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An old boat: the Marin

When I was younger I used to go climb and play on this little ship. Many years later (around 1982) I got a picture of it. Unfortunately, I only had a cheapo camera and the boat has since collapsed. I...

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San Francisco wharf details

Waterfronts have always been interesting to me since they are often funky and usually have lots of history visible. I live just across the bay from San Francisco and a couple weeks ago I took the ferry...

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Neat BNSF HY Rail Truck

I work in Point Richmond, California and we have a big BNSF yard (formerly Santa Fe) nearby. I have always loved trucks that have been heavily customized for their work and  this of course includes...

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More Hy Rail trucks

Or is it Hi Rail? Seen in Point Richmond, Ca. See also this previous post.

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Sketching and drawing as a tool in model building

Sketching is a really important part of model building and design. Some of my best ideas come to me while killing time in meetings or classes that are not keeping or needing my attention. Sad but true....

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BNSF autorack loading yard in Point Richmond, California

I try to go for a walk every day at lunch and I usually climb this big hill behind the office where I work. From the top of this hill I can look down on a mini-yard which is dedicated to loading and...

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Still more road-rail trucks

This nice Ford road-rail truck caught while the driver was picking up his lunch in Point Richmond, California. The track of the truck’s wheels always looks narrow on these road-railers since they need...

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Lazy weathering?

Ok, I’m still not getting to my trains. I had this pre-painted 1:25 scale AMT 1962 Pontiac Catalina model that I had started and I needed to get it off my workbench. I had started it thinking...

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Modeling Northwestern Pacific locomotives part 1: NWP 4-4-0s in the 1920s

Small, nimble on the rails and with beautiful proportions, the classic 4-4-0 “American” has always been one of my favorite engine types. As I mentioned in my last post, the Northwestern Pacific...

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Modeling Northwestern Pacific locomotives part 2: Modeling NWP 8

I’ve always loved NWP number 8 as shown in this 1915 view below. I’d like to try to use this IHC 4-4-0 Old Time American as a starting point to model NWP 8. These models have been around since the...

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Cool African narrow gauge railroad

Interacting with Miniature Railroading posted a link to this great one-hour long video of a railroad in Eritrea. Eritrea: Rebirth of a Railway and Steam Trains Play full size in new browser window

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A model ship building workshop

I work hard at being a member of too many model groups. Probably as a means of making sure I never get anything done. One of my favorite groups that I don’t have time for is the Hyde Street Model...

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Small self-propelled crane

My son and I were walking around Sausalito one bright winter morning on a “photo walk.” I was teaching my son about taking pictures and turned back and saw he was taking a picture in a parking lot....

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How’d I get Ted Wurm’s book?

I recently mentioned to my wife that one of the books that got me interested in small railroads as a child was Dorothy Newell Deane’s 1960 book Sierra Railway, which I found in my grandparents’ library...

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The Corte Madera Creek Bridges

  Corte Madera Creek trestle. Facing east, north is to the left. One of the clearest remaining artifacts of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in southern Marin County is the Corte Madera Creek trestle...

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What’s on the workbench?

I haven’t written much lately but I’ve been building a LOT. As I mentioned in July, We moved to a new house with a workshop . The plan was to use the shop space for the layout (of course) and a...

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Just horsing around

There has been a wave of Warhammer 40K modeling and game playing sweeping my place of employment lately. A common scale is what is called “25 mm” and is taken as 1:72 scale. I think the methods routine...

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Great decal application tutorial

David Lyman a.k.a. Dan D. Sparks posts a great description of how he makes and applies home-made decals to his Birney car project. Really nice work. Photo by David Lyman, Dan D. Sparks

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The Walt Disney Family Museum

Walt Disney was a model railroader. Indeed, his idea of Disneyland was as a huge walk-in, live-in complete model railroad. Recently the Walt Disney Family Museum opened in San Francisco. We just went...

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California Railroad Museum

Last week we took the Amtrak Capital Corridor train from Emeryville to Sacramento and walked over to the California State Railroad Museum. I had never been there before and it is really a great place....

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