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Railroads and Ice Cream in HO-Scale

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Fail Early, Fail Often

April 13, 2023April 14, 2023

…but always fail forward. Otherwise known as improvement through iteration. Or so I hope. With the backdrop on the transload & IML Containers side of the peninsula finished, and a day trip to Le Mars last week, I decided to play around with some photo backdrops. Needless to say (and not unsurprisingly) it didn’t work…

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Categories: Layout Updates

Trenton Works 5250 Cu. Ft. Covered Hopper

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023

I have been looking for an excuse to put one of the upcoming Prairie Shadows Trenton Works 5250 cu. ft. covered hoppers on the layout. Previously, I knew some 5250 cu ft Trenton Works hoppers did show up in Le Mars, but couldn’t get a road name/number from the photos. After a trip Scott Thornton…

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Categories: Prototype Information

Backdrops, Part 2

March 12, 2023March 12, 2023

After some careful consideration, the thought of using one continuous piece of vinyl turned out to be less than desirable. While it would provide a nice, consistent surface, I just couldn’t figure out a way to install it reliably. The cove base adhesive, which does have some give and allows the vinyl to be repositioned…

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Categories: Layout Updates

Providing a Little Background

March 9, 2023March 9, 2023

One of the tasks I put off initially, but has been looming recently, is how to handle the backdrop, especially on the peninsula. It needs to be fairly thin, but also self-supporting. I considered building a “wall” using 1×4 boards laid flat, but while working on another project the week between Christmas and New Years…

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Categories: Layout Updates

Boxcars, Boxcars, Boxcars

November 16, 2022November 16, 2022

After seeing all the boxcars in Le Mars, I got thinking about starting to build out the roster for the layout. This last weekend at Trainfest was a good time to start hunting. While hanging out in the Spring Creek Model Trains booth, promoting our Iowa Scaled Engineering products, I took some time to browse…

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Categories: Prototype Information

New Aerial Photos

November 16, 2022November 16, 2022

About a week ago, as I was browsing Google Maps to check the orientation of one of the derails, a pleasant surprise appeared. New aerial views of Le Mars! Of special note, is the new track at the transload: They are using that new track to store tank cars of, presumably, tallow or other meat…

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Categories: Prototype Information

Derailed, Part 2

October 30, 2022October 30, 2022

While trying to decide which Fast Tracks PointForm tool to buy to make the split-point derails, I ended up comparing the various Fast Tracks turnout templates from #6 to #12. In the previous post on this topic, I determined that the #8 had the correct divergence for the prototype. But I was still curious how…

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Categories: Layout Updates

Derailed

October 28, 2022October 30, 2022

One of the interesting aspects of Le Mars is all the split-point derails: My original plan was to model these by cutting down a standard Walthers turnout and removing the frog. Unfortunately, the Walthers turnouts diverge too quickly, so a little more work will be needed. Since I don’t have on-the-ground measurements, I am relying…

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Categories: Layout Updates

Track Laying

September 9, 2022September 9, 2022

Over the last few weeks, track laying has been taking place. I am using the new Walthers Code 83 track and turnouts. This is nice looking track (at least to me, coming from the land of N-scale) and appears to be sufficiently robust without compromising too much on the fine detail. I think Walthers did…

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Categories: Layout Updates

Turnout Motor Noise

August 23, 2022August 23, 2022

Although I could rely on finger-flick turnouts, especially since the Walthers Code 83 turnouts have a snap-action on the points, I want to try something different. One of the products in development over at Iowa Scaled Engineering is a 3D printed key switch. Originally intended for the relaunch of our timelock circuit, I wanted to…

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Categories: Layout Updates
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Copper River & Northwestern Railway

Gateway Western’s Subdivision 6

IAIS 4th Sub in HO Scale

Iowa Scaled Engineering

Milan Branch of the Iowa Interstate

The Hills Line

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