October 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Picture Courtesy: Boston’s The Big Picture
Related:
More pictures of the railroad.
A Closer view of NASA’s No. 3 locomotive pictured above.
Short movie about the NASA railroad
October 30, 2009 | Comments Off
Ed’s Presentation
Becky’s boyfriend’s flat
October 29, 2009 | Comments Off
For all you dispatchers fans, the Tower Sim demo is out now. The demo allows you to control 3 trains and has a limit of 15 minutes in the MG Tower at the Horseshoe Curve, Pennsylvania.
Some notable MG Tower Features:
* A facsimile of a US&S Model 14 electro-pneumatic interlocking machine
* Switch and signal interlocking with section locking, time locking, and route locking.
* Model board with track occupancy lights and track layout
* air compressor failures
* incoming calls from other tower operators
* outgoing calls to announce passage of trains
For dispatcher newbies like myself, please read the instructions.pdf in the installed folder. I got all my trains stuck at the signals and failed with a 0% score!
October 28, 2009 | Comments Off
Here in the North East, as the trees change color and winter approaches, the various trains shows begin to come to town. Attending train shows is a great motivation tool to make one start or complete a layout. The Craftsman and the Springfield shows are particularly interesting.
I love to take photos at train shows. I use a Canon 570IS and it gives me satisfactory results. Here are simple ways to take better pictures at the show:
# Use the camera’s Macro mode (the tulip/flower icon) to get up close.
# Do not use flash. It drowns the scene with bright light.
# Since we cannot use a tripod and clicking on the shutter might shake your camera, try getting sharper pictures by using the camera’s timer. Pull your arms closer and hold your breath just before it takes the picture. Or, you could try making a real cheap tripod.
I am not very successful at taking video. The lighting is poor and not being able to use a tripod makes it challenging. Some of my train show videos from last year
So what do you love to do at a Train Show?
Previously on the PassingLoop
Guide to attending Train Shows.
Macro Photography for your railroad world
October 23, 2009 | Comments Off
The Trainz 2010:Engineers Edition edition is now available for pre-orders. If you had pre-ordered the current version (Trainz 2009), they will be a 20% voucher in your Auran profile towards this purchase.
Release dates are as follows:
Digital Download: 16th Nov 2009
Retail Boxed: 1st Dec 2009
Since i have all previous version, i am a little biased towards Trainz but so far i have not seen anything that is unique to the 2010 version. It has a bunch of new routes and those fancy Speedtrees.
Technically, is it an improvement over the 2009 version? I can’t tell. I will wait and see what develops in the next few weeks.
October 22, 2009 | 1 Comments »
Evan Design have released another free upgrade to their popular Model Builder software bringing the version to 1.6.12
Apart from the improvements in printing and menu structure, they have added the ability to use the Windows Clipboard to copy/paste images from other programs directly into Model Builder. This is a real time-saver for getting any images from a google search into your drawing quickly. You might have to resize the image in Model Builder after you paste it but this save you a lot of time.
Let see how easily this is done.
I have opened an inbuilt sample structure in Model Builder.
The side of the building looks empty and i decide to add an old advertisement poster from the Advertising Archives to the side of my building.
Step 1
Find your image,right-click and “Copy Image” to the clipboard.
If you are using Internet Explorer, you will see “Copy”
Step 2
From the Model Builder menu, select Edit….Paste to put your image into the drawing.
Step 3
Resize and you are done! Simple!
October 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »
If you are looking for a model structure project, try out scratch building the Perkins Produce. (Warning: PDF Link) This is from an old Model Railroader magazine and i like that the drawing plans are for HO so you just need to print it. Building this with cardstock is one of my things to do, if i get around to it.
October 19, 2009 | Comments Off
I came across this interesting take on “Model-Railroad Therapy” from the Oct 6, 1967 of LIFE magazine. Dr. Robert Ravich,a New York psychiatrist used routing and trackage issues to help couples in their marriages.
October 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Kraftwerk’s Trans Europa Express
“With the kind of music you do”, Alessandrini told Hütter and Schneider as they ate, “which is kind of like an electronic blues, railway stations and trains are very important in your universe – you should do a song about the Trans-Europe Express.”
