Okay, Richard my bad. We Rick's and Richards have to stick together. I was responding to Jeff Maurer's comments but also interested in your trolley. Unfortunately, I do stuff like that and try to blame it on a senior moment. LOL I like what I'm hearing about the simulated sparks on the trolley pole. Nicely done, if I say so myself. Hmm an idea for later. Take care.
If you missed it Rick, I shot a vid a while back. Watch it on the near turn and the straight leading away.
My parents still live down in the area (Upland) and I visit them every so often...it's becoming harder and harder to recognize where I grew up. Sent several summers in Big Bear (at Boy Scout camp). Now whenever I go back to So Cal, I'm counting the minutes until I can leave. I lived there over 20 years and only went into downtown LA maybe 4-5 times (once to visit Allied Trains when they opened to new 'Union Station' looking store...and now Allied Trains is gone). There's just too many people there so I can imagine what even BB has turned into. If you haven't driven in So Cal, you are not allowed to complain about traffic...especially since you don't know what traffic is.
Since the open house got closed, I may get out my Kato track and set up a loop on the dining room table tonight, and live stream it. Close as I can get to an open house for y’all. probably still isn’t big enough for the full daylight to fit, but we will try.
Apologies, in their infinite wisdom, YouTube has decided us mere mortals with less than 1000 subs are no longer worthy of live streaming from our mobile devices.
There are a few details to look for... You might want to watch it twice, or thrice to try to spot them all! I’ll give you a hint, tavern car and parlor-observation...
All cars feature painted interiors, & lighting via Japanese Kato 11-214 kits. Parlor observation car has functioning auto mars, independently lit neon herald, and rear section has table lamp lighting and some figures. Tavern car has bar mirror and color changing lighting like prototype did. 4449 has dual beam Mars lamp, cab lighting, engineer and fireman, functional reverse lamp, and Kato drop in decoder. Now to paint a bazillion figures to populate it!
I almost missed the post above. You know, I shouldn't say but I will. Big Bear Lake isn't what it used to be. Even the Boy Scout Camp has changed over the years. Big Bear, now Big Bear Lake an incorporated City. Under the influence of Orange County pirates. It went from being an Old West Mountain town with log cabins, lodges and stores (you could use romantic) to something resembling a cheap German/Switzerland persuasion while the other half is a cheap Ghost Town and not as nice as Calico or Knott's Berry Farm. During the winter months the town is crowded with flatlander's and desert rat's. They swarm all over the place parking anywhere they want. The toe truck's have a hay day when the Sheriff calls them up and ask them to remove skiers cars out of the driveways and front lawns of residences living in or near the ski slopes. They can find them later in impound lots. Question is: Is that cheap parking or what? The roads to and from Big Bear can at times be bumper to bumper and plodding along at speed's less then the speed limit. All weekend long. Making it difficult for emergency vehicles to get through. I loved Big Bear, the people that reside there but I don't think much of the City or County Governments that over see it. I could go on but then we start bordering on political. You'll miss right along with me the Big Bear that once was. Sigh! Good to hear you are doing good right where you are.
Great Videos. and yes You Tube is screwing up what once was a great media for videos and live streaming. And they call it progress. Sigh!
Wow, not very many people know about Calico. Knotts Berry Farm exists because of not many people knowing about Calico. I can remember going to KBF when the only 'rides' were the mine train, the stage coach, the train and the burros...and the gold mine.
I can agree with the evils of Southern CA even though I spent 17 years in San Diego starting in 1982. It was a wonderful place in those days. I can not seem to find my way through the traffic mess going into Southern CA, so I just rely on Uber to deal with all the stress. There used to be a nice train shop in Old Town in San Diego, not really sure if it is still around, but that was where I got my start in trains. I teach 3 days a week a Cal Tech now, while on lockdown it is online from home now, but I do miss seeing all the students. I could never deal with the driving from LAX to Pasadena, so I let someone else deal with the traffic.
Really like your layout and videos. When Cynthia and I moved to LA for two and half years I was glad I had racing experience, it came in handy with the traffic there. Joe
Finished the cleaning car. those are 1/4 neodymium magnets. They serve as weight and to keep the pad from coming off I’d rather have 1/16 Masonite For the pad, 1/8 is a bit too thick.
Detail shot. the American Limited Diaphragms are fiddly to install. Not hard, fiddly. Especially shaving the fake diaphragms down a little to get rid of the paint so they can bond correctly. And they require converting to shorter couplers to get spacing right/ more prototypical... now running unimates. Which means no more 9 3/4 radius turns. Totally worth it. and if you have a couple Kato re-railers, you might want to build a double length one. They make railing steamers, articulated cars and AB/ABA sets soooo much easier.