More GLHOn30 Module Photos from the 2019 Midwest Narrow Gauge Show

Here are some pictures of Phil's train running on Jeff's East Dirigo end module of the GLHOn30 Module Group.

Phil scratch-built the gondolas and put Blackstone HOn3 trucks under them. These can easily be narrowed to HOn30 by sliding the wheel toward the center on the axles.

Phil also scratch-built the center cab loco.

I believe the caboose is a Funaro & Camerlengo resin kit.

GLHOn30 Module Photos from the 2019 Midwest Narrow Gauge Show in Boardman, Ohio

I haven't been able to attend this show since 2011 so I really enjoyed it. It was great to see old faces again and catch up. It was also great to see excellent modeling, both narrow and standard gauge. Click on this link (http://www.portlandlocomotiveworks.com/) to see pictures of the show. I would recommend it if you can attend. Gary Kohler and the Portland Locomotive works staff do a great job.

Here are some pictures I took of the Gliebe's Landing module that was part of the Great Lakes HOn30 Module Group that was on display at the show.

Congratulations to Phil, the creator of this module, on winning best in show in the steam locomotive category at this year's show for his HOn30 Shay locomotive. I wish I had taken a picture.

Midwest Narrow Gauge Show 2019

After a multi-year hiatus I attended the show again. It was a blast and I enjoyed reconnecting with old friends, learning new modeling techniques, seeing the contest models and getting some inspiration. Congratulations to Phil Gliebe on winning best in show in the steam locomotive category with his HOn30 Shay locomotive!

I spent last weekend enjoying the Huckleberry Railfan Weekend and working with the Great Lakes HOn30 Module Group displaying their layout.

It was a blast! I came after set up and the layout seemed to run well. Tom brought the new Minitrains Fiddletown and Copperopolis 0-4-0 locomotive and it ran reliably and beautifully. The appearance of outside frame and the motion of the counterweights give it a definite narrow gauge appearance. The only downside seemed to be the position of the weight inside the tender which caused it to lean backward.

I took my Linekin Bay module along and ran it as a free-standing layout. After a quick cleaning I was glad to see that trains were running pretty well on it. I ran an MDC/Athearn/Roundhouse 2-6-0 steam conversion on it for 3 hours, then ran the Frary-Hayden FM Morse diesel conversion (FS&K No 26) for several hours. The next day the motive power was again No 26, a re-geared AHM Plymouth diesel in original paint and the new rail bus. All ran well, but the track behind the wharf station needs some work.

Public attendance seemed good and the Huckleberry Railroad hosts a nice event.

One of the highlights was watching Jim run his live steam SRRL No 6 Forney locomotive pulling a Moxie train and SRRL No 19 Prairie locomotive pulling a mixed train.

I'll post pictures in the next few days.

2010 Midwest Narrow Gauge Show

The Midwest Narrow Gauge is now behind us and I am sorry to say that I did not take any pictures. It was a good show and we had fun. The venue changed so all the micro and modular layouts(HOn3, Sn2, On30 and Hon30) were in 1 room. I got more exposure to the others since I could see them from the HOn30 layout.

I picked up 2 of Mt Blue's new HOn30 SRRL laser-cut box car kits. These are different from the #87-94/96-99 series cars. I'll add photos of the kits in the next few days. These will be fun to build and product highly detailed models.

Big City Hobbies has re-released the Plymouth AHM Minitrains set with a new mechanism:
http://www.bigcityhobbies.com/minitrains.html
The price seems a bit steep at $119.98. I do not know anyone who has purchased this yet and so don't know the quality of the mechanism.

NMRA Regional Meet Oct-09

Here's a picture of a bunch of HOn30 locomotives on the Linekin Bay module at the NMRA regional meet in Indianapolis last October. You might recognize some of them. From left to right they are: an Egger Bahn construction locomotive; Pete M's kit-bashed diesel based on the Atlas V-1000 chassis and hood with a cab fashioned from Grandt GE 23 tonner parts; AHM Plymouth with the NSWL re-gear kit (I have never seen one for sale that did not need new gears); a kit-bashed diesel as Bob Hayden and Dave Frary did in the '70s based on the Mini-Trix Fairbanks Morse diesel with a cab from the Funaro & Camerlengo Plymouth diesel flat car load ; a Consolidation based on the MDC (now Athearn) 2-6-0 with a laser-cut cab from Small Scale Logistics (now out of business) and new domes, head light, stack, number plate and builders plates.
At left is Jim F.'s completed version of Railway Recollection's Sandy River box car 1 kit. It sits on Micro-trains N scale archbar trucks and they sure do run nicely. The weathering job really adds to the model.
I seem to recall from Jones', Crittenden's or Moody's books that box car A was renumbered as box car 1. If so it was obviously rebuilt without the exterior sheathing and the doors were mounted inside.
Here's Phil G.'s harbor module showing rolling stock in the yard. The Forney is a nicely-done Chivers kit. The caboose is a SRRL Funaro & Camerlengo resin kit. The other rolling stock is a mixture of Chivers and Funaro & Camerlengo kits. All of the rolling stock was built by Phil. This module has a lot to offer and this is only one end of it.

