Model Railroader 2009 08

Dust is a model railroad's biggest enemy, and I've spent many years struggling to keep my HO scale Allegheny & Lackawanna Southern from being inundated with it. Of course, the best way to keep dust off the rails is to keep the railroad operating. I've found it's much easier to clean the wheels of a locomotive than it is to clean all of the track on a 20 x 30-foot model railroad. Like many modelers in snow country, when spring comes I like to get outside to do yard work, play a round of golf, or ride my motorcycle. Some years there may be as much as three or four months of down time for the railroad. I always kept the railroad room closed, but no matter what I did, a fine covering of dust settled on the layout. I discovered two simple ways of keeping dust to a minimum in the railroad room. When I'm not riding my motorcycle for any length of time, 1 cover it to keep it clean. I realized that I could do the same thing with my railroad, using thin plastic sheeting sold in home-improvement stores. The plastic is so lightweight that I can secure it with a few pushpins, and it takes less than an hour to cover the entire railroad.

Download (depositfiles.com)

Model Military International 04 2009

As Tamiya's 1:48 Panzer IV has been out for quite a while, so won't go over old ground and talk about the basic construction, suffice to say all of Tamiya's 1:48 range of armour are straightforward and simple to assemble thanks to their excellent instructions and superb engineering. My intention is to comment on a number of improvements and accessories I have added to it and describe my building and painting style. I decided from the outset that I wanted to depict a late Panzer IV J with the wire mesh Schurzen on the hull sides and stove pipe exhaust pipes. The impetus for this build was provided by the Editor when he provided me with a number of update sets to produce just such a version. Eduard, Aber, Part and Hauler all make mesh screens with, varying degrees of accuracy and complexity. I had also accumulated a few updates myself and like most modellers, I tend to buy sets that will improve a kit only to have them sit on the shelf gathering dust! There is a reason for this (or so I keep telling myself!), in that the accessories may not be available when you get time to build the kit. But one has to wonder how much is enough! Will all these things make a better model? I guess it's up to the individual to decide if this accessory obsession many of us seem to have is worth it? My intention was to use as many of these accumulated updates as I could, simply to make myself feel less guilty and justify why I keep buying them!

Download (depositfiles.com)

N Scale Railroading 07-08 2009

For years I used a layout height of 48" but over time this "God's eye view" of things became distracting. I didn't quite like the eye level view because of building and maintenance considerations so 57" was selected as a good height for me(5-11"). A modern theme was important with industry, mountains, desert, a workable yard, and some storage tracks, so I didn't elect to model any specific actual scenes. Layout construction is typical 1x4 framing with 1/2" OSB or 2" foam sheeting. All tracks are Atlas Code 55 with #7 and #10 turnouts on the main lines. A few #5s were used at industry locations. All turnouts operate manually with slide switches or Bluepoint machines. HO cork was used for mainline roadbed and ballast is a combo of Arizona Rock GN basalt arid NP granite. Other natural rocks from Mt. St Helens, Washington (ash), Bend, Oregon (red lava), and Ludlow, California (desert gravel), add color variations. Woodland Scenics trees and scratch materials provided most of the landscape greenery. Electrically, the layout is wired in blocks and uses two MRC Control Master 20s with walk-around controllers. DCC is not in the current plan.

Download (depositfiles.com)

Model Railroader 07 2009

Here's a CSX 52-foot gondola with an unusual load that's easy to model. It's a load of the heavy steel breaker balls that steel mills use to begin the slag crushing process. Slag is a red-hot byproduct of iron and steelmaking that looks like molten lava when it's dumped into the slag pits. As the slag cools, it hardens into large chunks that must be broken up before the slag can be crushed into a uniform-sized gray rock that's used for roads and secondary track ballast. The breaker balls are solid steel and weigh up to 20 or 25 tons each. They are lifted with an crane equipped with an electromagnet and dropped into the pit to shatter the hardened slag into chunks. The pieces of slag arc then fed into a crusher. Modeling this load will be easy, since all that's required is a handful of smooth plastic balls and a modern 50-foot gondola. Paint the balls with grimy black, apply a heavy coat of rust weathering to them, and you'll be all set. - Bob Warrick, Barberton, Ohio

Download (depositfiles.com)