Roundhouse Gets a New Floor

I’ve never been happy with the roundhouse floor. Being made from a thick layer of ballast, it was not flat, and some of the rocks were real ankle-turners. As a result, details like work benches and water barrels were crooked. As I had the roundhouse module off the layout to protect it while working on […]

Turntable Improvements

To avoid any nasty crunching sounds as I was disrupting traffic on the main these past few days, I undid the three screws that secure the turntable module and levered it out and onto an open drawer. While it’s accessible, I will be making some improvements. First of all, the lock has not worked properly […]

Major Service Disruption

After determining the source of my derailment was a sudden twist to the track, I spent a few days pondering how to address it. Should I shim or should I sand? Which rail needed to move? The Trackwork Torsion Testing Tool (TTTT) told me where the problem was, but not exactly what the problem was. […]

The Trackwork Torsion Testing Tool (TM)

While almost every derailment on Pembroke can be traced to a gauge problem – typically too tight – a couple of sites continue to defy explanation. Backing south into the heel of the south siding switch, for example, the rear (now leading) drivers of 1120 gently drop off the rail and onto the ties. Going […]

Modelling on the Road

Years ago, I worked as a consultant for a database company. A road warrior, often away early Monday morning, returning home Friday evening. It seems like other modellers are able to get some modelling done while travelling; I’ve even heard of a pilot who would build models in the cockpit during long flights. However, the […]

Water Tower Complete

I think we’ll call the water tower complete for now. I wound up printing the ladder so I could get round rungs without losing my mind drilling holes. The wooden supports for the ladder are quite delicate, and the ladder just lies in there loose so I can remove the roof and mess with the […]

Water Tower Tank

Now we get to the meat of the matter: the tank is usually considered the hardest part about building a water tower. In my case, the hard work was mostly done in OnShape. The prototype tank in Wakefield has two different types of band connectors, and they are in different orientations. I copied these differences […]

Spout Installation

It took two attempts – the first with epoxy, and the second with CA – to get the spout and frame mounted on the base. The epoxy didn’t work out because even with help from my darling wife, I wasn’t able to clamp it where I wanted it. With CA, I could hold it by […]

Water Tower Roof

It took four or five hours of shaping Monashee Laser Engineering shingles into trapezoids, peeling tiny scraps of backing, and sticking the tiny trapezoidal pieces of paper in concentric circles, which I had, with a level of foresight for which I am still congratulating myself, inscribed in the 3D printed core of the roof, but […]

Register Refinements

It’s hard to believe that almost two years have passed since I introduced train registers at Golden Lake and Pembroke. In reality, there would be two registers at each station – one for each direction. However, in the interest of reducing the amount of stuff, I decided to make only one book that serves both […]