Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Ordered all three: new Micro-Trains anniversary cars

›
 On the first of the month, per normal practice, Micro-Trains announced three new pre-orders for their new " anniversary series "...
Thursday, February 25, 2021

Top Posts

›
 No tl;dr summary for this post.   Just that I was using Google tools to see which of my posts from 10 years ago got the most views.  "...
Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Track Cleaning Cars, Patience: Atlas (Tomix) Track cleaning car working with decoder

›
 This is a follow-on to this post from 2009 .  tl;dr: Patience is a virtue.  I tried installing an obsure Japanese decoder in an Atlas Track...
Saturday, February 20, 2021

Digitrax Frustrations: Known bugs in DS64 and DCS100

›
 tl;dr: It's a good practice to read all Digitrax tech notes on their website for a given component before doing anything with it.  Tons...
Thursday, February 18, 2021

The miracle of JMRI

›
tl;dr version: JMRI = Java Model Railroad Interface ( jmri.org ) It's open source, free, software that runs on any operating system and ...
Wednesday, February 17, 2021

WiFi control! Digitrax LNWI & WiThrottle

›
Short summary: Using WiFi for train control is new in the last 11 years, works great and is the way to go. Digitrax LNWI module is inexpensi...
Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Track cleaning revisited

›
 The tl;dr version is this: Mineral Spirits is the best bet for track cleaning fluid An abrasive like a Bright Boy is said to be bad due to ...

Restart #2

›
Very sadly, a few short weeks after my last post a major family tragedy occurred.  Our, sweet, wonderful 22-year old daughter passed away su...
Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Rip van Model Railroader

›
Back. Getting ready to start the railroading after many years off. Finding the old blog very useful in understanding the things I did all ...
Monday, November 8, 2010

More pathways and stairs

›
Work outdoors has been slow. On the plus side weather has been unusually warm. On the minus side, I've been able to make progress only...
Thursday, October 14, 2010

Update on shopping locations

›
As an update to this post I'll add the following: First, the CharlestonDigitalTrains web site is now showing very low inventory, missin...
Sunday, October 10, 2010

Towards Stairways

›
The last post covered work through the morning of September 5th. With the digging done and dirt tamped down the next steps were to put the...

More outdoor paths

›
Following up on the last post, construction began with the patio area on the south side of the pond. I wanted to have a gathering spot near...
Saturday, October 9, 2010

Outdoor paths

›
So my last post was 2 1/2 months ago. Just like last summer, I have again failed to keep the blog up-to-date while garden railway work wa...
Monday, June 28, 2010

Dig It

›
Since the last post I've been doing a lot of digging. While planning out the track locations I realized that there is one 12' radiu...
Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Better Waterfall

›
Since last year the waterfall has been unfinished. The top of the waterfall is in place, but the only thing between that and the streambed ...
Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Outdoor Track

›
I've mentioned that the outdoor layout will be set in early 1880s Leadville (front yard) and Salida (back yard). Currently my target dat...
Sunday, June 13, 2010

A Beginning of Fish and Plants

›
I knew nothing about pond maintenance when we started -- now I know only a little bit. But the only way to really learn is experience, so af...
Saturday, June 12, 2010

Restarting the Water Feature and Finishing the Foot Path

›
In this post last year I talked about how I decided to use Aquascape's Microskimmer box to house the submergible pump. I also explained ...
Thursday, June 10, 2010

Footbridge Railings

›
As you may recall, late last year I stopped work on the bridge due to an injured rib . At the time the footbridge looked like this : I start...