Modelling Maine Railroads

I promised in my last posting to post some pictures of the recent progress on my layout. At this point, I've given most of the layout a basic coat of scenery, with the exception of a few of the team tracks themselves. Also, I have yet to build the brick warehouse/office type building that will inhabit one end of the layout. At this point, though, it seems that it may be a while before any more progress occurs, due to circumstances beyond my control. Anyway, the scenery that I have completed was mostly finished this August, but I haven't got around to posting until now. I may end up redoing part of the scenery, as I've found vintage  aerial photographs  of the area from the period I'm modelling, which show the CP main much closer to the team tracks than I originally thought. These photos come from the excellent  City of Toronto Archives online collection  which I've recently become aware of - providing a fun way to spend a few evenings.  The whole layout...

Sorry that I haven't posted in a long time, so here's a video of some operations on my layout. There is no sound, and the video is short - but trains are moving and you can see some of the scenery that I've completed on the layout. This is posted on youtube - you can probably view the video in a larger format there. Also, if for some reason you can't see the video on the blog post, here is the link to watch it directly on youtube:  https://youtu.be/GYr-ned2Ez0 I'll try to post some photos of the progress on the layout over this weekend.

Quite a bit of progress has occurred on my model railway over the past few days, including the installation of all track on the primary two modules of the layout, though I have been remiss about posting about this progress. However, the next major project for the layout is the staging module. This is necessary before I proceed any further, mostly as I can't operate the layout until the staging module is attached as it serves as a yard lead/tail track. While the main part of the layout is now semi-permanently installed, the staging module has to be detached from the layout after each operating session, as it blocks the door to the room. The idea for this staging module comes from Rick De Candido's Fillmore Avenue Roundhouse blog. Specifically, I plan to use the idea for the tray assembly from his Staging Cassette Mk1  post to form the main part of the staging area. I also plan to use cassettes of some sort to finish of the staging area. I did, however, make a few modificati...

A condition that has been all to rare recently on my model railway. Slightly over a month ago, I finally came to a workable layout plan and posted about it. After that, I made some small progress towards constructing benchwork for that layout, and then stopped working on almost anything model railway related. Now, though, with the start of summer break from school, I have a great deal more time to work on the layout, and should start getting things accomplished (or so I like to tell myself, though I'm not sure how true that is...). It turns out that the two main layout sections fit nicely in the center of the storage room between two closet doors. There is, in fact, a fair amount to show in terms of progress from the last week. I managed to finish benchwork for the two main sections of layout, as well as attaching foam board layout surface. Additionally, I assembled a kit for a Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo railway 40 foot hopper, which I plan to use for gravel service ...