The model train show in Junglinster, Luxembourg really got me motivated and so there is steady progress on the Eldorado & Southern layout! I finished the second staging level and managed to create a short video clip showing first trial runs. I am pretty happy how things turned out so far. The Bachman steamers handle both the tight curves and stiff grades well and so far there are no derailments to be reported. Stay tuned as the next level will…
Hello all! It has been quite a while since my last post. Well, besides of other things I have been busy working on my new layout. This one is in 0n30 or 0e as they call that gauge in Europe. Its loosely based on Colorado narrow gauge railways. The clip shows the section of the layout that will later become the lower staging area. In there end there will be three layers – all connected by a train elevator. So…
I stumbled across the topic of radio controlled model trains, powered by onboard batteries several times in recent years. Especially within the 0-scale narrow gauge community there seems to be a growing interested in this kind of operation. As there are no ready to run train sets available at the time, “Dead Rail”- as the experts call it, is for tinkers who like to experiment. Well, that for sure triggered my curiosity and I started my own little Dead Rail…
Since moving back to Europe I did not occupy some space for a model train set yet. What to do for the avid model railroader lacking a layout? Well armchair-modelrailroadign os one option but I look forward to some “Teppichbahning” (“Carpet Train-ing” – German model railroader slang for “running trains on the floor) as well as toying around with electronics. After years of neglecting programming and HW design I went back and looked at the options available today. I…
The North East Corridor always draw attention to me. This line from Washington DC to Boston is different in many ways. It is mostly passenger traffic- long distance and commuter. The NEC is operated at pretty high speed over more than 100 year old infrastructure. The line features four tracks from Philadelphia to New Haven and is electrified all the way! In a nutshell- heavy electrics pulling high speed passenger trains in an urban and costal setting – a must see! Getting…
Camera cars and -locomotives for model trains are around in the hobby for a while. Although a cool gadget, those units are pretty expensive given the fact that they’re not too often in use and the excitement wears off quite quickly. I was always toying with the idea of running a camera train on the BTB layout as well as trying a laser cut kit. Then I learned about the iCar kit offered by Minuteman Scale Models and as soon as I…
This post is about the latest (finished) car weathering and detailing project. The Grand Trunk covered hopper as well as the Rail Box boxcar are favorites of mine, waiting for some upgrades and traces of dirt for a while. Grand Trunk Western – #113972 This car started life as an Athearn model which I picked up at a train show. Having lived in the Metro Detroit area the “Grand Trunk” is so to say a “home road” even it has long…
After having a lot of fun building the digital oscilloscope from a kit I decided to tackle a signal generator kit next . This makes a perfect match for the scope and will be useful checking circuitry. The design is centered around a “classic” ATMEGA16 μC paired with a common OpAmp to boost the signal and a two line LCD with some push buttons as user interface. Somehow this reminds me of a typical project for student at a technical college and the…