This Saturday December 7th from 10-4 and Sunday December 8th from 1-4 the Roanoke Valley Model Railroaders will have an Open House. We are located in the basement of the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke.
I changed my water tank to reflect the season
Scott Smith
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For this weekend, I ran two trains from Maine on my 12’-by-8’ layout
Boston & Maine #617 is an MTH Railking model of a USRA 0-8-0 switcher with PS2 (30-1184-1) delivered in 2001 at MSRP $399.95.
Maine Central #686 is an MTH Premier model of an EMD F3 with PS3 (20-21458-1) delivered in 2020 at MSRP $469.95.
The Boston & Maine and Maine Central railroads operated jointly between 1935 and 1954.
The video shows B&M #617 crossing the inner truss bridge and pulling three boxcars and B&M caboose #104647. #617 was built by Alco in 1918 and retired in 1953.
The video also shows MEC #686 crossing the middle girder bridge and heading a passenger train with a consist of two Boston & Maine heavyweight coaches by MTH. #686 was built in November 1948, wrecked at Oakland, Maine in November 1965, and scrapped in April 1967.
MELGAR
Here is my Q2 stretching its legs (wheels?). According to Wiki, they were the largest non-articulated engine ever built and the most powerful engine ever static tested (sorry Big Boy). Not counting the prototype Q1 built in 1942, 25 were built in 1944-45 and gone by 1951 due to dieselization.
MTH
Should be a great train weekend. Hoping we can make it to the Chicagoland Lionel Railroad Club open house and jump start the Christmas train season! Santa will be there!
A few pics of the Metra Christmas train at Union Station this week on the north concourse. I didn’t get on board as I was hustling to catch my train on the south concourse.
Im also including some Trainfest pics and Milwaukee Lionel Railroad Club.
Last but least we finally got to meet the legend…the guy I credit with getting me back into the hobby after school…Mike Wolf! Thanks Berwyn’s Toys and Trains for hosting!
Trains of Christmas 2023 Check Announcements Form for this weekend 2024 show
Lots of different trains from the Annual Science Museum of Virginia Show last weekend……..
Have a great and safe weekend, folks!
Peter
Sunday evening takedown and Monday set up at our venue for the next 7 weeks…….our 11th year at the Great Big Green House.
We will be running trains Thursday through Sunday every weekend.
The GBGH is located in BonAir/Midlothian VA.
Check out our website (below) for times.
https://www.rivercity3railers.com/upcoming-events
Sunday evening……
Monday AM…….
Have a great and safe weekend, everyone.
Peter
This week I had the chance to unpack and tune-up one of my favorite trains, the legendary German Flying Hamburger. Originally built in the 1930s it was one of the fastest trains in the world at the time. The model shown was made by Kesselbauer of Germany over 40 years ago.
A 2023 Christmas Layout memory. 
With the nearing of end of year, I am officially out of unused pictures of the 2023 layout, so here are 2 of my 5 favorites
- walt
Attached is a video of two contemporary Norfolk Southern trains passing in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. Both were created by my son Steven. The container train includes many containers that he custom painted, particularly the J. B. Hunt containers which are not commercially available. The train is accurately divided into domestic and international portions, and many of the cars have been lowered to prototype height,
Passing it to the rear is an NS coal drag with many heavily modified cars that have been custom painted. Most noteworthy are the Top Gons which also are not commercially available.
I'll take credit for the scenery. No cutesy villages or massive factories here. Just the boring woods and flat topped ridges so typical of the region.
That's it for this week...enjoy!
Here’s more… I do have a good size industry at the western end of the scene in the video. It is the Pennsylvania Glass Sand plant. I have posted images of it before, but here are some new views showing the sand hoppers waiting to be filled with processed sand prior to being shipped to the glass manufacturer.
Rural Cloverdale in Northern California needs packing-house help with the citrus crop grown in the area. Have a nice weekend, everyone.
The Caboose end of Southbound traffic crossing Route 12 on the Conn. River Sub., on its way to Rotterdam NY. This scene has really developed in the last few weeks for me! Need some bigger trees in the background.
@Miketg posted:This week I had the chance to unpack and tune-up one of my favorite trains, the legendary German Flying Hamburger. Originally built in the 1930s it was one of the fastest trains in the world at the time. The model shown was made by Kesselbauer of Germany over 40 years ago.
Always cool to see o scale models of European trains!
Are the buildings kits or scratch built? I’d like to add some of those to our layout to give it more architectural variety.
Hi Pete,
All of the buildings that you see here are scratch-built. The walls are made from Evergreen plastic sheets and each window is built up from styrene strips. The roofs/tiles are a variety of architectural model panels and scratch built techniques. I use pinking sheers to cut rows of diamond tiles. Back in the 90s I wrote a number of articles for this magazine on how to build some of these structures.
Mike
I wish I could say the layout is in better shape this weekend, but all train activities have been sidelined due to our hot water and heat combi boiler going out. We're embarking on a project to not only replace it, but the old cast iron pipes going to each radiator. Here's a current view of the train room.
Some random shots
Thanks Scott for getting us rolling! Here my fun photos for this fine weekend! Christmas Trees arrive by boxcar and these fellers are loading them onto the truck where they'll be taken to the local Boys and Girls Club Christmas Tree lot.
"Come buy a beautiful tree from the Patsburg Boys & Girls Club!! You'll be glad you did and so will the boys and girls!! "
Donnie Bee, Hoppy Jansen, and Toby Furley are on the job unloading trees. This truck load is about to depart for the tree lot. 
A view of the village off South Main last night at dusk...
@FIREMANCHRIS posted:The Caboose end of Southbound traffic crossing Route 12 on the Conn. River Sub., on its way to Rotterdam NY. This scene has really developed in the last few weeks for me! Need some bigger trees in the background.
Very nice work! Can't wait to see more!
Since I just seem to collect and not operate much these days, some new cars in my collection.
My Fathers B & O lantern when he worked as a steam Engineer
@Jim Teeple posted:
My Fathers B & O lantern when he worked as a steam Engineer
Jim,
Priceless family heirloom, thanks for sharing.
Do you ever light it up?
A really wonderful thread! Thanks everyone for taking the time to share!
Mike
@Craignor posted:Jim,
Priceless family heirloom, thanks for sharing.
Do you ever light it up?
I have not, the last time it was lit was probably late 60's when he used it fishing. His Swivels & leader are still hooked on the light where he left them.
Hangs in my train room , a daily memory.
@Jim Teeple posted:I have not, the last time it was lit was probably late 60's when he used it fishing. His Swivels & leader are still hooked on the light where he left them.
Hangs in my train room , a daily memory.
I have a couple of antique railroad lanterns and have had fun lighting them and putting them out on my front porch on nights when I am having train friends over. I Just bought some Coleman kerosene at Walmart, filled the tanks, lit em up, it was no trouble at all.
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