New Logo for the NMRA British Region

Last year or so, I reported that the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) had redesigned their logo.
The British Region (a region of the NMRA based in the UK, and one of the oldest regions outside the USA), decided it would be good to update theirs too, to show the family link with the parent organisation, and to give it a fresh new look.
It has now officially been accepted and it is pictured below.  I am reposting it to give it exposure, and introduce it to a wider audience.

Oh and shameless plug etc, Membership of the NMRA-BR doesn't have to be expensive. You can be a member starting as low as GBP 14,- per year.  Go here for more details: http://www.nmrabr.org.uk/interested-in-joining

30000 visitors

This blog has now been visited 30000 times.
Thanks to everyone visiting my blog!
I hope you find some useful info here, and/or enjoy reading about my own modeling activities etc. For those of you who have only just found it, have a look at the useful links section to see if there's anything of interest there, or go through the blog archive.
There might just be something there that covers what you might be looking for.

CFNR 108 has arrived

A nice surprise was delivered at my door today, my second GP15-1 has arrived. Christmas has come early!
This one will get the same treatment eventually as the first one, ESU loksound decoder, and LED's in all light positions.
(and this time I'm not going to blow up the stock bulbs first :-) ).


This is my last locomotive for now that I'll be buying new and have had on pre-order for some time. The next couple will be ones I already own and am scheduling to detail, paint, weather and convert to DCC+sound, first of which is the GP9 commuter locomotive.  
The only pre-order I have outstanding is a few more box cars, SP and SP patched 'golden west service' cars, which were very common in the area I model, they are not due until next year sometime though.

winter month modeling projects

Now that it's getting darker early, and temperatures dropping,  indoor activities are getting more attractive again of course, and in my case, model railroad projects are getting a boost.
I've got several that I'm hoping to complete in the coming months, these are:
- Replacing of some turnouts on my home layout from a mixture of old Shinohara and peco code 75, to Peco code 83 US style turnouts, including Conrad turnout motors). I've got 4 on the entrance of the Napa Jct yard that I want to change out for these, and of course wire them all up.
- Model and finish at least one GP9 (out of two shells I have) , turning it into a detailed commuter geep SP 3191.
- Add LED's and a sound decoder to my second CFNR GP15-1 (yes you read that correctly, the second one is on it's way as you read this :-) ).
- Getting my new module Tree Point to an operable condition, so I can 'play trains' .

There might be other things but these are my main projects, and that looks like a tall order already , we shall see how it goes.

CFNR GP15-1 in action

As promised in my earlier video, I was going to show you my GP15-1 in action.
Here it is during our monthly meet.

Modular railroading at our monthly meet today.

Micro LED's

I have recently installed some LED's in my new GP15-1, for which I'm also making a video. I hope to complete that video by next weekend, and  will post it next week.

Just prior to doing this install, I ordered some micro LED's to see if I could make up a couple of ready wired LED's for my own use. I'm thinking of using these in headlights of model cars etc.

However what I haven't found is a thin enough insulated wire that I can use to solder these to, not to mention a solder tip for my solder station that is thin enough to handle this..
Have a look at this picture, those two yellow dots on my finger are two LED's. VERY TINY indeed.

I am going to struggle making these up, and I'm going to take my time in figuring out how to do it without burning them.  In the meantime, if you don't want to give yourself a headache, have a look at the mini and micro LEDs at Express models, from the UK. While 4 of them will cost you about 5 GBP, they do come with additional resistors, and what's more, you won't need to solder them :-)

ESU LOKSOUND SELECT DIRECT Installation

Here's a video I put up on my latest installation, I'm hopefull you'll find it useful.