carved the falls rock work from some giant pieces of foam, but included in the display is a scratch built version of my own home.
I started 3D modeling in 2017 first for myself and home layout. I realized that some of the things I had made out of necessity other people might also enjoy.
I approached Steven Tuff in the fall of 2019 with the idea of producing small run items 3D printed to fill a void in our hobby
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- Fr. Ron Walters, O.F.M.: Provincial Minister, Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Order of Friars Minor (O.F.M.)
We are fortunate in having Fr. Ron lead us in prayer at the start of our Zoom Shows…
Where do I start… My brother and I had trains as a child. In fact before I turned one, at my first Christmas, my dad gave me trains. Of course I remember nothing of that event. As told to me by my mother, my dad was scolded by his mother that I was far too young to know what it was or what to do with it….
I got back into model railroading after teaching high school for four years…I remembered spending some time with my dad when I was younger putting together a plastic (static) model of a steam engine during one of the times my mother was in the hospital…I bought my first wooden craftsman kit of a “general store”. It was a box of wooden sticks. It took me several months to put together at the small desk in my bedroom, in between teaching and working as an assistant pastor of a parish in mission territory. I no longer have the finished kit, but it was great and rewarding. I was hooked on craftsman kits.
After ten years in Denver, I was moved to Northwest Indiana (the other end of the State where I taught high school). I was familiar with the area, and found a club in Valparaiso, IN, the Porter County Model Railroad Club…I kit-bashed two or three buildings for them, but the first scratch built structure was a New York Central passenger station which used to exist East of Valpo…My article on the build was published in the NYC Modeler magazine…
I had to suspend modeling for a few years. I am currently the CEO of the Franciscans in New Mexico and Northeastern Arizona. I have been an administrator in the Franciscans now for nearly 30 years. That consumes a lot of energy and time.
Most of my learning has been by trial and error. I learned a long time ago that the best way to learn something is by making mistakes.
My biggest complaint about modeling is the cost. For someone like me, cost is significant, since all of us Franciscans live together and share our resources and expenses in common.
…the build I am doing right now for the Saturday Ice House scratch build is in my wheel house, as they say…I once found some very cheap figures on Amazon which were a scale 1:100, close enough for HO
scale, for a very reasonable price, but they are horribly painted. So I repainted them. I buy “for sale” signs for plastic sheets, I look for “trash” that may be able to be adapted to things I need for building (I have a large collection of clear plastic from packaging that I use for windows). In the long run, it is part of the fun of modeling.
96 Easy Landscaping on Your Layout
By John Frankforther
- When you get your track work up and running on your layout, and the trains are running around your flat piece of plywood or foam board, you remember seeing the highly detailed scenes in train magazines. You wonder how they got such great scenery. Having viewed many, many articles on different ways to create scenery from carved foam board, spray foam, paper and glue, and many more, you wonder where to start.
I had also viewed many videos on creating the most realistic scenery for my layout. Somehow, it just didn’t click on how to get what I wanted. I had chunks of foam carved to “look” like rocks but they were just stuck on other pieces of larger foam. Not very realistic!
Then…
98 Unloading Trestle Diorama
By Phil Camp
My profession for 42 years allowed me to travel across the US…On several occasions, time allowed me to check out the local railroads and their related structures, scenes, operations, rolling stock, yards, etc…One area of interest was what I refer to as a “sideline business”. An example would be an elevated unloading trestle for bulk commodities…A good example could be a local business that sold, supplies to farmers/ranchers who needed large quantities of bulk items…I decided to scratch build a diorama of this type of structure.
103 Making Your Own Useful Tools and Jigs
By Graham Gibbs
Graham shows us some of the jigs, tools and ideas he uses in his hobby of restoring mainly 1:43 scale diecast model cars. Many of these useful ideas can be applied to railway based projects…
108 What’s on Your Workbench
- This series shows our readers what other modelers are working on…
Remember, it’s free and nothing to sign up for.
And don’t forget to tell your friends!
