November 28, 2008 | Comments Off
A few great looking train wallpapers to spice up your desktop. These are available in various resolutions: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×1024, 1600×1200
This one is quite impressive.
November 25, 2008 | Comments Off
Now you can get yourself a layout on a pocket watch. This has two trains running around in a circle to the tune, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Oh! and you can use it to also check the time. Available at QVC.
[via boingboing]
November 24, 2008 | Comments Off
This Sunday I went to the Greenberg Train Show that took place at Wilmington, MA. The Greenberg shows usually do a fall/winter and a spring show every year.
The admission tickets were $7 and despite being a bitter cold day many had turned up. I was only able to spend time with a few layouts. The New England LEGO Users Group to me is not a “model railroad” but more of a toy railroad. But, i seemed to be drawn to it every time. Maybe it the scale of the buildings or perhaps the fun details in every inch of the layout, i found myself trying to take it all in.
The other layout i spent all my time in was a HO scale called Better Late that Never. They had a few modules that were detailed exceptionally and other modules were work-in-progress. I found the unfinished modules appropriate in a train show as it gives me and others a good sense of “how-to’s”. Sort of a learning tool. This layout was sponsored by My Dad’s Trains, a model railroad shop based in Wrentham, MA which is a few towns over from mine. The members meet in the basement of My Dad’s Trains every Thursday night. They currently have 4 members and were looking for more. Since i am no where near to my own layout, this will give me a good opportunity to learn and interact with other modelers.
I also came across a flyer from the Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts. They are organizing a “Steam in the Snow” event in North Conway, NH on January 3rd. The star would be their 0-6-0 #7470 which was built by the Grand Trunk Railroad in 1921. Lerro Productions will also be holding a night photo shoot on the 3rd and 4th of January. More information about this event is on their website.
Click on the picture for the still gallery:
November 21, 2008 | Comments Off
Google has made available 20 percent of images from the LIFE photo archives. They plan to make the entire collection online in the next few months. For us railfans, there are plenty of interesting railroad and railway pictures.
November 20, 2008 | Comments Off
History Channel’s Extreme Trains was free only for one episode. Sigh! Apple is now charging $1.99 for the Freight Train episode and i believe it will for the rest of the episodes in this series.
I did watch the free Coal Train episode and frankly was not all that impressed by it. Horseshoe Curve and loading and unloading of the hoppers was great but the presenter Matt Bown seemed to make a big deal about “electricity”, kept asking the loader, engineer and the unloader about feeling the power they had transporting coal. He was trying to dramatise the whole climb over the hill. I agree the grade was steep but come on, Norfolk Southern do this everytime. Do we really have to sit on the edge of our seat to see if the train makes it up the hill this time or crashes!
I would have loved to hear the locomotive sounds changes as they throttle up the hill. Maybe some views of the cab controls. It was not all bad as i did learn some new things about replacing rails, wheels. I guess they had to do these in order to appeal to the general folks and not just railfans.
November 20, 2008 | Comments Off
I admit, I have a soft spot for the Trainz Series owning their many previous versions. After much debating i pre-ordered the download version of World Builder Edition for $29.99, which is due to come out end of November. The file size for the download version is 2.5 GB but they are promising us a new download server which will provide downloads at speeds up to 7.5Mb/s.
Some new features that caught my attention were a much needed and better search function to sort through the numerous content. I also liked the clearer details and the smaller texture brush to give us more control in painting the landscape. Though, i admit that some payware models already have a lot of details.
In the past, Auran always promised us the world but when the new version is released and the Trainz community scream about the bugs, they do a good job to listen and release a fix very soon. So, i decided to take the jump to support them and to be the first ones to get the new simulator.
If you want to pre-order which ends on November 25, you will get 20% discount on Trainz Engineers Edition plus 60% off Railroad Lines, Bus Driver or Ship Simulator.
November 18, 2008 | Comments Off
A train cuts through the recent California Wild Fires
Photo by Alan Taylor via The Big Picture
November 17, 2008 | Comments Off
CG Textures has wonderful textures for modellers. Though it seems that the textures are for the virtual modellers who use sofware like GMax, we can still use these for our real models.
I found these textures to be a goldmine for anyone using Modelbuilder for scratchbuilding. Modelbuilder has a neat feature of importing a graphic (bmp, gif, jpg) file into your plans. I used the doors, windows and storefronts to bring it into my design.
Elevation in Modelbuilder using CGTextures’s doors, windows and storefront.
I could not easily use the wood, brick textures in Modelbuilder. I cannot increase the graphic size without destroying the scale perspective. In the image below, the smaller wood block is in HO scale but if i increase the size, the perspective is lost.
Default size is good but increasing the size destroys the scale
In Modelbuilder, you can duplicate/copy any graphic. Though this method is tedious, you can repeat this process till you fill up a sheet with the texture. (PDF Sample of the plank texture)
If you are a good painter, you might not need the materials in CGTextures, but if you need a little help like me, use the textures, skies and roads here to improve your railroad projects. The tall buildings could be used in your backdrops. The storefronts could liven up your building interiors.
There are so many textures in this site that we can find a use for each one of them for our modelling. Definelty bookmark-worthy!
November 14, 2008 | Comments Off
History Channel aired Extreme Trains last Tuesday. The US version of iTunes has the Coal Trains episode available for free [iTunes link]. If the link does not work try searching for extreme trains in the iTunes stores under TV shows.
Cannot tell if other iTunes stores have it. It seems to be free for now, so download it while it lasts.
November 14, 2008 | Comments Off
This is how the railways do the vaccum or at least in the Gare du Nord station.
More detailed photo over at Jef Poskanzer’s Flickr page.
