RS Laser Kits Re-Releases Steven's Creek Kits

In case you had not heard, RS Laser Kits (www.rslaserkits.com) is re-releasing the Steven's Creek HO scale Maine narrow gauge building and rolling stock kits. These are very nice, prototypically accurate laser-cut kits. The potato house and Randolph depot are already listed for sale on the HO structures page.

Here's also a sneak peak at an HOn30 passenger car kit in development:
http://www.rslaserkits.com/images/HOn30_pass_car.jpg

If you're interested in this kit drop them an email (sales@rslaserkits.com) to let them know.

Train Troll has released an HO scale WW&F crossing sign kit. This is not yet posted on their website, but it is available if you email them. I will post pictures in the next few days.

Al sent me this link to pictures of his HOn30 layout, the Dixie Creek Central: http://s1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb325/AlSandrini/

Enjoy the scenery and HOn30 rolling stock.

More pictures to come of HOn30 and Maine 2 Foot Live Steam at the Huckleberry Railroad Days.

Steve Skodzinsky's Monson Village Module

Steve Skodzinsky has graciously allowed me to post pictures he took of his Monson Village module currently being built.

Here are some of Steve's remarks about it:

"The module is 16 inches wide by 96" long. When I was in the planning stages I soon realized that if I was going to use #6 switches, it pretty much follows that the module will be about 8 feet long to accommodate everything. If you used #4 switches you could probably shorten it to 72 to 80 inches or so. In any case, using #6 switches has allowed for very smooth trouble free operation and nice shallow approaches. They can handle just about anything you might ever want to run on a 2 foot empire. "

"I opted for code 55 rail and I purchased #6 switches from LITco. On the advice of Gary Kohler, all but one of the switches are conventional. The switch that leads into the engine house is the one that is the stub. As I have found, it is more work to setup the stub switch. It demands accuracy in placement more than anything. All of the switches are controlled with Blue-Point machines, these have turned out to be very reliable and work great. All of my track is hand laid, I used PC ties about every 6 inches or so to establish gauge and sugarpine and birch-plywood wood ties were used in between. I brush painted all of the ties with Tamiya XF-57 buff paint to approximate the color of the cedar ties that the 2 footers used."

Steve has done a nice weathering job onthe Stevens Creek wood shed.

This will turn out to be a nice module and a good portrayal of the Monson Railroad's station and facilities in Monson, Maine in the early 2oth century. I look forward to seeing the progress and will post pictures here.

New Source for HOn30 Kits?

Some of you may know about Shapeways.com, an internet site that will print 3D models from 3D image file uploaded to the website. The Shapeways company provides the website, the order taking, payment collection and the printing services, but individuals upload their own designs to the website and offer them for sales in exchange for a "royalty" for each item sold.

I have ordered 2 locomotive kits and expect them tomorrow. I'll evaluate and post pics of the kits once I get them. I'll also evaluate the service.

I would recommend checking out Teebee's shop. Tom has several HOn30 kits there. Here's the url: http://www.shapeways.com/gallery?mg[search][shop_name_search]=Tebee%20Models

I have no financial connection to Shapeways or Tom. I mention this because it could hold some promise for HOn30 modelers.

Railbus Update

First of all my apologies for not posting for several months. I am back and plan to post once a month.

Here's a current photo of the Aru Models railbus. Still on the to do list:
add another coat of green, paint handles brass , add conductor and passengers, add decals and weather it lightly.

Also on the work bench are components for a powered box car. The chassis is Tomix/Tomeytec model KD-25. It is an N scale street car chassis. It has 2 advantages: it is easy to shorten or extend the length and it has several sets of truck sideframes options. The white strips on the chassis are reinforcements added to extend the wheel base to match the HOn30 Weidner resin box car body in the background. The sound decoder is a Soundtraxx DSD-101LC light steam decoder.

This third picture shows a stock chassis and all three extension strips added to lengthen the chassis. The stock chassis really is too short for the box car though in appears to be the right length in this picture. The perspective is distorting this a little.

Also note the brass strips added to lengthen the sliver pickup strips for the trucks.

This chassis only has one power truck so it won't be a great puller but it does pickup on all eight wheels.