Trying Times.

[Highland Logan]

That photo reminds me of the time I asked my wife if I could run the tracks through one of her kitchen cabinets.

This was just before last Christmas, and the Con-Cor cars I had ordered just got in. I had to see my small set together.

Frank

[Steve Ashton]

OK, I am going to admit. This is a bit off topic but sometimes you just have to step away from the internet When not sewing kilts, I have a couple hobbies. I too dabble with model railroading.

Mine is a small N scale, DC layout built into a coffee table which I built to fit my living room.



I chose as my theme "Expanding the CPR across BC, 1890-1910"

I use Atlas N Master 4-4-0's and kitbashed rolling stock as finding the shorter 32'-34' cars is almost impossible as are N scale Chinese Railroad workers and other figures with everyone wearing hats.



As my period pre-dates electricity in the mountains of BC and pre-dates the auto there are no power lines or internal combustion engines. Luckily I have unlimited access to the BC archives. and engine 347



Everything is steam. oxen, horse and human powered.



My other hobby is crafting custom kilt hose on a manual circular sock knitting machine.



I try to produce hose not found anywhere else.



But there is one piece of equipment that no one else seems to be producing. A winder for winding yarn direct to cones. There are very expensive commercial cone winders but no one seems to ba producing one suitable for home use.

So I am making one in my basement sho.

There are both manual and electric versions available.



There is a built in counter that reads in both yards and meters.



And it is built strong enough to wind direct from a swift.



And if I say so myself it winds a pretty nice looking cone of yarn.



The internet is nice but sitting in front of a computer is not exercising my mind or my body. And sometimes I just have to get off my butt and make something.

[Todd Bradshaw]

That's going to be a cool table when finished! My current layout is also N Scale and runs along the shelf tops in my office/music room. As a result, in most places it's only about twelve inches wide and is "L" shaped with wider, flared ends to allow enough radius for the trains to turn around and head back. On one end, it runs through the wall and along a short section of the living room wall. At the other end it runs through the wall and into the space where the aforementioned kitchen cabinet used to be, next to the fridge (it was a lousy cabinet anyway, so I just built a new one with a section of countertop for the microwave to sit on). The neat thing is that on less total square footage than a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood would have, I managed to get over 50' of double trackage - and even fairly long trains actually go away and come back, rather than just chasing their tails around.

I think I enjoy building the stuff more than running it and used to disassemble, detail, repaint and weather a few N Scale steam engines every winter and sell them on eBay. The parts are so small that I actually found it really good exercise for hand/eye coordination. I also spent a fair bit of time crawling around on the floor looking for tiny screws and other bits which had gone flying from the grips of the forceps. Working over a big piece of egg crate foam proved to be the best way to catch and retrieve small flying parts.

Here is a folder with some photos:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1zhzo2vj8...z0DdAQ9Ua?dl=0

[Steve Ashton]

I find high quality surgical loupes to be one of my best investments.

These are like telescopes as the allow you to hold an item at arms length or on the table nd you don't have to get real close to see small items. Even with glasses.

Mine have an LED headlight.



One of the students at Kilt Kamp was a surgeon and lit me try their surgical loupes and I was hooked.

[The Q]

I think I shall research those surgical loupes, I could use them in modelling.

Since there is an outbreak of Railway modelling a couple of pictures of Mine which I inherited and am rebuilding..
It was built on the Isle of Tiree, by an electronics engineer, and was very complicated.. As part of the rebuild I'm simplifying the electronics and layout to use it for exhibitions. Also modifying the scenery to make it more Highland in style..

The above picture is the most left hand two boards of six (roughly 3 ft by 2ft with a 8 inch extension board on the front.

There will be other picture when I can, but I think I've hit the upload limit with that one..

In the meantime there are 20 pages of my verbal rubbish about the history and build and more pictures here. Tiree (ngaugeforum.co.uk)

[Richrail]

Well since we're talking Railroad, here's a video of me operating a 1:1 scale picking up two locomotives. I'm the engineer on this 15,000 ton grain train.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_sQ...ailProductions

[Steve Ashton]

OK guys, as much fun as it is to talk about things other than kilts, another recent thread was closed for going off topic.

Jocks original post was about how quiet some of the forum members have become lately.

That morphed into a discussion on model railroading. In effect hijacking the thread away from Jock's original observation.

Perhaps the follow-on comments illustrate that the members here have interests other than kilts. Within this Misc. forum section it is ok to post about stuff not directly related to kilts and if anyone wishes to start a thread on model railroading, or any other topic within the rules, in this section, they may do so.

But please respect the original intent of a thread. Don't steal someone else's thread. Start a new one.

In accordance with Rule #12, this thread is closed for going off topic.

And yes, I'm the one at fault and I offer an apology to Jock for doing so..