background sound effects

Sound is ever more a part of modelrailroading. The advances made in sound decoders for locomotives are ever greater, with prices coming down slowly, and the first surround sound systems are becoming available too. However there is more you can do of course. How about sounds of railroad communications? A friend recommended the following: Railroad Radio has several data streams that can be played through winamp, iTunes, real player etc. When played through a set of separate speakers located near your railroad, it will add to the atmosphere.
Have a listen. You may have to try a few different streams as they are not always busy all the time.

Snowplow action

In one of the first posts on this blog, I showed you the snow plows build by fellow modelers.
One of which was a Jordan Spreader. I discovered footage today of the real thing today, be it from a different railroad.  I've included the footage below.

Another railroad blog

Just by chance, I came across this blog. I've read through some of it and it's really entertaining. I recommend it to anyone interested in (north american) model railroading. :-) Don't forget to book mark mine too though :-)

Rolling road.

One of my fellow modelers Mike Ruby, build a rolling road to use for his HO loco's when setting up sound etc. Footage from his page on Youtube.
He writes" This is my rolling road. I use it for testing locos and programming Loksound decoders. Now after getting the speedo to work I can use it to set up speed curves in a controlled and easy way. Something I have been trying to make work for the six month"  

RS Tower at London Festival of Railway Modeling

This weekend it is time for the "London Festival of Railway Modeling" show, in Alexandra Palace, London.
One of the layouts present will be that of Exeter region (UK) based RS tower RS Tower.
A quick preview of this exhibition layout can be found below. I personally can't stop by, but it promises to be an exellent modelrailroad show this year. 

Taft Yard

Another great layout in the making is that of Trevor Smith in the UK, who has a double layer layout under construction. This Fotopic page shows a nice overview on how he painted his backdrop and is progressing his scenery. The top shelf is california based, while the lower level will be Florida based. He confesses he is influenced by the same modelers as myself, namely Pele Soeeborg from Denmark, and Lance Mindheim from the  USA. Lance models Florida, Pele models California, so this may be more than a coincidence :-)

Parker subdivision

Here is a link to pictures of another US modelrailroad, build by Tom Parker. The layout is largely inspired by Pele Soeeborg's Daneville & Donner River.  You can find it by clicking here.