Old Meet Photos

Here's some photos from the Midwest Narrow Gauge Meet in Salem, OH in 2002 or earlier. First is Bill's HOn30 quarry layout with standard gauge tracks in the foreground. Check out the AHM narrow gauge engine house in the right foreground. Who did have one of those for their HOn30/009 layout in the 1970's. I still have mine. I haven't seen this module of Bill's lately. He is into On30 and the ET&WNC.


This 6 foot long module was built by Craig S. who is also no longer bringing it to shows. It included a roundhouse with complete interior details and figures, a cemetery scene complete with a horse-drawn hearse, seals on the rocks and a light house. It offers a lot of scenery and switching opportunities.




This mill module is Jeff's and has been coming to meets for years. It is loosely based on the American Woolen Mills near Winslow, Maine that were served by the 2 foot gauge Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington railroad. He kit-bashed all the windows, very impressive.

2009 Midwest Narrow Gauge Show

Here are a few photos from the narrow gauge show in Greenford, OH.
The first two are photos of the HOn30 modular layout that was set up in the lobby. It depicts several locations on the Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington Railroad as they exsited in the early 20th century.

Click on the photos to see a larger version. The first photo shows the North Whitefield, Maine station, the Whitefield, Maine station along with Erskine's store and Ford's Mill












The third picture shows Pete's Winslow module. Winslow was the end of the Winslow branch and had a turntable, coal shed and engine house.







Sam's Windes Inlet module with lobster boat and wharf activity. The detail is excellent as always.









Sam's rail bus built from a Railway Recollection kit on his module.The buildings and back drop are not yet complete. See the links for Railway Rec's website. The railbus ran smoothly and Sam will add electrical pickup to the front truck.





No 3 in the last picture is Bill V's forney from an old Sango kit. It ran well and reliably on the modules.

17th Annual Midwest Narrow Gauge Show

Another Midwest Narrow Gauge Show has come and gone. I'll be posting some pictures here later.
The clinics were excellent, especially The Passenger Cars of the WW&F (Chris McChesney and Gary Kohler), Making the Grassinator (Jeff Schumaker), Seven Simple Structures (Sam Swanson) and HOn30/HOn2 Locomotive Mechanism Equalization and DCC (Chris McChesney).
The contest models were very well done and the competition was heated. The HOn30, Sn2, Sn3, and On30 modular layouts looked and operated well. (In the interest of full disclosure I am a member of the Great Lakes HOn30 Module Group so my assessment is partial!)
Dennis V had a very interesting and impressive micro layout with hand-built switches. The camaraderie was excellent as always.

Barry McClellan, the proprietor of Railway Recollections, gave me some tips on finishing his Forney kit. The trailing truck was lifting the cab deck so that it was not level. His tips were:

File the rear buffer beam flush with the bottom of the cab floor. I'm using a Talgo trailing truck and the additional thickness was pushing up the floor.

Glue the boiler onto the cab. This made the cab assembly more level.

I decided to file a very little off the bottom of the tabs on the inside of the cab walls. These tabs rest on the housing for the slide mechanism of the trailing truck and I suspected that they were pushing down on the floor. Use caution here. It is better to preserve the good fit of the parts than to risk potential issues. (This is not a tip from Barry.)

I ran the loco on the Great Lakes HOn30 Module Group's 38 foot long layout and it ran several loops at a constant speed without stalling. The trailing truck does have electrical pick up and this helps. I'll post more pictures as I have them.

I also pick up a Railway Recollections Billerica & Bedford Box Car A kit. After reading the directions and looking over the pieces this kit will be fun and straight forward to build.

16th Annual Midwest Narrow Gauge Show con'td

This view shows the back from the branch end of the layout. The corner of Tom's winter/spring transition module is in the right foreground. Next is Jeff Head Tide module, and then Sam's Windes Inlet module. After that are Phil's harbor module, Pete's Winslow module, Vic's Weeks Mills module. The total length was 32 feet.
Ford's Mill is one of the distinctive structures on the WW&F and Terry's module shown here captures it in 1/87 scale. Just beyond it is Pete's Whitefield module. The yellow building is Erskine store which served as the local post office.
Tom's Ice Harvesting module at left captures the bygone practice of harvesting and storing ice in the winter for use in ice boxes during the summer. This all vanished with the advent of mechanical refrigeration. This module is the first one on the U-shaped branch section.

16th Annual Midwest Narrow Gauge Show

Front view of the Great Lakes HOn30 Module Group set up at the show. The first two modules next to the corner are Pete M's North Whitefield modules. These are the same two modules that won best HOn30 module at the 2007 Nat'l Narrow Gauge Convention. If you get down to ground level you get an authentic feel for North Whitefield, Maine on the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington between 1900 and 1915. Pete used these to earn his master modeler certificate.
Here's a shot of the modules from the back showing Jeff S's mill module. This is a free-lanced mill loosely based on the woolen mill that the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington served near North Vassalboro, Maine.


Here's Sam's Windes Inlet module. The mockup is a stand in for Windes Fine Fish which won a structure award at this show. Sam's clinic covered the techniques he used to build this. Excellent information!

Here's another shot of North Whitefield. That's Pete's Whitefield module at left.




This overhead shot shows many of the modules on the main loop, but does not show the ones on the branch line at the other end. In the foreground is Jeff S's East Dirigo module showing a typical early 20th century Maine village. It includes a one-room school house and typical business district. The signage is very well done.