Model Railroader October 2016

Keeping memories aliveby David RickabyThe inspiration for Don Drum’s HO scale Chicago & North Western layout can be traced to boyhood rides on the Flambeau 400, a passenger train that connected Chicago with Ashland, Wis. For 11 straight summers Don went to Camp Mohawk for Boys in Rhinelander, Wis., riding the Flambeau 400 there and back. The impressions of the train and the northern Wisconsin rails that it traversed created an indelible desire to capture the memories in a model railroad.Don’s layout is set in the late 1950s, to represent the last three years of steam and the introduction of bi-level passenger cars on the Flambeau 400. Flambeau is French for torch, and the word is used to describe many waterways in northern Wisconsin. The layout, called the Chicago & North Western Ry. Ashland District, depicts a segment of the line from Aniwa, Wis., to its namesake city.How to weather a modern dieselby Pelle SøeborgAll of my locomotives are weathered to some degree before I put them into service on my model railroad. One example is the Kato USA HO scale General Electric AC4400CW shown here. The model came factory-painted in the bright blue livery of locomotive lessor CIT Finance Corp. (CEFX). I used a combination of thinned paints applied with an airbrush as well as weathering powders and washes to make the HO model look like its in-service prototype.Floating benchwork for shelf layoutsby Lance MindheimWithout any legs, brackets, or other visible means of support, floating benchwork keeps all attention focused on the model railroad. Follow along as author Lance Mindheim shows how to build these lightweight, yet sturdy shelves.Midwestern main lineby Lou SassiLike many model railroaders, Mike Havens credits a Lionel train set given to him and his brother by their father for sparking his interest in the hobby. But Mike’s railroad roots run much deeper. His grandfather worked for the Big Four (Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland & St. Louis), and his father was employed by the New York Central (NYC). Mike was also a career railroader, hiring out with Penn Central in 1969 and retiring from Conrail in 1998. Considering Mike’s strong connections to the NYC, it’s no surprise he modeled the railroad. His 18 x 25-foot HO layout depicts operations between Mattoon and East St. Louis, Ill., from 1950 to the mid-1960s. Mike, his father, and grandfather were engineers on the lineLighting models with micro-LED stringsby Douglas KirkpatrickFor the past year, I’ve been preparing my HO scale Virginia & Western RR for nighttime operations by adding lighting. In addition to streetlights and other outdoor lighting, I’ve been illuminating rooms within each building using light-­emitting diodes (LEDs) or low-voltage bulbs. I’m now focusing on the large ­cities at each end of the railroad, both of which will require hundreds of individual lights for the many buildings.Ty Bateman, a friend from my local railroad club, shared with me a discovery he made. His wife decorated their mantel for the holidays with long strings of extremely small warm white LEDs attached to thin copper wire. The LEDs were quite tiny and spaced every two inches along the strands. Americanizing European structuresby Tony KoesterAs I page through recent Walthers catalogs, I’m impressed by the huge selection of plastic structure kits from Faller, Kibri, Busch, and Vollmer. Most, but not all, clearly model European structures.That’s not always a concern, as many North American structures were designed and built by transplanted Europeans. With a few detail changes, some of them look just fine here. Others have good “bones” but need more work to become American citizens.