Early in my railway modelling life, I was fortunate to be encouraged to join the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders (OVAR). Monthly through the long frigid Ottawa winters, this club met for dinner in the Nepean Sportsplex, right next to my high school. They’re still going strong after 56 years. As well as a speaker, OVAR also has a monthly display of models – each month … Continue reading What will you bring?
After three evenings of concentrated effort, the roundhouse is nearing completion. I didn’t quite finish everything on the list, but I still should have one more day before I have to go to Toronto. Also, there is always the prospect of working into the wee hours on Saturday before the meet. It wouldn’t be the first time I displayed a model that was still wet. … Continue reading Racing to finish the roundhouse
It turns out that due to my mum’s visit and an impending business trip to Hogtown next week, I only have four evenings left until the Railway Modellers’ Meet! There is definitely more than four days’ worth of work left in the roundhouse at my usual rate, and so, I need to get hyper-efficient. I took a couple of minutes today to sketch out a plan … Continue reading Four days left
I’ve wanted a lathe for about as long as I’ve been able to spell the word. Even before I got into Proto:87, I knew one would be a part of my workshop someday. Since getting into the finer scale, it’s been inevitable. My friend, Andrew Hutchinson, has more machine tools than a single person should really own. Yet, he always seems to be on the … Continue reading A lathe joins the workshop
While my mum’s here, and the railroad room is temporarily given over to its guest room function, I’m working on a few articles for Model Railroad Hobbyist. My recent rant about the tedium of North American model railroad magazines is still fresh in my mind, and it’s making me wonder if I can steer clear of the trap. How can we describe a sequence of … Continue reading Construction Articles
The window pattern for this roundhouse came from a drawing for the roundhouse at Barry’s Bay. Each of the three windows has six large sections, each of nine panes, making 172 panes in all. That’s a lot of careful cutting, but trivial for the Cricut! I don’t know why I’d been putting it off, but there I was, near the end of the model, and … Continue reading Roundhouse mullions
My mum is coming to visit tomorrow, and that means that I’ve spent more than the usual proportion of time on finishing up household projects especially in the railroad room cum office cum guest room*. The cabinets along the back wall of the room were among those projects, and I’m rather pleased with how they’ve turned out. The bulk of the cabinets were from … Continue reading No plans for expansion here!
