Airslides for Hostess Cake

Hey Malcolm- yep its a Walthers tower and they come in silver or black. Ebay tends to have the best price on them. They are pretty tall right out of the box and I think maybe even 16 inches. I have cut mine down a bit so I am not sure of the original height. Another one to take a look at is the Ameri-town tank. Is slightly larger than the Walthers HO version thought not sure of height. The last one to consider is from Plastruct. Its really big......

Hey Daryl- Sure those are just 12V bulbs from Mineatronics 

http://www.miniatronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=18-012-20&Category_Code=&Product_Count=5

I run them to an old HO scale DC power supply. I have it set to 10 volts  so the bulbs should last forever. You can also pick up a 12v constant power supply from miniatronics or Radio Shack. One point to note is that all of the lights go into a terminal block that is under the city module and from there I just run 2 wires to the power supply. Its tedious putting in lights but night operations are worth it. The layout takes on a whole different look and feel. The street lights are just home made from dowl's and some wire. I am waiting for someone to make some street lamps that look realistic in O......

Hi Don,

Thanks kindly for the lighting rundown. Yes I agree your night shots are stunning and the fact that you often try to tell a story with your photos adds to the drama. As a locomotive driver who often chats online with rail fans wanting infomation I always tell them to try and shoot photos that tell a story rather than the constant 3/4 shots we see.

I have to say because of your inspirational work and that of Brett Whelan, Neville Rossiter (models a 25' x 25' O scale switching railroad set in Brooklyn in the 1950s) and Lance Mindheim who I'm sure you've heard of, I'm seriously considering giving up modelling the Victorian Railways (railways of my home state here in Australia) and having a crack at an O scale railroad set in industrial Brooklyn with lots of big buildings and tight street trackage for switching. I'm tossing up modelling between the mid 70s or present day similar to say the Cross Harbor Railroad as I really like modern diesels and rollingstock.

I have a 18' x 19' two car garage and following a design based on the idea of surround staging from Model Railroad Planning 2001 magazine, I have devised a way of turning one freight train into four (two north bound/two south bound) using a single staging track and a couple of strategically placed spurs. That way I will have through freights dropping and picking up cars at a small four track yard. These cars will then be switched out in to about 10 different industries. Using Lance Mindheim's idea of multiple car spots within an industry (mini industries within an industry so to speak), I will run with a full waybill card system to add further to the operation. Anyway that's the plan. Having worked many years ago for a short while as a industrial model maker (mainly assisting in the building models of petro chemical and coal pulverizing plants using plastruct) I'm hoping the skills I learnt can be put to good use along with your great structure building concepts. I've used foam core board a few times and it's a great light weight base material and if properly braced can be used in many applications. I know of some modellers even using it to construct baseboards for HO scale micro switching layouts.

Regards Daryl

Its always a treat to read these posts and see such great work. 

Yeah, I second that! 

Unfreaking believable. 

George

Is Brett Whalen still modeling in O?  He was very prolific with his modeling several years back and even started a "yahoo group", but I haven't seen anything new from him in many years. His architectural models are the best I've ever seen, even sitting off a layout. He was a P-48 modeler and his talent for building buildings was equaled by his talent for building rolling stock. A very detail oriented person satisfied with nothing but perfection.

Butch 

Every time I see your work I just say WOW....GREAT WORK FOR SURE!!!!

I haven't seen anything from him in years either - the last posting I recall was him and a picture of a fiancee (wife?).  That may explain his hiatus from trains for a few years.